Do you feel empowered by your government?

I suppose this is a bit of a waste of time as the picture says it all really, click on it to enlarge it, but the recent elections have made me think about how I felt I related to the various levels of government that we are all paying for at considerable expense.

I am pretty sure that the democratic process is supposed to make me feel empowered, that to some lesser or greater extent I have some sort of say in the running of the town, country or even Europe.

I will start at the top and work down.

Europe I suppose all those years ago when we voted to be part of a greater economic community it made some sort of sense, now it just seems to be some gargantuan set-up making up masses of legislation much of which doesn’t suit the British character, for the most part we doggedly obey them and it seems the Mediterranean countries pay lip service to them but mostly ignore them. Do I feel part of some brave new world of countries with common ambition? I wish I did.

The House of Lords obviously supposed to be the highest regulator in the land, beyond reproach above the elected house most of the members chosen for some great service to the country, a matter of great honour, unfortunately recent events show these people can be bought. Evidently this house has become corrupt, how much I am not in a position to say. Do I feel awed and inspired by this great symbol of British governance? Not any more.

House of Commons, supposed to be made up of people who have chosen to serve their country elected by us to empower us, turns out these people are in it for personal gain. I had suspicions that all was not right there for some time, then the man we voted for took us to war on a lie and I was not entirely convinced that had we voted for the other man he wouldn’t have done the same. Do I trust these people and can I see an alternative with brilliant ideas to turn this back into a great country once again? I wish I could.

Kent County Council, bit closer to home now quite a few of the people involved use the shop and I know them to a lesser or greater degree, talking to them I get the felling that all is far from well there. I think the nub of the problem here is pet projects have taken precedence over essential services, there are expensive luxuries like Kent TV but the one that seems to cause the most angst is the Turner Contemporary, it seems that no matter how little the return on this project unlimited funds will always be found for it. The fact that the basic infrastructure roads pavements etc here in Ramsgate seems to be falling apart doesn’t seem to tally well with the huge funds directed at these pet projects. My only close dealings with them have been over the Pleasurama access road and have been most unsatisfactory; do I feel they have the interests of where I live at heart? Not really.

Thanet District Council, a lot closer to home and I know many of the people involved, this replaced the old Ramsgate district council, which had some faults but did have benefiting Ramsgate at heart. I suppose the benchmark here is how the Thanet towns have fared compared to similar seaside towns in the area governed by other administrations, Deal and Herne Bay are the closest I can get on this: do I feel that our district council has come up with good solutions for our towns in comparison to those towns? Not really.

Ramsgate parish council, here what happened was the people of Ramsgate voted to pay extra money on their council tax for an elected group to be a voice for Ramsgate, time will tell on this one, but at less than £1 a week on my council tax bill it has to worth a try.

Thoughts on the election

One of the great failings of the first past the post system is when the electorate use an election to send a message to one level of government, by voting in another level of government election in a particular way, it can have unfortunate consequences.

It does seem to me that a system where local governments seem to be selected to a great degree by dissatisfaction with the national government of the day, is not a particularly good one.

Here in Kent it is fairly obvious that it wasn’t the electorate’s intention to give the Conservatives a resounding mandate, which is what happened.

I don’t expect even most hard-line conservatives really want to operate with just one opposition councillor, from Thanet and 10 from the whole of Kent the previous situation with 27 opposition candidates was probably healthier for both debate and scrutiny

Here in Ramsgate I believe a rather peculiar thing happened due to the parish council elections occurring at the same time and will run the idea past you to see if you agree.

I believe that many of the Ramsgate voters when faced with only a choice of labour or Conservative candidates, didn’t want either party in overall control and voted for one of each.

Once having got this idea because of the limited choice of parish council candidates I think they may have carried the idea over when they voted in the county elections.

Certainly the result of the parish elections means that the two independent candidates won’t be marginalised and I am hoping that Ramsgate will benefit from this.

As a method of registering a protest against government in general while still exercising ones democratic right and duty to vote, voting for one of each parties candidates is certainly a method for future consideration.

