A few pictures on another gloomy morning

If you are wondering why this blog post is a bit muddled if not plain bad I am battling with my response to Thanet’s core strategy at the moment see http://consult.thanet.gov.uk/inovem/consult.ti/core.strategy/consultationHome

Once again I managed to get a short walk this morning and take a few pictures for those who can’t see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts110/id4.htm

The amount of cloud means that it is pretty much dark before I get the children up for school so I am afraid you only get a quick half hour between dropping them off at school and my opening the bookshop.

Looking on the bright side though it is getting brighter every day now behind the clouds and the weather is looking to improve at the weekend.

I have been going through the early pages of this blog trying to make broken links work and republishing missing pictures that seem for no apparent reason to vanish from the internet.

The trouble with all of the pictures that I have published to the internet over the past three years is there hasn’t been much method to my madness, this is partly due to lack of time. What happens is that I take a few hundred pictures, stick them anywhere on one of my websites, do a quick blog post linked to the pages where the pictures are and forget about them.

I tried Flickr the other day and I can see it would be very good if I had loads of time see http://www.flickr.com/photos/45794516@N03/ eventually I hope to go through the pictures that I have got stored on various computers and put up something that makes a bit more sense.

As far as I can see though Flickr just isn’t going to work for my morning walk pictures for the people who just glance through them, as there would just be too much clicking about, the 100 picture to the page method seems to be the best option for these.

Minor ramble

Sorry about the lack of posts I have been having printer problems and have had to move the offending machine somewhere warmer, this meant the end of the road for conventional photography for me, all of the contents of my darkroom has been boxed up to make room for the printer.

I did get a walk this morning although the quality of light can best be expressed as gloomy so the photographs are not that great see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts110/id3.htm

The main thing of note being that work has resumed on repairing the Wellington Crescent cliff façade, the saga of trying to build to close to this and too low on the foreshore goes on, with the council pretending that there isn’t a problem.

I am still at the stage of having sent them photographs of the bulge in the façade and the lack of foundations because they wouldn’t inspect it, and have been told the bulge is a minor problem that they are fixing but there is no problem with the foundations.

The trouble is when one has to deal with this sort of nonsensical situation it is hard to have much confidence that they are making proper repairs instead of just covering up the defects.

Here in King Street Ramsgate another shop has closed, this time it is the huge carpet shop that once formed the main part of the Co-Op, with the cycle shop next door to it failing so quickly it isn’t an encouraging sign.

The whole eastcliff area of Ramsgate is in a bit of a state really, from Pleasurama, the pavilion and Granville Marina site on the front extending back into the town.

There are reasonable successful things within this area like the Granville Theatre a few shops and some residential areas that are reasonably pleasant but the area is dominated by houses of multiple occupation and social problems.

I am also working on my response to TDCs core strategy, something that has to be submitted by the 18th of this month, apart form concluding that this part of Ramsgate is going to need some sort of special approach over the coming years if it isn’t going to move further into being a rundown area, I am coming up against the councils lack of facing some of the realities that transcend what they would like with what is possible.

Pleasurama is a small example of what I mean and here the main problem is the council just not being able to face the physical limitations of the site, contractors come and go but the fundamental problem is that any firm large enough to take on building something so big will not be prepared to ignore the flood risk and cliff safety problems, so in the end they just walk away from it.

Now we have a similar problem with what is being mooted in the core strategy as policy 25 that on the face of it appears to a special exception to the rules on building on greenfield sites but really the problem is fundamentally much simpler.

It comes back to our water supply, even the developments in the pipeline, as far as I have been able to find out from The Environment Agency and Southern Water, and it isn’t easy getting clear responses from large organisations, the combined effects of Thanet Earth, China Gateway’s first phase and the airport expansion take us beyond the point where there is sufficient greenfield area to replenish our essential water supply.

Now it strikes me that before huge amounts of public and private money are wasted we need a definite figure on the area of farmland we need to retain to get enough water.

I do wonder if it is only here in Thanet and perhaps some third world dictatorships that the governing powers put so much of their resources into producing documents about plans to revitalise the area, without first looking at the physical restrictions of the area and deciding what is actually possible.

China Gateway is a case in point here, forget for a moment the implications of building on a greenfield site, forget even the questions about would local people be employed in sufficient numbers there to make the project beneficial.

The point here is that a business wanted to invest here in Thanet, but the council were so unrealistic about their approach to what would be possible in terms of site drainage that a year after the application being approved there still appears to be no planning agreement.

The trouble now is that we are coming to the end of large government funded projects and we now need the council to set out a storefront to attract investment that is in some way realistic.

Projects that look good on paper but are impossible in practice are not in any way going to help our credibility in the real world.

