Sunday 22 February 2009

Fashion conscious council officer changes name again

Night flights British Airways say no decision has been made yet about moving part of their operation. The CAA are still looking into my concerns about some safety issues at Manston, so no more there yet.

Marina Restaurant the new plans Ref L/TH/09/0052 click on the link for the TDC planning website to look at them http://www.ukplanning.com/thanet the application is for 5, 2 bedroom and 1, 1 bedroom flats, none affordable housing. It includes an extension on the side in the similar style to the rest of the building. It has no car parking.

My thoughts the building floods regularly and in the past the occupants had to rescued regularly, it’s in the EA high risk flood zone. My understanding is that residential accommodation isn’t allowed on the ground floor and a flood risk assessment is mandatory.

My question here is why have they submitted plans without a flood risk assessment and with residential accommodation on the ground floor?

Fashion one of the most amusing news items this week was the models falling off their high heels on the catwalk, click on the link to view http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/also_in_the_news/7901100.stm if you want more catwalk after this click on this link http://www.ftv.com/fashion/page.php?P=1371 I don’t know how long it will work for though as I think you are supposed to pay to view. It says it will only work with pc and Internet Explorer but it works fine for me on Linux with Firefox.

Another run in with TDCIT this week when trying to discuss Pleasurama with the council officer ultimately in charge of this, one aspect of Parkinson’s Law is that a lot of time and money is spent changing the names of departments while their function remains the same. As Pleasurama has been going on for over 5 years now that means that the chap in charge’s has changed 3 times while staying the same, the problem with TDCIT though is when the job title changes and they make up a new email address for him they delete the old one.

So I started a dialogue HES@ I never did discover what this stood for, this then changed to HDS@ The Head of Development Services, and has now metamorphosised into, DRS@ Director of Regeneration Services all the same chap running the planning department, I believe.

Anyway from my point of view, when having an email dialogue with someone it is a little difficult when their email address vanishes with no notification and the replies stop coming. If you are lucky you get a cryptic undeliverable form TDCIT if not as was the case with HDS@ nothing, so you don’t know if the chap is failing to reply to reasonable questions or has just been cut off again.

What serious investors in this area make of this sort of nonsense, TDCIT even deleted Leader@ (perhaps thy were worried about aliens emails getting through their flesh filter) god alone knows.

Yes they really do have a flesh filter to insure that no one at TDC gets any emails that could offend their sensibilities, I have now had it confirmed that this is based on pinkish skin shades, so I am tempted to complain that this is institutional racism.

13 comments:

  1. institutionalized racism Michael ? Funny you mention that. Read comments

    The Independent chose to publish.

    mmmmm

    I will email you. If I am right your mate was recently fobbed off by Kent Police Authority ? Before the Chief constable changed position once the cabinet security fiasco was brought into the equation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What I am thinking Michael is.

    Now the Chief constable has broken his silence and delegated an inquiry duty to Chief Supt Hogben ... the matters are indisputably raised whilst the Code of Conduct for Kent Police Authority members (adopted 2002) is in force.

    So once again Cllr William HAYTON.

    Did you tell the High Court on oath in 1998 that there were no procedures of investigation in place concerning George Richard MAISON ?

    Did you later phone potential witnesses to such an inquiry to dissuade evidence ? Which is to say to exert an influence against an inquiry now raised again.

    Cllr Hayton Please now direct your answers to Chief Supt Hogben. Or will there be yet more cover up ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michael,

    As you appear to have taken it upon yourself to "save" us poor Thanet residence from the horrors of aircraft using Manston (to name just one of your fields of expertise), could you please publish your qualifications and credentials upon which you form your opinions, criticisms and profound judgements.

