Apologies I got a bit confused or
frustrated trying to get the election results, with the KCC election website
malfunctioning and KCC only seeming to want to tweet the results for places
outside of Thanet.
Anyway I will start with the Isle of Thanet
Gazette reporting that Dreamland Cinema has been sold.
According to both The Land Registry and TDC
it hasn’t and it is subject to the compulsorily purchase, so will be part of
the package that TDC is buying from The Margate Regeneration Company.
On to the election, just what message the
electorate are sending and to who, both nationally and here in Thanet, is going
to be discussed for ages. Kent
remains in Conservative control, but hopefully we will have more chance of
getting some of the Thanet issues addressed now, new brooms and all that.
The parking yellow peril madness along Ramsgate
seafront’s road to nowhere would be a good start, followed by the Marina
Esplanade viaduct being suitable for PSV access to The Royal Sands, even realigning
the pavements to take account of the pedestrianisation 20 years ago here in
Ramsgate. All issues I have tried to raise with county councillors in the past –
time to have another go.
The closure of Eddie Gilbert’s is another blow
to King Street
in Ramsgate, although there is a rumour that another fishmonger is going to
take the shop over, I am not holding my breath on that one.
When it comes to eating out I guess with me
it is the view I pay for as much as the food, I know I like to sketch while my
children eat up and so on, but I do wonder how much other people are influenced
by this aspect.
up my end opposite my bookshop the largest shop seems to have been the subject of some sort of land banking exercise, the furniture shop went bust and it sold at action for about £75k to a carpet shop that went bust, it failed to sell at auction for the reserve of £170k, sold after the sale for £160k and now after years of emptiness is on the market for around £300k
Back to the elections, the Kent results
being results: Conservatives 45 seats, Ukip 17, Labour 13, LibDems 7,
GreenParty 1, Other 1. As far as Thanet goes, Will Scobie is the only KCC
councillor that I have any experience of, and I guess this must apply to a lot
of other locals. As he got voted in, when other responsive councillors like Liz
Green and Chris Wells didn’t, I guess there is a message here about age and the
possibility, albeit terrifying to some that the Thanet youf may actually – in some
cases vote. 45 Conservatives and 39 others suggests a reasonable working
majority, having no local councillors that are part of that majority may
present some problems.
There is a rumour going around that both
the TDC office and the police station in Ramsgate’s York Street are going to
close, this is only a rumour as a shopkeeper I don’t think it will make much difference
to the empty shop problem, let’s just hope there are no plans to put the
council offices in Ramsgate Library, anyone who has tried to use Margate library,
as a library, in recent years will know what I mean. Perhaps they will put the
police station in there too, it would help to enforce “silence” and probably reduce
book theft.
I will ramble on this time.
looking at Sky and their map it still remains blue in the SE overall so although UKIP did well it looks like the major losers are the Labour party. Even though UKIP have Thanet KCC councillors the reality is the rest of Kent can outvote them in debate so they have no actual say in what KCC want to achieve, so this leaves Thanet isolated for at least 5 years.
ReplyDeleteRe dreamland cinema, see: kingsbury consultants
ReplyDelete4 years not 5, Barry 'know-all-know-nothing'
ReplyDeleteI see Driver failed miserably.....so standing on his soap box in the Town Centre spouting a whole load of trollop, has come home to roost....
ReplyDeleteAnon I think saying he would resign from TDC if elected to KCC put a lot of his supporters off, going by what the locals have been saying in the shop.
DeleteI guess if there is a message to TDC councillors in this result, it's stop bickering and sort out some of our problems.
Michael, I KNOW your doing the best you can to support Driver, him having been UTTERLY rejected by everyong in Thanet, to the tune of 25 to 1 of those who voted, but to try to pass of his UTTER rejection as the electorate trying to stop him resigning the seat he gained as a labour candidate (soon reneiged upon of course) is desperate at best.
DeleteOr I didn't photo for Peter because I would miss his photos! Incidentally, I didn't vote for Driver because he did not impress me in the slightest.
