I thought it a pity that Pat Sebastian did not stand for TDC again. Seemed very capable.

I did come across a story of a vulnerable man in Margate who was really put under the cosh by violent neighbours. And a TDC cllr put the man up in his own home for a while whilst he tried to sort out the violence, intimidation and vandalism.

I do wonder if such patently caring councillors feel they are swimming against a tide.

As an outsider who moved to Thanet in 73 the area was noticeably different to other areas of England.

It immediately struck as odd that mature men still socialized in gangs and had not grown up to stand as individuals.

The very odd thing at that time was that benefits employees called themselves "Professionals" and spoke of having a "Career".

One fifty year old clerical officer from Thanet went for a promotion interview at Ipswich. On his return he confessed that he had never seen a rush hour before on the scale of that docks and industrial town. And he found the industriousness and urgency unsettling.

But he was also shocked because the Ipswich staff asked him why he was still just a clerical officer at fifty. The longest serving clerical officer in the Ipswich Office was two weeks service. Benefits admin was seen as a stop gap job for merchant seamen on leave or students awaiting college.

And oddly enough Thanet with its low risk parochial self important benefits clerks still managed to assess more claims wrongly than the two weeks and off Ipswich staff.

One very significant thing for Thanet's economy was the local vindictive operation of paying under benefits entitlement. The most serious aspect of this was the area's private care home industry.

The principal civil servant Fred King boasted to me that he underpaid them all and none got their fuill entitlements to resident fees.

With all the country to choose from it was Thanet where the three Grannie business poor care standards documentary expose's were set.

But being fair to people actually trying to operate an old people's home they were unwittingly played into a worse cash flow crisis by the mean spiritedness of their fellow dog in the manger Thanetians who worked in benefits. Not prepared to test themselves in industry or further education the Thanet benefits clerk grabs his job and sits there for life, dog in the manger, malignantly trying to ensure that no one gets better off than they are.

The magistrates clerk in the 70s was referred to by out of area solicitors as Thanets version of Burkes Law.

And generations of Thanet Police failed to accustom to the disciplines of evidence.

In the 90s a Thanet Police Chief wrote to a complainant that his recorded delivery letter had not reached the officer to whom it was addressed. And informing the complainant in future to address his letters properly to the him George Rogers Area Commander.

In Thanet it is only outsiders who say NO to that. (John Allen)

And the locals find it irritating !

Well wakey wakey Thanet. My father and uncle fought a war to stop the George Rogers Gestapo attitude establishing in this country.

A constable is an independent ministerial officer of the Crown. A constable does not have an "Area Commander" this is just an affectation.

Constables are not given orders other than by judicial warrant. they are charged with duties BY WHOMSOEVER and IN WHATSOEVER WAY. It was unlawful for the "Area Commander" to operate a mail intercept of mail sent to independent ministerial officers of the Crown (Constables).

And at TDC there was a councillor (believed to have been a source to area commander George Rogers) taken before Chief Executive where he allegedly admitted to running a mail intercept at the council.

When the late John Allen took up cudgels as Chair of East Westcliff Residents Assn other cockneys laughed and warned him that the Thanetians would bring their complaints by the dozen, load stoic old John up with bullets and then scarper expecting John to fire them on his own. And boy did that prediction turn out true.

First port of call would be the TDC Constitution which Im pretty sure explains the system.

http://thanet.gov.uk/counci...

Probably true James if you can (a) understand it,
(b) find an up to date copy and (c)find a copy in plain English !

And I helped write it !
An excellent idea Matt.

We have a Constitution! (There's something else I didn't know until now). I Guess the next step is to locate said constitution. I guess we will find out how much "official speak" in a write up I can still understand... gulp.

Any ideas on the finding an up to date copy Cllr Mike Harrison and (Mr) James Maskell ?

take a look here:-

http://www.thanet.gov.uk/co...

how up to date it I dont know, it should be current but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Thank you very much for the link. I have downloaded a copy and will begin dissecting it shortly. I take your point about it being current or slightly outdated but at only a year old (2007) that seems quite up to date given the history of that particular website when it comes to updates.

Regardless of my professional feelings on that subject it should prove to be an interesting read... hopefully.

ok, any questions, fire away and I will do my best to translate it into plain English !

Thank you for the offer. It was not too bad after all. However I did start to see a massive golf between the text I read and the actions I have been reading about.

All in all I was left feeling that it was a nice little fantasy and that my utter lack of faith in the institution of Thanet Council was fully justified. If the constitution mattered to more people then maybe this would be good.

I wonder if TDC can find a few thousand to have a Simple English Summary written - the laws regarding accessibility & anti-discrimination and the number of people with disabilities such as dislexia & dispraxia along with the people for whom English is not a first language and those adults that have limited literacy skills should mean that it is a legal obligation.

We can only hope that dissemination of the document in summarised form might cause the council to come somewhere close to fulfilling the requirements.

I'd write it but all my enthusiasm for the subject has been sucked out by the discovery of just how widely it is disregarded.

Several points here,,

Firstly please dont tar ALL Councillors with the same brush, there are quite a few on both sides of the political spectrum who are hard working, decent people just trying to do their best for the Community they represent and sticking to the principles in the Constitution.
Secondly although the Members who were on the rather grandly named Constitutional Working party were clear what we wanted by the time it was translated into legalese it loses some of the plain meaning.
Thirdly and rather more importantly you are absolutly correct about accessibility but the Council seems to go along the lines of if its on the Internet its available which is fine for you and me and folks who will read this and other blogs and have Internet access at home/work but for a large number of people many of whom I represent having a computer is a luxury they cant afford never mind Internet access.