Thursday 9 October 2014

Cllr Simon Moores quits the TDC shadow cabinet, Tesco quits Margate and other rambles.

I don’t think Simon quitting the cabinet is significant of anything much more than he is standing down as a councillor anyway I will try to put the makeup of the new shadow up here next.  
link to details of Councillor Robert W  Bayford
Councillor Robert W Bayford

Kingsgate Ward
Conservative
Shadow Leader of the Council and Shadow Cabinet Member for Strategic Economic Development Services.
link to details of Councillor Mrs Rosalind Binks
Councillor Mrs Rosalind Binks

Beacon Road Ward
Conservative
Shadow Cabinet Member for Financial Services and Estates
link to details of Councillor Alasdair Bruce
Councillor Alasdair Bruce

Birchington South Ward
Conservative
Shadow Cabinet Member for Business and Corporate Resources
link to details of Councillor Mrs Julie Marson
Councillor Mrs Julie Marson

Viking Ward
Conservative
Deputy Shadow Leader of the Council and Shadow Cabinet Member for Community Services
link to details of Councillor David Saunders
Councillor David Saunders

Bradstowe Ward
Conservative
Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning Services
link to details of Councillor Mrs Shirley Tomlinson
Councillor Mrs Shirley Tomlinson

Garlinge Ward
Conservative
Shadow Cabinet Member for Operational Services

Next the immigration enforcement team was in operation in Ramsgate today.

My day off today so I was managing, or perhaps mismanaging the blog comments on my mobile, this involves trying to work out if a comment is ok without the context of the other comments it relates to, on a mobile phone screen, with reading glasses on.

Not an exact science, so apologies if I deleted any comments that complied with the blog guidelines or allowed any that didn't.

Sorry if this post isn't very exciting but I wanted to see if I could embed parts of the TDC website here, which it appears I can as all of the photos of the councillors show up and clicking on them links back to the TDC website.

Talking of embedding bits of TDC here is the latest Council Meeting Webcast, only Oh No It Isn't as the TDC website lies 



  • @ThanetCouncil

  • Watch the October Full Council webcast now - The 2 October 2014 Council Meeting is available to watch online. ow.ly/2OKyXs or is it and have they just called the video the 10 July Meeting, while it is actually the October one,




    Having watched some of it I am pretty certain that it is the July one with all the stuff about the airport petition.

    I guess that if was to put this sort of tangled muddle on this blog people would soon say something.

    And here is the big Margate story that Tesco have dropped plans to build at the Arlington House site http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/Tesco-ditches-Margate-seafront-superstore-plan/story-23079377-detail/story.html 

      I may ramble on here.

    33 comments:

    1. That's correct. I'm simply standing down to leave opportunity space for my successor who will be standing in May. It's the proper thing to do.

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      1. You know Simon I do sometimes wonder about the Conservative group, you would have thought changing around the shadow cabinet would have resulted in a press release. I mean presumably this is the group of people who hope fairly soon to be elected to run TDC, I guess the only consolation is that the other local political groups don’t really seem to be on the ball either.

        Perhaps the answer to this is to turn the local decision making process over to the internet and just let the locals who wish to take part decide issues, without bothering with elected representatives.

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      2. They do seem an uninspiring lot...the Immigration van is a worry I wonder how many illegal immigrants they will get? And not sure about targeting foreign businesses like the nail bar or Chinese takeaway?

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      3. We're witnessing the end of the last dregs of the Ezekiel regime. Or at the very least seeing them rejoin Latchford as UKIP.

        After 3 years at KCC what have Ukip achieved? I can't think of one thing?

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      4. Simon has been consistently realistic about economy and economic development. He seems to me to have always read TDC briefs in the detail too. He has been at the front in addressing public order issues in his ward. I don't think it is fair to call him "Dregs". I have found it irksome that IMO Simon would not relate the now recognised need, to put the constitution debate at the centre of politics, to his role as a cllr.

        I hope he carries on blogging.

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      5. Presumably 9:50 isn't a fan of The Glitter Band (guilt by association etc). Anyway I wouldn't call Simon Moores part of the Ezekiel "regime", as he often openly opposed the actions of Ezekiel, Latchford, Tomlinson, etc.

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    2. I suppose there is no chance of the Birchington South floor crosser standing down, First Conservative, then Independent, now Labour?

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    3. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/09/tesco-ditches-plans-build-superstore-margate-seafront

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      1. Thanks anon I have added it to the post, I guess Tesco will be pulling out of pretty much all their projects at the moment so it it isn't much of a surprise, I would like to see Arlington House given listed building status to help prevent it getting plastic windows a coat of magnolia and turned into social housing. It's an amazing example of that style of architecture with tremendous potential for upmarket retro apartments.

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      2. A terrific result in rejecting Tesco awful development. Let's hope the Arlington House eyesore is demolished too as part of a proper regeneration of Dreamland and the seafront after decades of failure

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      3. Michael, Not apartments on the seafront lol :)

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      4. I assume the planning permission for building a superstore on the site still stands for the usual 3 year period. The only variation in the planning consent would presumably be swapping the TESCO sign for one having the name of another supermarket.

