The man from the ministry, Pamplona bull run and other thoughts for Sunday.

An old friend of mine who I hadn’t seen for some time dropped in for a chat today, he now works in what we once would have called the ministry of education but is now probably made up of a great many government departments, at local, national and European level.

We had quite a considerable chat about the coming of the end of the public service gravy train, partly as the government department he works in is one that David Cameron says he will close if he gets elected.

My notion that the whole UK education system could be improved for nothing, just by ensuring that the teachers took the examinations with their students and that as long as the same examiner marked all of each classes and their teachers exam papers, many of the problems in our education system would be resolved, went down quite well with him.

Interestingly he considered that many civil servants including him were grossly over paid, he considered that pay in the public sector was now markedly better than in the private sector, for similar jobs.

Catching up on this week’s news, “Man gored to death by bull in Pamplona run,” was one I had missed click here for story and video footage, it seems hardly credible that this should still be going on in modern Europe.

Having read the article and watched the video I am trying to get my head round how I feel about this, I suppose this is probably the most dangerous legal public event still in existence.

From the point of view of the young chap who got killed, I don’t suppose he really thought of the danger or the awful consequences for his family. I would like to say that when I was in my late teens or early twenties, especially if goaded on by my friends, I would have been too sensible to what he did, but am not so sure.

From the bulls point of view as the bulls that are bred for Spanish bullfighting are just that and wouldn’t exist without the sport, this is more difficult for me than just saying it’s barbaric and has no place in a modern world.

If I had been born a bull in the UK, castration, intensive farming and the slaughterhouse would have been my lot.

The bulls bred for Spanish bullfighting however pretty much range freely, as close to the bovine natural habitat as one is likely to find in Europe today, I think reaching maturity intact and dieing relatively quickly has more appeal for me.

Anyway moving away from the Hemmingwayesk to the more mundane, I have just put last weeks planning applications on http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/ and am once again pondering the bizarre nature of TDC planning online.

The most ridiculous aspect of the plans as they appear online is that pretty much all of them are scans of scale drawings, the only way one can work out any of the dimensions on them is to use a scale ruler against the paper sheet.

This means that when viewing the planning drawings online it is impossible to tell how long any of the lines are i.e. the height, width or depth of any of the proposed buildings, rendering most of the documents published on the site next to useless.

I have been asking TDC to get linier scales added to the drawings before they are scanned for some time, this wouldn’t be difficult, it could be done as simply as having a rubber stamp of each scale made and applying it to the plan.

I know that TDC are working on a new planning site, which should be working by now, however they tell me that this has been beset with technical problems. Not having got as far as putting liner scales on the sheets yet suggests there will be quite a long wait before we get anything really useful.

Pondering our local water contamination a question that occasionally flits through my mind is, would the combination of government agencies that appear to be incapable of insisting in basic safety measures, like a flood risk assessment for Pleasurama, combine through incompetence or design to supply contaminated tap water in a first world country click here to read.

Still on the water issue, some of you may be interested to see how Thanet Earth have addressed some of the problems that China Gateway will have to solve click here to view, as you can see it will a mammoth and expensive task. I believe something like this sort of solution will have to be used for the car and lorry park runoff, looking at the size of these parking areas the tanks will have to be massive

I will endeavour to add more as I get time today.

Pleasurama update

Work has started to anchor the lose bit of the cliff façade behind where the new development is going, it took a few pictures down there yesterday click here to view.

I have had confirmation from the head of the planning department that as the road has been built, this is seen as the development having started, so although nothing has actually started on the building the planning permission doesn’t and will never expire click here to read the email and my reply to him in red.

I took some more pictures of the arches under the access road down there, some of the read house bricks that form part of the construction actually crumble between your fingers, these arches have a 40 tonne weight limit on them click here to look at the pictures.

The latest Pleasurama plans still haven’t appeared on the government planning website, which makes a bit of a joke of the public consultation we were promised here in Ramsgate.

However what I find of the greatest concern was that the road layout continued to be built despite the environment agency’s strong recommendation for a flood risk assessment.

Planning Website 14 Days Behind

One of the worst websites I have occasion to use is the one that hosts TDCs planning applications, I have a fairly busy life and don’t have time to get to Margate to look at the important local planning applications, so this site really is a pain.

You need to have a PDF viewer installed on your computer to view the applications, the plans appear with no scale on them so it is very difficult to judge the size of anything. You can’t view the latest plans, there is no map showing where planning applications are, very trying as it often uses different addresses for the same place.

This is an issue that TDC are addressing, they tell me they will be hosting the planning applications on their own site, I made some recommendations for the new site, however if it is any better remains to be seen.
Now I gather that the planning website has a 14 day delay publishing applications, presumably this means some of the applications will be passed before we have had time to look at them properly.

Congratulations to TDC planning department

Many thanks to the planning department for turning down the plans for the hideous extension to the restoration of the Granville Marina Restaurant in Ramsgate, the application number is L/TH/08/1197 click here to go to the government planning website.