    As you are constantly criticising Thanet District Council, The Environment Agency, Civil Aviation Authority etc. etc. I feel it is only right that we are given a chance to assess your credibility.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 21.53 wind down not just a hack try the fashion link it’s single server enjoy HD think

    ReplyDelete
  5. The flood risk assessment is included as part of the planning application: F/TH/09/0051. (Not as part of the Listed Building consent application L/TH/09/0052).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks 8.44 once in 1,000 years makes me laugh I suggest they contact the owners of the other Granville Marina properties who will proudly show them pictures of the waves jumping over their garden gates, the people at no.11 have a particularly good collection.

    21.53 I assumed everyone knew that I am merely a shop assistant, who occasionally dabbles in this and that I know a few people with qualifications and ask them questions about aspects of some of the issues I don’t understand.

    Should you find something that I have said that is incorrect do please let me know and I will refer it back to the experts.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think your 21.53 comment gives us a clue as to your expertise, or even sanity. Stick to the bookshop, at least that way you're hidden away in a corner.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 13.37 Thank you for those kind words, I always feel ones idea of ones sanity is a bit catch 22. Tell me on the old toys lose in the attic scale don’t you think it could reflect better on yours if you came up with some sort of cognate argument against what I am saying.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Difficult to know where to start. Assuming your 21.53 comment was the result of a weak moment, let's consider the Manston saga as this is somewhere in the middle ground of Thanet's future.

    We live in a democracy where central and local government is elected. Central government sets up various authorities to regulate and control certain activities of national importance, such as the C.A.A. and the Environment Agency. Central government also empowers local government to control certain activities at a more local level, and places statutory duties on it in this endeavour. All these agencies have a duty to employ and consult as much expertise as necessary in the execution of their statutory duties. We the public have a duty to ensure the various agencies are fulfilling their roles.

    Having deployed all their knowledge and expertise within a legal framework, these agencies reach decisions based on knowledge, experience and legal requirements. Somehow I find it difficult to accept that the man from the bookshop has more knowledge than the professionals employed by the C.A.A., E.A. and T.D.C.

    More power to your elbow when ensuring the authorities carry out their responsibilities, perhaps something we should all do more of. But to tell them how to do their jobs when you don't have any qualifications is akin to a Jeremy Paxman interview - entertaining but rude, condescending and unbalanced.

    As for me, I don't have enough expertise to make valid comments about the technicalities of the Manston expansion, but I bet if I spent a few hours trawling the internet I could make a convincing argument one way or the other. That's why I leave it to the experts.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 19:46

    Who knows whether it is right or wrong to expand Manston.

    However, it is the duty of the authorities to consult the public, represent facts rather than mightbe's and take a long term view of what is right for the area. As of yet there has been no consultation.

    That said I for find it easy to accept that a man from a bookshop has more knowledge than the professionals employed by TDC.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Agreed, the council should consult the public and represent facts, and we should all make sure they do so. But if you are right to trust Michael rather than the professionals from the council, shouldn't we be doing something about them rather than cloud the issue with more suspect information via the local bookshop?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Having read once again through my original post and the comments, a few thoughts.

    First I note the continuous catwalk stream is still working on full screen it makes an admirable screen saver and I hope you are all enjoying it as much as we are.

    The Marina Restaurant floods regularly to a depth of 200mm or more the experts appear to be saying this will only ever happen every thousand years, bit difficult to argue with seawater though. Well they didn’t need the sandbags they used to protect it last winter this year, because of the conservation work that has been done on it.

    With the civil servants I deal with, I find most to be charming and helpful, some are qualified experienced experts, some are not and are in way over their heads, all have to deal with the problem that they must abide by the rules regardless of the rules making any sense.

    In this area this problem is compounded by being next to the sea and many of the rule makers have no experience of the destructive power of the sea, as was evidenced by the first shot at the Turner Centre.

    With Pleasurama there will be no experimental construction, the strong recommendation of the EA both for a FRA and emergency escapes is to be ignored, and this building will be full of people living in it.

    So what the experts are saying is being ignored, because everyone is abiding by the rule book, from my point of view when it comes to risking lives it’s time to review the rule book.

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.