Election day thoughts

Talking to people I know to day it would seem that many of them have or are going to register protest votes, this of course means that many of us have voted for political parties that we don’t know much about, I wonder if we will rue this day because of it.

It could be doubly dangerous because so many of us are pretty vague about what the European Parliament actually does, for example I didn’t vote for the Green Party as I am pretty sure they want to let the north Wantsum sea defences go and their attitude to nuclear power would be catastrophic for climate change.

I picked up this Times article from a comment on ECRs blog, which explains the situation better than I ever could.

The European Parliament has become so very powerful in terms of legislation restricting what we can do in this country and this makes me increasingly concerned about our remaining part of Europe, so I had little in the way of qualms about voting for UKIP today something I wouldn’t have done were it not for the expenses scandal.

For me the main problem with this business over the expenses is not that our MPs took money that they shouldn’t have done, as in terms of a governments budget it doesn’t amount to a great deal of money.

My real concern here is that as these people were happy to abuse the expenses system in this way so it follows that some of them may have been prepared to take bribes to change policy.

I am very concerned by the way our human environment, particularly our town centres and in town leisure facilities, is changing for the worse, it is obvious that the large companies that provide out of town shopping and leisure and benefit from this are powerful lobbyists and that many of our MPs are far less honest than we thought.

Remember to vote tomorrow.

With so many of the party faithful of all three major parties so disenchanted with politics at the moment I am reminding people that they have a duty to vote, even if you register protest votes it is better than making no vote at all.

It is only in the last few years that I have had much to do with government and much of this has been the result of my concerns about various local issues mostly to do with public safety.

Frankly I can’t say that I am happy with many aspects of government that I have dealt with at every level and I am hoping that the expenses scandal will produce major reforms.

With the European Parliament, House of Lords, House of Commons, Kent County Council, Thanet District Council and Ramsgate Parish Council, we have a great many levels of government pay for.

For the most part this seems to be a great horde of highly paid people pushing bits of paper around and much of this paper is of dubious worth.

Obviously there must be a point where the scales tip and the private sector can no longer support this extravagance, it seems likely we have passed this point some time ago, I am wondering if there is any way back to a level we can afford.

Watching question time today with £9,000 Kitchen Brown and £5,857.63 Decorating Clegg and £680 Wisteria Cameron I was much more reminded of an unruly classroom than a seat of government, it is clear that we need some sort of different system.

Looking at our MPs most seem to have a set of priorities which is, self, then party, then country and talking to people in the bookshop this week it is also apparent that many MPs have completely lost touch with ordinary people.

Most people’s main concern is that this country is that it is rapidly becoming unpleasant to live in, especially for ordinary working people, we need a real workable plan to deal with antisocial behaviour.

With years of Labour government nationally and Conservative government locally a walk round the commercial hubs of Margate and Cliftonville should be enough to show politicians of both main parties that they need to change their ideas.

With prospective candidates probably hanging around polling stations tomorrow you may wish to ask them where they stand on the main local issues like. Turner Contemporary, Dreamland, Pleasurama, the drinking water aquifer particularly with regard to the way KCC abused Water Resources Act 1991 draining roads into very sensitive parts of the aquifer, China Gateway, airport expansion, the contraction of our town centres, Westwood Cross, museums, Thanet Gateway, KCCIT, Kent TV, Icelandic investment, policing, schools, tourism, antisocial behaviour, etc.

I am wondering if for instance, here in Ramsgate, a candidate that wants us to be at the end of a runway of a rapidly expanding airport with inadequate environmental controls, is going to attract a lot of votes.

MPs expenses the forthcoming elections and protest voting

I find I am still looking at my postal ballot papers in a state of indecision, it is an awful admission but always in the past I have been a floating voter, voting either voting Labour or Conservative essentially trying to chose the lesser of two evils.

A long period of Labour government nationally and Conservative government at County and District level have left both my town and my country considerably more unpleasant places to live.

