more animals

more animals

Well it's almost time to eat sprouts and avoid eggnog and do whatever it is you do to celebrate an event that the vast majority of people don't even believe in. How do you celebrate and what do you celebrate - let's compare notes.

more animals

I am working on building a complete blog of Thanet complete with all the issues and blog posts of note within Thanet blogging. It's a work in progress obviously but so far I have a good collection of the recent fires, the China Gateway site and a few other places of note written up.

Here it is.

I am able to import other maps into this one so if you wish to create your own annotations and email the link to me I can create the grand map if Thanet blogging and news.

As you can probably guess I'm not especially impressed with Cllr Ezekiel. I've given up trying to put it into words and so to bring some holiday cheer here is a caption competition for you all.



The best answer will be added to the image and reposted after Christmas with full credits.

Enter as many times as you want.

In what passes for a consultation in these parts Cllr Sandy Ezekiel and friends held a meet and greet at Northdown House yesterday. Today Cllr Sandy Ezekiel announced that it will probably be given to a local college.

Judging by the reports on Tony Flaig's blog Sandy has no idea what to do with the building at all. Where was the consultation?? I did go and at least we had the chance to walk round and look at the whole house, and there were a few people to talk to such as Sandy Ezekiel and Councillor Hart and Mr Friend but there were no outlines of any proposals, plans of the house or any question and answer sessions, just a postcard on which you could write your suggestions. I said there wasn't enough room on the postcard sais an anonymous commenter.

I would like to know how Sandy's team have managed to get to this conclusion just 24 hours after consulting the public without having already decided on this course of action. But as Sandy has also suggested a health centre instead I think the answer is that they are just guessing.

This smacks of desperation to get rid of a building that is going to cost a lot of money. Money being something that the Conservative council have been anything but wise with. With the debate between the Friends and the council over whether TDC can legally sell it off to developers not showing any sign of slowing it is likely that the Conservative Clique currently in power are planning to dump this building anyway. Even if that means forcing devolution of control to the community directly and shirking a council's traditional role as guardian of local heritage.

So the reason that the council could not answer Tony's freedom of Information requests is that they have no plan at all. I challenge any councillor to find a shred of evidence otherwise.

Thanet District Council are in the news again for supporting the over zealous street warden who fined Grandfather Lazarus Michael £60 the moment his cigarette was knocked his out of his hand. The events took place in Margate high-street while two police officers were attempting to arrest shoplifters. In the confusion and bustle a full cigarette was knocked away from Lazarus Michael but before he could reach to retrieve it he was pounced upon and fined.

Lazarus Michael says I wasn’t littering as it was a full cigarette. But before I had a chance to pick it up, the warden had come up to me and asked me to come with him. I didn’t know what he wanted so I went to talk to him. This is apparently a mistake so the warning seems to be do not talk to wardens as explains He gave me the fine and didn’t give me a chance to explain, if he hadn’t come over to talk to me I would have bent down and picked it up without giving it another thought.

TDC have indicated that they are happy with the actions of the warden and Cllr Shirley Tomlinson has announced that there will be no exceptions under any circumstances. This is dangerously Soviet in attitude and opens the way for abusive fine practices from target staved wardens. Short of the ability to prove innocence there is no possible defence against random fines.

(Very compassionate and insightful Shirly (not))

TDC it seems have suspended the right to a fair trail or to be considered innocent until proven to be otherwise in favour of trying to get the man on the street to dish up towards the £3 Billion that the Conservative lead council are so badly hurting for. This I feel is the true reason why TDC are getting tough.

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath was schooled at Chatham House Grammar School. He was Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. The wikipedia says that Heath's accession represented a change in the leadership of the Conservative party, from aristocratic figures such as Harold Macmillan and Lord Home to the self-consciously meritocratic Heath, and later, Margaret Thatcher. I'm sure Rick will have something to say about that. Old Heathy is probably best remembered as the Prime Minister that took Britain into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 (before my time - honest).