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      5. Can we all just be clear - the Tesco have pulled out because of their own assessments of the viability of new stores. Elsewhere in the country there are completed new buildings which they have mothballed. I cannot see therefore how anyone (seen on various local blogs and fb pages) can say that Louise's legal case has caused the change of mind - the evidence suggests otherwise.

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      6. Although Tesco's have pulled out, might it not have been the case that a successful supermarket - and a cleaned-up entrance to Margate - might already be in operation had the objectors not challenged it at every turn?

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      7. Here here anon @ 10:45. We will never know now but perhaps it might have been built if it's planning process had not been challenged in the courts. Was Louise Woodward representing herself or a group of people? Does anybody know?

        Much has been made of people from outside Thanet signing various Manston petitions and whether this was acceptable. Mary Portas was quite vociferous in her stance against the proposed Tesco store. Not sure if she comes from Margate/Thanet?

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      8. See the previous comment. Tesco's and other large supermarkets have mothballed recent developments before they have been completed. That would have fitted in well if the same had happened here, derelict site! Most of the large retailers are now concentrating on small local high street food stores plus online deliveries. They have even cut their delivery charges to £1, minimum shops to less than £40 and offer order before noon and get delivery after 6pm.
        Very luck for Margate there was an appeal.

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      9. SEMBOB, Who's Louise Woodward?

        Anon, how is "very lucky" for Margate? If the store had already been opened it would've remained open, just as Westwood Cross is.

        Interesting on twitter & facebook that most of the people happy about the store being cancelled seem to live in Whitstable, Canterbury and Folkestone. The majority of locals want it (see the Gazette FB page comments).

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      10. There is no evidence a completed store would have opened. A brand new store in Cambridgeshire has just been mothballed after completion. So it is new but empty.

        Even if there had been no legal case, the chances are that the site would not have been opened as Tesco because they have stopped building large stores. Local people can 'want' or 'not want' a Tesco all they like, in this case commercial realities have caught up with Tesco.

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      11. Sorry anon @ 3:56, Oldfield, Tubular Bells and all that. Louise Woodward was an English Au Pair convicted of involuntary manslaughter of an 8 month old child in the USA in 1997. Headline case at the time, but nothing whatsoever to do with Tesco.

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      12. Word has it that Sainsburys are taking particular interest in the site now, probably to make up for the rejected store in Westgate / Birchington last year.

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      13. It will become a Morrisons 9:19 Sainsburys are trying to get smaller sites. Sainsburys last big store is the one they are building at Westwood X

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      14. I would prefer a Waitrose, a better class of person shops there.

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      15. A cargo airport? Handy for the shops and beach and going abroad?

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    4. Looks like TDC need a full set of officers to cope with all the major problems they have on their hands right now. Running with somebody standing in for the chief exec can only lead to poor council leadership.

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    5. I see that the Immigration Enforcement vehicle is apparently illegally parked. If so did it get a ticket?

      Strange wording, Immigration Enforcement. Does it mean that those in Calais will be forced to come here?

      This is what they do:

      Immigration Enforcement was set up on 1 April 2012. It is responsible for preventing abuse, tracking immigration offenders and increasing compliance with immigration law. It works with partners such as the police to regulate migration in line with government policy, while supporting economic growth.

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    6. Om it looks like you have got it working again now, being able comment anon but not under your blogger name is a new one on me, could you let me now how you solved the issue so I can pass it on if it happens to anyone else?

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    7. Loads of messing about First I had to use a different browser (internet explorer) then it would only come up with the name no image then I had to transfer from internet explorer to google + to get the image up. Now to post under Purple Om I have to go into internet explorer and sign in every time Arrrrrr

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    8. Om that sounds all very difficult, I guess it must be something to do with your set up, I regularly comment and post from several different computers and my phone and have never come across anything like it. I can see where you have managed to get up a test comment without an image which I would have thought impossible as I assumed the image is part of your google account.

      I have to admit to not being happy with moderating comments with the facility to answer different comments in the comment tread for one post, something google won’t let me turn of now I have turned it on.

      I am seriously considering switching my posts to the Michaelsbookshop blog from this one so I only have one comment thread for each post.

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    9. I cant stand to use Internet Explorer and every time I log out I have to sign in again even though I have ticked to keep me signed in box and Internet Explorer has asked me if I want to save my password and I keep saying yes but every time I log out I have to reenter my gmail ad and password.
      If you could do something to correct this it would be great, but I don't understand it at all I am using the same set up as my old computer the only difference is I have a lot more security.

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    10. This is the old computer still fine but in another room now.

      On a different note have you seen the new flats on Ramsgate seafront now I think they are looking very sharp. They give a very different feel to the place almost like rich and desirable instead of run down and neglected. I do believe that the royal sands will complete the look.

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    11. Lots of reasons (loads of complicated stuff in setting) why IE may not be saving your passwords anon, but the most likely is that you are pasting the password in rather than typing it out and IE won’t save passwords that are pasted in.

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    12. I'm typing it in every time I think it must be something to do with the security programs I'm using. Thanks for all the help much appreciated

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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.