As far as European elections go it’s all a bit of a mystery to me, but looks like another great expenses and allowance jamboree, with MEPs doing very little to represent my interests which are essentially curbing the masses of daft legislation produced by the army of Brussels bureaucrats.

So the bottom line here is there any vote that would contribute to making anything better, at County level for instance would Labour do better, here in Ramsgate much of the infrastructure that KCC is responsible for is falling apart, roads, pavements and cliff façades in particular.

My two KCC councillors at the moment are both Labour, good conscientious people who respond to problems and try to resolve them, the main difficulty for me though is Labour at county level want to do away with grammar schools, and Ramsgate’s grammar schools are two of the very few publicly funded facilities that haven’t been closed.

The problem with voting for the main parties at the moment is that one feels that one is condoning what our MPs have done, for me most especially Gordon Brown refused his grace and favour flat when he was chancellor, and then did a house swap so he could claim large second home expenses on his house in Scotland.

If he had resigned as prime minister and been replaced with a prime minister that hadn’t abused the system I wouldn’t be so annoyed.

I believe talking to people I meet every day that much of the voting public is as stunned and confused as I am, we had a system of government that we called a democracy and everyone told that this was a good thing, but now it looks as though our system of government turns out to be a bad thing hiding behind a good name.

What is most abundantly clear is that the government should present options for reform and put these options to the people in a referendum.

Council mess up over ballot papers

I just received my postal vote ballot papers, on opening them I discovered that the ones for Ramsgate parish council were missing, so phoned TDC, not easy as their help line was chock a bloc.

I was told that all of the Ramsgate parish council ballot papers will be sent out separately, that is first class post both ways paid for by us the taxpayer.

List of candidates for the Ramsgate parish council elections.

Update click here for the list of candidates

According to the council this list was published yesterday, I asked the returning officer for the list twice yesterday and once again today, I still haven’t received the list.

Click on the link for the correspondence which I am adding to as it appears. http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id101.htm

Ramsgate Council elections

Just a reminder for those who wish to stand for election that time is getting close.

There is a briefing at the council offices on 20th April at 12.30 for anyone who is considering becoming a candidate. Application packs will be handed out at the meeting and then they have till 5th May to complete and return them.

You can also obtain the application pack from the electoral services section at Thanet Council. You have to live in the parish area or within 4.8 Kilometres 3 miles from it to qualify.

Ramsgate Town Council Elections

As many of you will know the Ramsgate parish council election to select our 16 councillors are to be held on 4th June, it is most likely that once the parish council has been elected they will form themselves into a town council.

There is a briefing at the council offices on 20th April at 12.30 for anyone who is considering becoming a candidate. Application packs will be handed out at the meeting and then they have till 5th May to complete and return them.

I already know of two prominent local historians who will be standing as independents and of several of the existing councillors are also standing.

Sunday ramble

News this week that Euroferrys intend to start a service between Ramsgate and Bolougne is encouraging, in Thanet and Ramsgate in particular we need to be planning now how we can best take advantage of the return of European tourists.

There is no doubt that in the last few years Ramsgate has seen an influx of new and wealthier residents and now with the return of an ordinary ferry service, the town should be in a better position than most to cope with the recession.

One major problem that needs addressing is the number of empty shops in the town, talking to local estate agents much of the problem here seems to be that rents are unreasonably high, they reflect values before Westwood Cross and the recession as do the business rates.

I am wondering if it is possible that some part of the council, possibly the empty buildings department, could get together with the landlords of the empty shops and the rating valuation department of the Inland Revenue and come up with some sort of strategy to alleviate the problem.

Ramsgate still has potential to become the new Brighton, well not exactly but and despite the recession there are still retail chains that are expanding, like Iceland into Broadstairs. However in these difficult times we need to be looking at ways to attract them here rather than elsewhere.

There is a new breed of retailer that seems do be doing very nicely in our town centres, Wilkinsons, Peacocks, Poundland and so on, however we seem to have most of them already, I would appreciate it if anyone knows of any of these chains that we haven’t got here yet, so I could contact them.

