Monday, 14 December 2009

Thanet District Council’s information technology; my worst experience yet.

I thought I would have a go at responding to the Local Development Framework Core Strategy
So toddled of the TDC website having tried to follow some of the information at http://consult.thanet.gov.uk/inovem/consult.ti/core.strategy/view?objectId=49236 not being much of a fan of online forms I decided to download the comments form and email it to them by going to http://consult.thanet.gov.uk/inovem/gf2.ti/f/1058/1285.1/pdf/-/Core_Strategy_Preferred_Options_Response_Form.pdf

Grrrr you can’t write on the form with the computer so I tried converting it into a document that you can write on. I have published it on the web for anyone that wants to comment at http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts129/id13.htm just copy the form on the webpage paste it into a Word document fill out the form and email it to TDC.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 14, 2009 4:36 pm

    Yes I agree. I fought my way until the end. Did not seem to have a send button so copied it and e-mailed it to them. Seems a typical TDC consultation set to confuse everyone. I think the Campaign for Plain English would have a field day with this.

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  2. ElizabethDecember 14, 2009 5:19 pm

    This is so important. I think you need to inform them if there is a problem. I agree it's a rubbish system and people will be put off commenting which is presumably what they want.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 14, 2009 7:55 pm

    There are plenty of decent council web sites around. Its very easy to find decent ones. Maybe TDC should have a look around. I just wonder whether these coucils pay top dollar for their IT staff or services, are led by very able senior staff or have just been plain lucky with their IT. Top dollar does not always deliver success.

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  4. AnonymousDecember 14, 2009 8:39 pm

    I tried to download a performance report from one of their committees the other day. Wondered why it was taking a while and then realised it was a 40mb PDF. Get a grip TDC.

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  5. Ramsgate supporterDecember 15, 2009 7:59 am

    As usual Michael you've hit the nail on the head - TDC are making it virtually impossible to comment on their report online so that they can say later that they only had a few objections. Poppycock. Due to the pre-Christmas post I suggest we all go over there and deliver them together personally at Cecil St on Thursday or Friday.Why should they be the only ones to benefit from a photo opportunity?? I shall work on my reply this afternoon.

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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.