Grit gas political websites and local blogs

Credit where credit is due the main bus route here in Ramsgate has been salted and busses are getting through. The town centre has been treated with what looks like sand and small stones from the beach, I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong about this, and Ramsgate market is up and running.

A quick glance at the local political websites reveals an update from Roger Gale, with an interesting press release about Eurostar see http://www.rogergale.com/content_manager/page.php?ID=102287&dbc=f37674049e904c861c5b875d94bd57c6 I don’t quite know what to make of this one.

A quick glance at the local blogs, Tim’s post on the levels of airborne mercury at Thor Chemicals in Margate during the 1980s is a bit jaw dropping see http://lovekentloveramsgate.blogspot.com/2010/01/another-thor-mercury-report.html 20 times the safe limit, at first I thought he must have something wrong here but he confirms this with documentation that seems pretty cast iron see http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-138117-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Tony has some interesting thoughts about compensation when things go wrong and the local economy is damaged see http://bignewsmargate.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-about-sandy-ezekiel-gets.html I wonder if Ramsgate is due any over the Pleasurama debacle.

Bertie has an interesting post about gas, I had thought the business about gas supply problems was just a bit of Tory scaremongering and hadn’t realised that the reduced gas pressure some people are experiencing actually stops their heating see http://thanetstrife.blogspot.com/2010/01/when-will-we-have-gas-supply-crisis-in.html

It’s good to see Matt picking up on my thoughts about how local politicians are using the internet see http://thanetstar.com/article/thanet-politics-thanet-conservative?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThanetStar+%28The+Thanet+Star%29

I think a factor here is that the most pertinent to the coming national elections is what proportion of the Thanet South floating vote is going to be influenced by the internet.

Oh and a particularly funny post from Simon http://birchington.blogspot.com/2010/01/frozen-fish.html

The picture above prompted the obvious question from one of my children, why didn’t it snow on the beach?

It’s All White With Kent County Council, Isn’t It?

A few pictures of snow in Ramsgate this morning click on the link for them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop5/ no signs of gritting again today and I have only seen one bus get through today.

Mal has just emailed me some more snow picture click on the link for them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop5/id3.htm anyone else got any?

No worries for me as the bookshop is closed today so my customers not being able to get here doesn’t make any difference.

I don’t think the lack of or inadequate gritting, not really sure what it is, seems to be understood by KCC the cost to Thanet’s economy must be colossal, I will do my best to explain this in terms my own business, with thoughts about what is going wrong.

My bookshop is at the bottom of The Plains of Waterloo, funny name for a road, I know but there have been funnier ones. Anyway this is a steep hill on the main bus route and I can’t really miss what goes on there in terms of traffic and road maintenance because nearly all of my windows look out on it.

I have been here since 1987 working in the bookshop and living above and up until this winter every time it has snowed the council have made special efforts to grit it, both the road and the treacherous sloping pavements, one has to be careful negotiating these when they are wet and ice makes them pretty much impossible to stand up on.

Now KCC assure us that gritting is still going on as normal, but there is no sign of any grit, previous years you could see it very clearly, brown and rather nasty.

When it snowed on the Saturday before Christmas it should have been the busiest shopping day of the year, as it was the bookshop takings were 10% of what I expected, it’s all a bit difficult to work out what this means in terms of lost profit as takings would probably have been down a certain amount because of the snow, even if the roads and pavements leading to the shop had been gritted as normal. There is also the factor that some people would have come another day to buy their books. At a guess I would say the amount of profit lost was between £200 and £300 which to me is just the same as if someone had taken this amount out of your wages, before tax deductions.


Anyway back sort of on subject you may remember back in may I had a problem with a drain at the bottom of Plains of Waterloo see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/05/crazy-waterworks-in-thanet.html well I notified KCC highways of the problem with the drain and they came and dug up the road. I had assumed that they had mended it but in fact it still doesn’t work in exactly the same way.

There is also the appalling state of the pavements and road surfaces in this part of Ramsgate, a couple of times recently KCC workers have turned up fixed one paving slab in amongst lots of others that are either broken displaced or wobbly, completely ignoring the others.

They did this to one outside the bookshop the other day, lifted it up and put a bit more sand under it, not enough though as it started to sink again in a couple of days.
What I am getting at there is has something changed, or is it just my perception of things, as they seem to be going through the motions of fixing things but not succeeding very well, I am wondering if the gritting lorry came along but the grit didn’t actually come out of it for instance.

A bit of an update here, they have just 1.30pm come along and gritted the pavement between my bookshop and the town centre, it looks amazingly bizarre as the grit extends to the bottom of the really treacherous hill but not up it click on the link for a picture of this http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop5/id4.htm I know the answer to this will be that it isn’t part of the town centre.