The news that Preston Steam Museum Trust is to take over the maritime museum and associated historic vessels has the potential to provide Ramsgate with a major leisure attraction click the link for their website http://www.prestonservices.co.uk/tsm/index.html

What I envisage here is a major steam and maritime leisure experience based around the maritime museum, Cervia, Sundowner incorporating tours round the existing assets lighthouse, magazine, Sailors Church and so on. Using the old mainline railway tunnel to display larger exhibits. The Steam Trust has no shortage of potential exhibits and in Ramsgate we have so many under used resources, the Royal Victoria Pavilion and Wescliffe Hall to name two. This of course needs to be combined with the reinstatement of reduced mooring fees for historic vessels in the part of the harbour next to the emerging café culture.

Ramsgate first has published its 2009 manifesto click on the link to view it http://www.parish-council.com/ramsgate/index.asp?pageid=97489 there are some controversial proposals and it certainly makes interesting reading.

It would seem that the whole of the eastern undercliff from the lift to the car park that used to be the marina swimming pool needs a serious review. Firstly the sea defences in this area seem to be inadequate a situation that has not been helped by putting in the new road layout down there without any flood risk assessment. Proper proposals to protect the pavilion the existing housing and any new development down there, experts that I have consulted both within the council and elsewhere generally seem to be of the opinion that the new road layout is too low and will have to be changed.

What remains of the Granville Marina development has historically flooded during ordinary storms and without some allowance for rising sea levels we are storing up considerable problems for the future. This combined with the problems associated with the arched viaduct that forms the access road incline means that future treatment of the whole area needs reviewing.

It may well be that the new developer will actually get on with The Royal Sands Development on the Pleasurama site or they may be put of with the problems associated with such a difficult site as the previous developers have.

For any of you new to the problems surrounding the Pleasurama site, it was once a Victorian station which when closed the station building became Ramsgate’s main amusement arcade and the surrounding land the seafront fun fair. When the arcade was closed the leaseholder had plans for it to become a factory sales outlet, the council put in a new road network for this which had the effect of removing all of the existing seafront car parking, the main building burnt down and eventually the council that owns the freehold managed to get the leasehold back but not the insurance money to rebuild anything. Various plans and tenders were submitted for the site the eventual plans chosen were passed during the change of administration and in the confusion plans were passed for a building that towered 3 meters above the cliff top. The building was to have been a gull winged roofed construction loosely based around 1930s seaside architecture. The problem that all of the subsequent developers have had is that plans have been passed for a 5 story building but there is only realistically space for a 4 story building. Attempts to fit a 5 storey building into this space have included chopping off the gull wings, which removes any architectural merit the building may have been said to have and even plans of a Tardis like nature with the inside bigger than the outside click on the link to look at my website about this http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/tdc/id35.htm

Over the past 20 years the whole area has pretty much fallen apart, fires demolition and so on although the cliff façade behind the site has been repaired, the cliffs either side of the site are in very bad shape, neglect of Ramsgate’s cliffs have caused serious collapses in the past click on the link to see what I mean http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/collapse/

One thing is certain after so many years of a head in the sand approach Ramsgate needs a coordinated plan both to deal with its infrastructure problems and some good leisure facilities both for the people who live here and potential tourists.

Ramsgate First and the new town council may be able to achieve some of this but Thanet District Council needs to give us its full support, I have said for a long time that we really need a cabinet member whose portfolio is Ramsgate.

Ramsgate First Manifesto for 2009

Click here to read it Click here for the rest of the map

Ramsgate Town Council vote approved at last nights council meeting

Press Release from Ramsgate First 10th October, 2008

“One small step for a town council, one giant leap for Ramsgate.”

Perhaps the district councillors were tired after the bruising three hour pitched battle over the China Gateway. Perhaps.

The churlishness with which they voted in a parish/town council for Ramsgate spoke volumes about the institutional malady that infects the district council chamber.

