The pictures are of Henry Terry who was Mayor of Ramsgate in 1930. I have received emails from Gerry and Tim today about the formation of Ramsgate’s town council, it would appear that decayed administration of Thanet District Council are tying to prevent us from forming our new town council.As you see from the pictures Ramsgate once maintained its own civic dignity and we were able operate as a very successful and prosperous town.
Click here to read the emails about the town council and look at the rest of the pictures
An interesting if somewhat off the wall post by Tim Garbutt, like most of the remaining members of Ramsgate First, (those that haven’t left or defected to the Tories) his proposal is full of holes.
ReplyDelete1, You cant just vote off Charter Trustee’s they are appointed automatically by virtue of being ELECTED to Thanet Council, and incidentally don’t have the powers that Ramsgate First seem to think they have. Having a small ‘Council’ of 6-10 Members is not very representative is it, no prizes for guessing who would be on it.
2, Why not establish Monthly OPEN meetings of Ramsgate First, also no mention of how this is going to be paid for, Albion House is in the ownership of TDC at present.
3, Any Constitution would be subject to several Acts of Parliament and approval by the Secretary of State. You cant operate as a Council without Statutory Powers.
4, You cant have elections until you appoint a Returning Officer, again no mention of who is going to pay for these elections, estimated cost £60,000.00 about a pound per elector.
5, In the unlikely event that Tim Garbutt ever gets elected to Ramsgate Council eventually he will soon come to understand about Exempt Information and peoples salaries with few exceptions are deemed exempt, unless of course he would like to publish his earnings and exactly how he earns his money for all to see.
6, Fine, but just ask those unemployed in Ramsgate about stopping the prospect of jobs coming to the area. In fact it shows a myopic attitude to taking Ramsgate forward.
7, Again this demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge about how Local Government works and who funds what and how the money is raised.
In short it is an ill thought out argument and takes absolutely no account of how any of this is going to be funded, a Town Council will need a Chief Executive, Staff, both office and white collar, accommodation, vehicles, not to mention a lot of money to undertake the various projects that RF seem to think will regenerate the Town.
And how is this going to be paid for?
Well the current precept for Ramsgate wont cover it !
Funnily enough, I received my copy of TDC Cabinet forward plan this evening. Arrangements for Ramsgate Town Council elections are due for decision (after consultation) inn September of this year. That is on schedule for an election next May.
ReplyDeleteI also checked the bookings for Albion House. No-one has booked it either this or next Friday.
I think the most salient point here, is that the people of Ramsgate were so dissatisfied with the way that they are governed by TDC, that they voted to pay extra money for another tier of local government, to mediate with TDC on their behalf.
ReplyDeleteThe perception of TDC amongst ordinary people in Ramsgate, is of an arrogant organisation that is not properly performing the task that it should be. Particularly in terms of protecting us from greedy and wealthy developers who have destroyed our leisure facilities, damaged our attractive architecture and now seem hell-bent on polluting our water supply.
Many of the big mistakes like Pleasurama, The First Turner Centre, earmarking a site for industrial use that is on our aquifer, show a lack of ordinary local knowledge that just appalling.
At the moment here in Ramsgate the firm that is going to build the Pleasurama development are chipping the concrete of the top of the sea defence and laying loose slabs on loose sand there, its obvious to anyone living in the town that this is a dangerous waste of money. It also illustrates what I am saying, I have pointed this out to council officers and councillors all of whom appear to agree with me and yet TDC as a whole appears to be powerless to do anything about it and we all know come the next big storm who will pick up the tab.
Michael
ReplyDeleteI can see a few claims under corporate manslaughter heading TDC's way in the future.
if i was current Cllr i would be very wary of geeks bearing gifts...at most i would be scrutinising anything i was making a decision on.