Mainly a Thanet political post

I am wondering about how to vote in the forthcoming council elections.

As is often the case in the local council elections the party political issue makes it much more difficult than it should be. My ward over the last 30 years has been a bit of a two horse race in most wards in Thanet.

The exception was in May 2015 when the Parliamentary elections with Nigel Farage standing in Thanet, were held on the same day as the local council elections.

2015 TDC election results

A lot of people voted the way they did either because they assumed that Thanet district council were in charge of BREXIT, were able to buy Manston and were responsible for its closure because of one administration and it would open under another administration.

2011 TDC election results

On the whole I would expect the 2011 situation to more closely reflect the forthcoming elections. I would also expect the result to be either Conservative, Labour or no overall control, in terms of the party running the council. TDC has a history of councillors jumping the ship and forming independent groups, so even once an administration gets set up it doesn't always stay the same.

Roughly speaking TDC are responsible for Port Ramsgate, housing, Homeless people, travellers, waste collection, street cleaning, council tax collection, local planning, antisocial behaviour, licensing, cemeteries and crematoria.

Any impact they have on larger projects outside of the Port of Ramsgate is mainly as a planing authority, or as a landowner.

An interesting aspect of district councils is how they can impact on antisocial behaviour. Peterborough, which uses the private firm Kingdom Services Group to collect fines, issued 1,533 for "unauthorised cycling" in 2018, 861 for spitting, and 13 for "failure to disperse". 

I took this from today's BBC news here is the link  I have mixed feelings about this one this one, but on the whole think that low level crime and poor levels of public behaviour lead to more serious crime.

Back in the good old days I think for the most part people were much more likely to know who they were were voting for, candidates tended to be much more the butcher, baker or shop steward, I think also candidates tended to live in the wards they intended to represent.

With the party situation there seems to be a bit of a gagging culture in place where if want the opinion of you candidates you are likely to get the party line. If there is a snag with the independents it's the danger of say far right candidates standing as independents. 

There are a few candidates who seem to have some sort of online presence, but on the whole contacting individual candidates to ask them questions looks difficult.

I think the main questions I would like to ask my candidates are.

Do you have some sort of internet presence where you are prepared to engage in a dialogue about why you are standing and what you objectives as a councillor are?

Do you live in my ward (the ward you intend to represent) and if not which part of East Kent do you live in?

Do you have any thoughts on resolving the Pleasurama site issue?

What is your stance on climate change and pollution? I think this is going to be the big issue over the next few years.

What is your stance on Port of Ramsgate?

What is your stance on Manston?

What is your stance on the park and ride station?

What is your stance on low level antisocial behaviour and the council using wardens to regulate it?

What is your stance on housing? 

What is your stance on the empty shops?

That was a few questions and I may think of some more as the election approaches. In the past I have had messages from people I know asking something along the lines of, who are these people that I have never heard of?

I would hope there would be some sort of further dialogue, and example of what I mean would be discussing Manston, where my first question on the RSP Riveroak plans tends to be. "Have you read RSP's non technical summery and what do you think of what they have to say if you have?"

For the most part I have a young family and I am interested in how age is likely to impact on the political spectrum. I think it was BREXIT that highlighted this for me with the age of the leave voters meaning that if you count the votes again, the number of leave voters who have died since the referendum means that based on the living we voted to remain. There is something ironic about leaving the EU based on the votes of dead people.

With voting and people allowed to stand for election I am always interested in what people think the minimum age should be and whether they think there should be any maximum age.

I did ask one of the senior Conservative councillors who has been a cabinet member on and off for a long time which ward he is standing in this year and got the following reply. Will you be standing? 'No. I told Bayford that I was fed up with his relentless negativity and lack of ambition for the area and that I would stand again and try to take the leadership from him. So he persuaded the Association not to approve me as a candidate. Like some sort of 3rd world banana republic general getting rid of opponents. Thanet will never progress with him in charge.'

On the whole it looks like a lively campaign should be going on.

link to to photos from this evening's walk