Sunday Rant

Wood thoughts

1 Any of the wood washed up on our shores is a potential hazard to small craft in particular, one balk of timber allowed to wash back into the sea could cause and accident resulting in loss of life.

2 People should check with the Receiver of Wreck’s website for the rules governing this http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07-home/emergencyresponse/mcga-receiverofwreck.htm any wood recovered should be reported to the Receiver of Wreck.

3 Historically it has not been the case that owners of wood washed ashore have bothered to recover it from the people that collected it, so if you follow the law to the letter you are safe from prosecution and likely to be able to keep the wood.

Mayor of Thanet Thoughts

1 There seems to be some confusion about an elected mayor of Thanet.

2 An elected mayor is not like the existing ceremonial mayors, this is a completely different ball game.

3 First a mayoral referendum has to sought by petitioning the electorate, if 5% of the electorate in Thanet sign a petition for a referendum the council has to hold a mayoral referendum.

4 In a mayoral referendum the electorate is asked to decide if they wish to elect the leader of TDC or if they want the councillors to elect their own leader. Effectively it asks voters if they if they want to vote in the next stage of the process.

5 An elected mayor, who becomes leader, of the council has the power to choose councillors portfolios and to choose chief executive from the council officers. He can then either chooses to use the cabinet system or not.

Malcolm Kirkcaldy

1 The idea of petitioning for an elected mayor was mooted back in May of last year, since that time various people have said they would organise it but so far nothing has happened.

2 Malcolm has come forward due to the absence of anyone else doing so, although many people seem be for the idea no one else seems to have the time and drive to make it happen.

3 I have contacted Malcolm who says that it isn’t his intention to become mayor, he says that it is his intention to get the ball rolling both in terms of getting different people in different parts of Thanet to organise petitions and to try and get different people to stand as candidates for mayor. He says that in a last resort he will stand for office.

4 There was some suggestion by anonymous comment that Malcolm is insane, from my own experience I would say unconventional, enthusiastic and prepared to go to almost any lengths, without personal gain, to resolve Thanet issues more fits the bill. It is possible that he could be the right man for Thanet during these difficult times, in the past his family have served the local community, which is always a good sign.

5 I have asked around a bit to see what other people think of him, I certainly don’t want to make out that he is anything like Saint Malcolm, but I have heard mention of him raising money for charities and helping local people when conventional means have failed them.

6 I think the picture helps to sum up the situation, its entitled Malcolm doing what he is best at, uncovering the naked truth. He has stripped off to raise money for Macmillan cancer relief.

Manston Airport Expansion

1 As we know the biggest problem with Manston airport is that if we get a fuel spillage on the green part of the airfield, the contaminated soil has to be dug out before it soaks down and damages the aquifer. The Airport has a digger standing by for this purpose, without prompt action it’s no agriculture in Thanet and no Thanet Earth.

2 A new consideration has arisen which is, in the case of an air accident, which is though to be caused by criminal or terrorist activity, or where people are killed it seems very unlikely that the police or air accident authority would allow them to dig up the evidence on the site. With out an answer to this one I can’t see how there can be any airport expansion.

General Water Supply Considerations

The Environment Agency is stepping up measures to protect our drinking water supplies, especially in the southeast where demand is set to exceed supply. One aspect of this will we tighter controls to restrict development on the aquifers because developing on top of them is preventing the water in them from being replenished.

Marina Esplanade Incline Arches

1 I have had assurances from the council that 40 tonnes is an appropriate weight limit for this structure click on the link http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tdc/id50.htm to see if you agree with them. What do you think would happen if three or four loaded HGVs following one another down the hill were all to apply their emergency air brakes at the same time?

2 It is important to remember that engineering bricks were not used in this structure, part of it is made from red house bricks and you can see in the pictures that some of them have softened and are crumbling.

3 I made some measurements and have done some calculations on the main arches, those with two barrels and I would assume a flexible lime based mortar. Things seem to go awry with a load of about 150kN/m or about 15 tonnes maximum on each of the rear wheels of an HGV which. Of course I am only a shop assistant however I am sure some of the brighter bloggers will have a go I have probably got it all wrong.