Sandy Ezekiel baldly stated that the Ramsgate Town Council will be brought into effect after the 1st April 2009 and that elections to it would take place “probably” in September 2009. No words of congratulation for the people of Ramsgate who, he acknowledged, had voted for their own town council in the District Council’s Referendum. There was no wishing them well. Just a minimalist statement that made you feel it was a molar being extracted without anaesthetic.

Richard Nicholson, seconding the motion, was his usual ungracious self and offered no words of good will for the people of Ramsgate.

Nor were there any words of congratulation from any of the other Ramsgate District councillors. The people of Ramsgate should take note.

And then came the vote.

As chairman of Ramsgate First it was a wonderful moment. The shine was not taken off by the miserliness in which the motion was carried. Four years of hard, tiring, often frustrating work. But it was for Ramsgate, and for me and the supporters of Ramsgate First that was reason enough.

I believe that Ramsgate now has an opportunity to build itself a better future with a Town Council that will more jealously guard its inheritance and more boldly assert its future potential. No longer will Ramsgate be an afterthought in the District Council’s deliberations.

Now the really hard work begins. We must make sure we elect Town Councillors that really care about the town and who are willing to work.

Well done Ramsgate.
Gerry O’Donnell
Please copy

Ramsgate Parish Council

Meandering through the local blogs this morning I noticed Mike Harrison getting hot under the collar, about Gerry O’Donnell getting hot under the collar, about Ramsgate town council. Click here to see what I mean.

Well as Mike has directed people to some posts that I did back in May I thought to make it easier for anyone looking for them so click here to read them.

The word on the street is that many councillors of both main parties are not to keen on Ramsgate having a parish council and that TDC are now aiming to put our parish council elections off until 2011.

Ramsgate First

I have received the email below from Gerry O'Donnel and thought it important to publish it in full.

Dear All, 23rd May 2008

Tim Garbutt has used the back of my email to propose setting up his own 'Ramsgate Town Council'. He wanted a public meeting and a committee formed to 'sack the Charter Trustees, TDC etc etc.

I found Tim's proposals ludicrous and Ramsgate First rejects them utterly.Before advising those of you who had received my previous email of this fact I stopped off at Albion House on Friday 22nd May at 7.00pm to attend Tim's proposed meeting so that I could inform him personally of the contents of this email.

Though the meeting was advertised in the Gazette it appears that nobody at Albion House was informed and consequently Tim and a couple of other people were unable to gain admittance. I therefore informed him on the doorstep that his proposals were unacceptable and that all he was doing was possibly jeopardising the parish council.

There are some churls in TDC who are itching to scratch Ramsgate parish council and that Tim's intervention might give them ammunition.I have to say I like Tim Garbutt. There is no doubting his sincerity but his waywardness, especially in his hatred of TDC, often leads him to express thoughts that frighten off others.

I think Tim thinks that I am now some kind of Uncle Tom - betraying his own. He is wrong of course. Often is.It is quite obvious that Tim's views are shared by a few, a very few: less than a handful of people judging by the attendance on Friday and that in no way is he representative of the overwhelming majority of the people of Ramsgate.

I hope, therefore, not to hear some councillors suggest there is any linkage between Mr Garbutt and Ramsgate First or the good people of Ramsgate in their pursuit of their own parish/town council. There is none.

Gerry O'Donnell

More on Ramsgate’s town Council

I have just received a further communication from Tim click here to read it would seem that things are moving forward and there is indeed to be a meeting this Friday and next Friday at Albion House, the aim would appear to be to wrest our government from the decayed administration of Thanet District Council.

Some of you may wish to read about the last time this happened when Ramsgate managed to wrest its government from the decayed administration of Sandwich click here to do so

Ramsgate Town Council

The pictures are of Henry Terry who was Mayor of Ramsgate in 1930. I have received emails from Gerry and Tim today about the formation of Ramsgate’s town council, it would appear that decayed administration of Thanet District Council are tying to prevent us from forming our new town council.

As you see from the pictures Ramsgate once maintained its own civic dignity and we were able operate as a very successful and prosperous town.

Click here to read the emails about the town council and look at the rest of the pictures