As you can see the road itself is pretty slippery, with vehicles and pedestrians making their way down it together at walking pace.

Three busses came through pretty much all at the same time about half an hour ago whch suggests the roads must be clearing a bit.


and this from th KM website

StMARY'S ISLAND PRIMARY (CHATHAM) - Open

StMARY'S ISLAND PRIMARY (CHATHAM) - Closed


I will ramble on here as the day goes on and hopefully add a few more pictures.

A midweek ramble

After my last post and probably unrelated, Labour have made the first internet sally locally with Steve posting. “New Year is a time for looking back and looking forward.” On his website see http://www.stephenladyman.info/looking-ahead---2010 and nationally once again probably unrelated Labours first election sally, Steve's colleagues are working up to a leadership ballot. I am no great fan of Gordon Brown apart form his lack of charisma which I find has a certain appeal, he often looks as though he is on the verge of picking his nose or having a good scratch, which adds a sort of suspense to otherwise tedious political dialogue, but frankly the man has done better than I expected.

One does wonder who on earth the Labour party would put up as their next leader, particularly as Brown does seem to be performing better than expected, it certainly begs the question why put him up for the job in the first place?

Watching PMQ time this lunch time just before the ballot news broke, I was thinking how David Cameron was doing worse than I expected, by this I mean the bickering thing, one sort of feels he ought to have the charisma to rise above it, but somehow doesn’t ever quite manage to. One is left with the feeling that apart from his very clear ideas on what is wrong with Gordon Brown, something he now seems to share with quite a few Labour MPs, he just doesn’t seem to be coming up with the radical solutions we need.

Oh well perhaps it’s just me but I do get a sense of these people playing at being part of running a major world power, rather than accepting that we are a small country that has pretty much gone broke and needs to sort itself out and keep out of major world issues for a bit.

The trouble is that virtually everyone living in this country is aware that it isn’t such a nice place to live anymore and this is the priority for most of us. Simple things like being able to once again wander around our towns in the evening wouldn’t be a bad starting point. I probably shouldn’t have said that as I am sure someone is going to tell me the statistics show that crime is down.

There does seem to be a certain lack of enthusiasm by the police to prosecute criminals engaging in crime and I suppose this makes for better statistics and less work.

I have just unplugged the thing that goes beep from the usb on the shops computer to copy the few pictures from my camera, not much there I am afraid as it’s been just too slippery for morning walks over the last few days.

The map above (click on it to enlarge it) is about 1900 I think it comes from a little guide I am preparing for reprint but I have had to stop due to printer problems, the mono laser printer seems to have a cold.

The pictures, just walking back from school yesterday and the day before are now done, click on the link for them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts110/ no opportunity to take any going as was holding on to slippery children.

Another of the shops that opened here in king Street Ramsgate last year has closed, this time the cycle shop, last time the washing machine shop, it is not an easy time in the world of small shops.

In the case of these shops that lasted less than 6 months, I am certain that if they had opened in the same sites 10 years ago they would have both lasted several years and if you go back 30 to 40 years probably the proprietors working lifetime.

These were both shops offering on site repairs, something obviously beneficial to the environment and the local community, I suspect mostly made unviable by a throw away society based on cheap fareastern manufacturing.

The problem here though is what’s the solution, from my own point of view both of these shops were between my bookshop and the centre of the town so this means less customer footfall for me but the larger problem is for the town as a community.

No walk this morning as I drove my son to the station to get his train to go back to university, all a bit of a waste of time really as the train was cancelled and before you ask we had checked the rail operators website first and that said it was running.

Back to the shops. Things that don’t help are, the removal of a lot of the sreetside parking in this part of town, the infrastructure of King Street falling apart (road surface and pavements), the clusters of inebriate smokers forced onto the pavements outside every pub by the no smoking legislation, a sort of ghetto of deprivation that seems to somehow revolve around putting housing association property somewhere where people don’t actually want to live.

I am not saying I have solutions here and frankly all things considered the bookshop isn’t doing that badly since the New Year, however I don’t think this has much to do with having a town centre site, with the associated expense and problems.

Thanet and the general election and how the two main parties are using the internet.

As I suppose everyone must know 2010 is to be an election year when we elect our MPs and I am wondering, as a floating voter where I will put my X.

As I see it the electorate in the UK is segmented into two main groups, those who always vote for a particular party and therefore really make no difference and those who don’t and therefore have to make some sort of decision.

The decision making group then further segment into those who live in constituencies that are so dominated by one party that their vote makes no difference and those like Thanet South, where the votes of those of us who don’t always vote the same way actually have some effect of what party eventually governs the country.

I haven’t worked it out but suspect that people who fall into this group are probably in the order of 10% of the electorate.