Restoration work on this grade 2 listed building got off to a bad start, as you can see from the picture click here for more pictures of the restoration work in progress.

Plans for converting part of Albion House into flats

TDC have applied for planning permission to make most of Albion House into residential accommodation, to view the plans you have to put the application numbers F/TH/08/1376 and L/TH/08/1377 into the search box on the TDC planning website click here to go there.

You also have to have a pdf viewing program installed on your computer.#

Thanks to Gerald for pointing this one out to me.

1Granville Marina when is a planning application not a planning application

Update on Plans for Marina Restaurant posted 25th October.

As this building is in an area designated as high flood risk and so I assumed a flood risk assessment would be mandatory I sought advice from TDC planning on the application.

“This is an application for listed building consent I assume there will also be an application for planning permission upon which the views of the Environment Agency will be required. I would expect they would require some form of flood risk assessment, which includes consideration of overtopping.”

It is I believe at this point that we should object on the grounds that the proposed rebuild and extension doesn’t retain the character and setting of the listed building.

I should remind anyone interested that it was part of a beach resort built by J T Wimperis in 1877 click here for a bit more info

Click here to enlarge the picture

Thanks for the vote

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to those councillors who were responsible for the China Gateway application going to full council, this was obviously what all the people who understood the implications of the proposal wanted.

I believe that we have now got some councillors who are putting the benefits of Thanet, the integrity of office and the wishes of the electorate first. I also believe that, as we are moving towards an elected council leader, who will not necessarily favour one party or one group of individuals, that these councillors will stay and their numbers will increase.

Apart from the planning issues, I think it inappropriate that anything should be decided on the China Gateway until the serious economic crimes unit have completed their investigation.

I asked TDC planning department for their view on this, here is what they said.

“From a Planning point of view, if it can be proven that there are procedural irregularities in reaching a planning decision , the decision can be challenged through the judicial review process which can nullify the permission if the JR is successful. I don't think that the hint of a criminal investigation would prejudice Planning Committee considering the application and all Planning Committee members would need to be sure in their own minds they do not have any prejudicial interest that prevents them from considering the application with an open mind.”

Various people have asked me to do a comprehensive post on TDCs asset disposal, particularly with regard to Northdown House, I have been on the case for some time now and am still at the gathering information stage.

You have to appreciate that I am not an anonymous individual, so I have to try and get the information that I publish here exactly right, first time.

Recommendation to the planning committee to approve plans for China Gateway

I have just received this document from TDC planning and have published it on the web for anyone interested to read click here to do so

My first thoughts are that as this development is so big and will effect everyone in Thanet, it should come before full council once people have returned from their holidays.

Southern Water

I have just received the letter sent by Southern Water to TDC on the 27.6.2008 about the China Gateway proposal click here to read it

I have also just received a letter from TDC confirming that the application is due to be reported to the planning committee meeting to be held at 7pm on 20.8.2008

In view of the problems related to waste water disposal, the other problems related to the layout of the site and the screening issue, the plans must be so far from anything that would be acceptable either to TDC or the Chinese that this seems far to soon.

It seems pretty obvious that it would be better for the planning committee to decide on plans that are somewhere near to something that would be a viable development, to do otherwise makes the planning committee appear a mere rubber stamp.

I am afraid there is considerable feeling among ordinary folk that the granting of planning permission is a forgone conclusion and for TDC to behave in this way does seem lay weight to this feeling.

Thanet District Councils planning website

I have had a response from the council about my concerns that information is being withheld from us, because they have set their planning website to restrict public access to documents and comments on it.

Click here to read the correspondence

Why are tdc hiding important documents from us?

I have noticed recently that there has been a considerable reluctance to keep the tdc planning website up to date and I am having to publish documents that should be appearing there.

With the China Gateway application the environment agency’s recommendations and conditions have still not appeared on the tdc planning website although they were sent to tdc over a month ago.

When I added my comments to the site I discovered that unlike other councils tdc had opted to hide comments and objections.

I have now published yet another important document that should be available for everyone with an interest in the application to view, it is the objection from the Protection of Rural England click here to read it

Thanet Planning Website Public Relations Disaster

On May 22nd I noticed that the Thanet planning website had gone interactive and that you could post comments and objections on it for all to see. It thought this was a great step forward in open government and involving the public in the planning process. It says on the website quite clearly that comments will be available for others to see and I posted by objection to the China Gateway application, however objection didn’t appear so I emailed UK planning who run the site for TDC below is their answer.

Dear Michael,

The reason your comment is not showing on the UKPlanning website is due to Thanet`s public access choices. Thanet District Council choose to restrict access to these comments at this case status on the public facing website.

Kind RegardsRyan Shearer UKPlanning Operations Supervisor

Thanet Planning Website Blog

Congratulations to Thanet District Council, their Thanet planning website has now gone interactive and you can comment on planning applications as you would on a blog.

Yes really your comments will be available for everyone to see, this is a first and major step by TDC towards more open government, by using the internet interactively.

It isn’t clear if objections sent by post will be published too, however its obvious that they should be and presumably will be in the fullness of time.