I just couldn’t believe this, I went round the town today taking pictures as I often do, when I started taking pictures of the progress rebuilding the library out came the site foreman and told me to stop taking pictures. Why I asked incredulously, he said that their client Kent Count Council didn’t want people taking pictures of the building work. Click here to see the pictures I took before I was stopped, any ideas anyone, can you see something I can’t?Click here to see rest of the pictures I have taken this week sorry about the ones that aren’t much good I’ll go through and delete them some time, frankly it’s a bit of a chore, much easier to bung the whole lot up in one go.
If you're standing on the street and not obstructing anyone there's no law to prevent you from taking photos of whatever you can see. This isn't France. Tell the jobsworths to bog off next time - that's what I do!
ReplyDeleteSee: Early Day Motion, EDM 1155, PHOTOGRAPHY IN PUBLIC AREAS, 11.03.2008, Mitchell, Austin.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the politicians are on the case already.
There were several big blokes in hard hats and I had an expensive camera so I didn’t push my luck however I definitely up for another go if you would like to come along and film it.
ReplyDeleteMichael, sound like a bunch of 'jobsworths' to me, I'd be happy to join you and EKR just to upset them
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support chaps, I think, hope the press has taken this one up, asking around there does seem to be a reluctance to allow site visits or photography recently. There does appear to be a very odd sloping floor from front to back, I do hope the builder isn’t doing anything that he doesn’t want us to know about, perhaps Ken you could get the building inspector to pay a visit and just check that everything is ok. Sorry about the delay in replying every time I talk to another Thanet shopkeeper who is closing their business I get rather steamed up and diverted.
ReplyDeleteWhat an unpleasent land this has become, when all sorts of spurious arguments are trotted out to stop photography. What we need is a procession of us with little cameras in hand, walking past every few minutes. Any KCC Councillor around to justify this nonsense?
ReplyDeleteBertie if we don’t stand up for the rights we already have we soon won’t have any, looking through the collection of old pictures of Thanet that I keep publishing it is very obvious that in 100 years time there will be little else to show we even existed here and now.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to do one of my "Naked in Thanet" shoots there. That'll really upset 'em!
ReplyDeletePeter thanks for the support, link on side bar, it seems quite ridiculous to me that Thanet naturists have no place in our miles of beaches where they can pursue naturism legitimately. You can always use the bookshop if it’s too cold outside.
ReplyDeleteOne of my readers was told by an officious NHS apparatchik last year that she couldn't take pictures of a collision on Victoria Parade (see here) because it was 'illegal'. Utter tosh.
ReplyDeleteYet another creeping infringement of our rights that needs to be nipped in the bud asap if you ask me. I'm glad to see Austin Mitchell is doing something about it - thanks for the link Fred.
Another link, this time on pm.gov.uk :
ReplyDeleteE-Petition:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to clarify the laws
surrounding photography in public places.
Nothing so direct as the EDM from
Austin Mitchell though.
Fred
I can tell you what I can see. I see very little work going on. I wonder at what cost it is to us the people of Kent, that this site continues to be hoarded up and scaffold skeleton. With very little work to actually deliver what was promised to the Ramsgatonians!!!
ReplyDeleteAh well, I guess TDC - KCC one of the same beasts.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteWill be on the 'job' re building inspector first thing on Monday
Thanks Fred I think we have a long way to go with online petitions, I have just signed it and would have done before if I knew of its existence, as expect would thousands of others. I think that once those in authority feel that they can stop us from photographing anything that the feel they don’t want us to record we are on a very slippery slope indeed. I will do a posting about the partition but as you can see from the counter only 100 people a day look at this site, however it may help a bit.
ReplyDeleteKate I do worry that we are getting value for money on some of the government contracts in this area, in my own specialist area Pleasurama I have asked about several matters that just don’t make sense to me recently, reasonable questions both to council officers and councillors and I haven’t had satisfactory replies, either publishable or confidential.
Ken thanks very much, oddly enough I can’t find the plans on the Thanet planning website or Gilford Lawn for that matter, so I don’t know what they are supposed to be doing. Frankly I had assumed that the friends of Ramsgate library would be keeping a very close eye on the work and until they tried to stop me photographing it never considered that anything untoward could be going on.
Thank you Michael! : )
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteThe listing building consent application for the rebuild of the library appears to be: L/TH/06/0190.
Fred
Fred thanks, for those of you who may get lost go to the planning website and put 06/0190 in the application number search box and up they come.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe someone told you not to take photos. Like ECR said, there's no law to stop you. Unless of course they're misusing the anti-terror legislation...
ReplyDelete> see rest of the pictures
ReplyDeleteSome very nice shots there, especially the ones with large clouds. I notice a consistent lack of people though and assume that was for safety; either that or you are a whizz with PhotoShop!
MH I have to admit to a point shoot and publish policy, if people are lucky I delete the worst of the pictures and put breaks between them so they don’t appear beside each other. No, no Photoshop the card comes out of the camera into the computer and I spend about 5 mins copying and pasting what’s on it to the web.
ReplyDeleteAre your pictures available on the web?
A simple explanation would be that the foreman is knowingly employing people who want to conceal the fact that they are working. Simple doesn't mean it is true, but that is where I would look first
ReplyDelete