It’s a peculiar system and one that seems to encourage a lot of the electorate not to vote, but it is the system that we have and with the election looming the only one we have to use.

Here there is also the Thanet factor, which is a sort of mixture of the following:

Considerable disaffection with the local Conservative council administration.

A relatively strong internet community the political part being mostly blog based, seemingly stronger than any other area in the southeast and something that already has an effect on conventional local media.

Presumably this must have some sort of effect on how local people will vote here in Thanet, in fact I think it would be fair to say that this election will be more effected by the internet than any other, so in the first instance I though I would have a look to see how the main political parties were web wise.

So to start with local Labour and Conservative associations and election candidates websites and blogs.

Labour first

The local Labour association website.

Top ranking on Google for the phrase “Thanet Labour”

http://www.thanet-labour-group.org.uk/

This website seems to have last been updated in 2008, it has no feeds so there is no way that anyone can subscribe to, nor is any way I can put some sort of live updating link on this blog so you can see if it ever gets updated.

Next the Thanet South MPs site http://www.stephenladyman.info/

Fifth ranking on Google for the phrase “Thanet Labour”

This is a very sophisticated website with feeds (updates appear on my sidebar) KIA survey on the homepage, video hosted on site with some linking to social networking via facebook.

A bit of a deeper delve suggests that despite this being a sophisticated and expensive site the last press release went up last October. The sidebar announces: Whats new this week - 28/4/08, also a bit peculiar.

Interestingly this site has a place where people can leave comments at http://www.stephenladyman.info/ft_have_your_say_f10d7a59-ba0e-2054-e1a5-a819cdee611a a couple of thoughts here, first I find it quite strange that no one has commented here since April 2009 and second this is quite a bold move by any MP, so please don’t abuse it as we are better of with it than without it.

Thanet North Labour candidate

Seems to have a non existence web presence.

The local Conservative associations

North Thanet Conservative Association http://www.ntca.org.uk/

Second ranking on google for the phrase “Thanet Conservative”

This site is nothing but a holding page for the url the main link is directed at the North Thanet MPs site.

South Thanet Conservative Association

http://www.stca.org.uk/

Third ranking on google for the phrase “Thanet Conservative”

This is a broken page that leads to a plumbing site.

Next Thanet North MPs site

http://www.rogergale.com/

Twenty first ranking on google for the phrase “Thanet Conservative”

No feeds and nowhere interactive.

The site seems to have last been updated on the 8th December 2009, the fact that the press release that I received on the 21st December and published on http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/ doesn’t seem to have appeared on his site yet suggests not being too internet savvy.

Next Thanet South Conservative candidate

http://telllaura.org.uk/

No feeds, I couldn’t find her email address either, contact form only.

The last press release published 25th November 2009 the last one I had was 4th December.

Having said all of this I should point out that it is only the two MPs sites that are likely to be funded by us via their expenses, I haven’t checked this out.

What I am getting at here is that the way the local politicians and political parties use the internet in the run up to the elections is very important.

Certainly the two local politicians who blog regularly do leave me feeling that I have something of their measure see http://birchington.blogspot.com/ and http://marknottingham.blogspot.com/ I am not talking here about agreeing of disagreeing with them but just about their willingness to communicate and tell us who they are and what they think.

There is also another factor here and that is some sort of measure of competence and efficiency, since most of what our MPs do is essentially what used to be called paper pushing and is now keyboard tapping, this is some indicator of how good they are at it.

Kent County Council and the mystery of the missing grit

I have had written confirmation via my county councillor that KCC did in fact grit Ramsgate town centre including The Plains of Waterloo (the hill shown in the video on the Saturday morning when it snowed) twice on the 19th December the Saturday morning when it snowed.




This is news to me and everyone else I have spoken to in Ramsgate, sorry about the rather wonky sound track.

We are on the last day of our extended Christmas and New Year break, sorry I have been a bit behindhand posting and replying to comment on the posts here in the last few days, normal service will be resumed soon.

Happy New Year and a pinch and a punch for the first day of the decade/year/month.

I am recovering from the New Years Eve celebrations, notebook on the settee, it’s a board games and guitars type of day here, old songs and old games no surprises for the adults, but the boxes of cards and plastic houses hills and strange spinners, often magical novelties for the children.

I have connected all of the pictures that I have published from my notebook as four websites the links to the pages of pictures are at the top of the pages and the links to the four websites below.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop2/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop3/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop4/

For the other Thanet bloggers that have links to this blog I have published my referral statistics for this blog.

For anyone who doesn’t understand what I am talking about here, this is the number of people who come here by clicking on a link on another website and it is the nearest I can get to a popularity chart for the other blogs.

Here is the link http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop4/id7.htm