The actor Peter Barkworth was born in Margate. Soon after being born on our fair isle his family moved to Bramhall in Cheshire and so Peter Barkworth was educated at Stockport School. But he started out here in Thanet. A note for Sci Fi fans Peter Barkworth had a part in the Doctor Who story line "The Ice Warriors" as Leader Clent.

Moses Montefiore had a key conenction to Thanet. This Prominent British Jewish campaigner and philanthropist (not to mention stockbroker too) was heavily involved in the affairs of Ramsgate and owned East Cliff Lodge. His tomb is adjacent to the synagogue in Ramsgate by the way Richard.

Mathematician Alfred North Whitehead was born in Ramsgate thus proving that good can come from the place (joke). Alfred North Whitehead, OM He was born during February 1861 and passed away during the end of December 1947 having escaped to Cambridge (no not that one, the one in Massachusetts, USA). The Wikipedia tells us that he was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education. He co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell.

Iain Aitch is a writer and journalist who was born in Margate. This author of the travel book A Fete Worse Than Death, is much loved by a certain blogger (hello Tony) mainly for writing "We're British, Innit", which, according to gthe all knowing wikipedia is a humorous lexicon about Britain. When not soaking in Thanet blogger's adoration (or lack thereof) he also writes articles for the mainstream press (The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph mostly).

Who is your favourite famous Thanet person and why? (living or otherwise).

Fire up your printer it's time to save some serious cash.

vouchercodes.co.uk have a huge wedge of UK vouchers for money off stuff like W H Smiths, Blockbuster and others. All you have to do is print them off and hand them over. Money saved.

Found via: Lady Banana

I've been doing a little research into the state of all things dental in Thanet.

You may recall that Thanet Star at the start of the year published a list of dentists in Thanet in an article called Dentists and Thanet - Things You Should Know". Well in a follow up I phones a few practices to see what they offered.

In all cases there were no openings for NHS patients (don't even get me started on that). One was "private only" and gave me the impression I was something to be scraped off the bottom of their shoe for even asking (*cough* Dalby Dental *cough*). The remainder were "too busy" to take on any more under NHS.

It seems that if you want teeth left in your head then you had better start saving now.

I've been looking around the other blogs today (or it tomorrow, I can never tell when I work late) and I noticed that VAT reduction on Town Parking is unlikely according to Eastcliff Richard.

This got me thinking. It's a bit of a cheek really. Thanet District Council put a lot of talk behind "regenerating" our town centres and yet the free parking at West Wood Cross has our towns at a competitive disadvantage with their rather pricey parking fees.

What we need, I figure, is a way to let TDC know exactly what we think of parking fees and to ask and keep on asking for the VAT savings to be passed on to us. (In other words nag them to death over it). To that end I have created a small application that will email TDC to let them know that you want to see some action.

All you have to do is pop your email address and (real) name into the form so that they know who to get back to.




Psst... pass it on.

One or more people are attempting to gain access to council housing claiming to be from the owners. Gas and Electric supplier. If you challenge them they will say they wish to talk to the bill payer but be unable to name him/her.

They may be able to tell you who your supplier is but unable to tell you what you customer number is. In short they are not telling you the whole story.

When you answer they may say some like "gas and electricity" or "electricity man" or some other not-quite-a-lie designed to mislead you. They are targeting people on low incomes as users of prepayment meters seems to be a favoured target.

If your energy supplier wish to contact you they will write or phone. The only reason they will need property access is carry out repairs or inspection to your meter. To do this they will always make an appointment first.

Why would an agent visit you but not know essential details (such as your name or customer number Thanet Star do not know if this is fraud, burglary or an underhand sales attempt but you should on no conditions allow these people anywhere near the inside of your home. Any one prepared to mislead to make a sale (best case scenario) is probably not worth trusting to buy from.

They were last reported active in the Dane Valley area. Be safe. Shut the door. If you feel worried dial 999.