DeleteYes very unimpressed like a pair of unpressed trousers.
DeleteI shall miss Eddie Gilberts. It was a touch of excellence.
ReplyDeleteWith a majority of just 6 hopefully all those councillors that just sat on their laurels and could not be bothered to turn up for council meetings and all those new councillors will now have to do so.
ReplyDeleteYes I do not think that the opinions of 'the locals' that frequent Michael's shop can be considered to be truly 'representive' of the normal voting folks of Ramsgate..
ReplyDeleteOther than a few cranks,graphitti yobo's and wino's,the rest of his supporters would no doubt have been made up from the 'not so' Friends of Ramsgate...
I don't know if anyone has seen that picture on yahoo, of the Chinese Authorities' who have built a motorway and left a house in the middle of it because the owner did not want to sell or give up?
DeleteMichael's situation is not dissimilar to that situation 11.50.
I hope for all our sakes that the the streets of Ramsgate are not given over to the "cranks" "graffiti "yobos" and "whinos." as you call them.
As far as I can see Michael has not disclosed his political allegiance, if he has one? He needs to stay focused on his aim of achieving sustainable regeneration.
Michael discloses his political allegiance almost every time he writes anything.
DeleteSo 12.38, we had one independent, and two conservatives put up their campaign messages on Michael's blog. Does that make MC a Labour supporter or UKIP?
DeleteOr could it be that Michael is genuinely more interested in un bias reporting of what is going on in our area, combined with his declared interest in what makes people tick?
It could, SG, but it doesn't.
DeleteDoes it matter as to where Michael places his political allegiance. Surely, the important thing is that Michael and his blog offers the commentator an opportunity to tell us of their own political views. So much of what passes as political discussion in Thanet is little more than pygmy political name calling. And that's a shame. We can do better.
ReplyDeleteHe has gone to give his campaign manager a piece of his mind or kick her stick away.
ReplyDeleteIs his campaign manager Christine Tongue?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMichael, it was a joke. Is humour to die as a sacrifice to the PC god?
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with PC and much to do with common courtesy anon, anonymous comments insulting real people are not allowed here, this is clearly stated under the comment form.
ReplyDeleteWas a real person named, I think not, so you are jumping to the same conclusion as John Holyer did. I was referring to the wicked stepmother Queen in Snow White and any similarity to persons living in Thanet has got to be purely coincidental
ReplyDeleteApparently Ian Driver is claiming that the voting was rigged...he wants a re-count...
ReplyDeleteIan...let it go...no one cares
Anon 8:29,
ReplyDeleteIs that true or are you kidding?
Rigged? Really? So the 14,000+ votes against (93%!) him were were created by? Surely the Red Hall Massive could have forged more votes than that?
ReplyDeleteWhen did Brits start saying "brilliant" all the time?
ReplyDeleteNot quite a GQ, but more of an observation with a rhetorical question thrown in for good measure.
Saturday afternoon, BBC America served as background noise while I was rebuilding my computer. One thing I noticed that got irritating after a while, though, was that it seems like the typical BBC America show resembles a Guinness commercial.
"Blah blah blah fah fah BRILLIANT blah blah blah fah fah blah blah OH, BRILLIANT blah blah blah fah fah blah blah BRILLIANT blah blah fah blah blah blah THAT'S BRILLIANT blah blah blah fah fah blah BRILLIANT blah blah fah fah fah SO BRILLIANT fah fah fah VERY BRILLIANT blah blah blah fah fha blah blah blah YES, BRILLIANT blah blah blah ..."
On older British television shows, the word "brilliant" is seldom heard. When I was listening on Saturday, it was uttered all the time. So, when did "brilliant" enter the top 10 list of most commonly used words among British English speakers?
Very good point you are making.
DeleteYes it is so irritating!
Well said, Roy. That was a brilliant post - sorry I couldn't resist. But I take your point. People latch on to one seemingly all purpose word because they are too lazy to search for others. They do not understand nuance.
ReplyDeleteShows a lack of education.
ReplyDelete