Will Scobie continued to show us what a powerhouse he is taking the only Labour Win.

At a time when Thanet chose protesting against all three main parties rather than choosing people to act in the interest of Kent for Kent issues Will Scobie showed us that he was made of more popular stuff and won the only non-UKIP seat in Thanet.

With strongly racist undertones in the comments around the web (especially in certain forums) the discussion is entirely around national politics with the needs of Kent coming a poor third to mid-term protesting. And people wonder why our council is so inefficient...

However my warmest congratulations to Will Scobie - you're going to be representing all of Thanet in Kent my friend - good luck with that.

In the last six months Cllr David Green has been to more meetings than Cllr Chris Wells (who has missed half of his) and Cllr Simon Moores (who hasn't) put together. While Cllr Douglas Clark failed to show up for around three quarters of his meetings. This is our review of Councillor attendance.

Thanet District Council publish the attendance records of thier council members. Here I've chosen to focus on the best and worst of the Thanet Districts elected council. Although for reference a school would have something strong to say about any child dipping below 95% (the worst this (half) year was less than 29%).

The figures cover the six month period From the third of November last year to the twenty-eigth of April this year. In attendance means that there was a meeting that they were not listed for but they showed up for anyway.

The most absent councillors in Thanet

While the lowest attendance by any councillor award goes to Douglas W Clark who missed a staggering three quarters of his meetings the next most tardy councillor in Thanet District is Chris Wells. Chris who inexplicably is standing for election to KCC while clearly struggling to manage his TDC responsibilities managed to attend just 4 of his required meetings.

These absent without leave councillors are joined by councillors Ken Gregory and Michael Roberts who tie for third place in the failed to show up top three. Even so these two both managed to attend slightly more of their meetings. Ken missed just 2 of the mere five meetings he was supposed to be at while Michael attended the most meetings making it to a whole 6 gatherings.

Cllr	Expected	Present	In attendance	% Present
Cllr Michael J Roberts	10	6	0	60.00%
Cllr Ken Gregory	5	3	0	60.00%
Cllr Christopher T Wells	8	4	2	50.00%
Cllr Douglas W Clark	7	2	0	28.57%

If these councillors are struggling to do their duty then there is no shame in standing down and making way for someone who will do the job.

Next up: we've seen who has been bad - now lets see who has been good.

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» Continue Reading: Which councillors are AWOL?

Driver is demanding that we turn the cameras on the council and while he's right to demand it came we really expect the lepard to change it's spots?

I made the point back in 2009 that Thanet District Council was not ellected and nothing much has changed.Indeed in some ways it has gotten worse. The most powerful men in Thanet District Council right now are a few independent councillors who have the power to play King Maker.

Yes we need to put the spotlight on our council members. Yes we need them to answer for what they do. Yes we should hold them to account. We need something more.

We need to hand choice back to the voter and the only way we, in Thanet, can do that is by switching to a mayor and cabinet model. The very model that Thanet District Council under Tory leadership shafted carefully into a well executed PR non-thing which they then dismissed.

What, if anything, have the conservatives done for Cliftonville?

As many of you know I am standing for election to Kent County Council in the Margate and Cliftonville ward. The one question that keeps coming up is this: What have the currently elected Tory council members done for Cliftonville in all that time?

I have yet to find even one person who can say, hand on heart, yes those Tory's helped. Not one.

The problem I fear is that the ward has been represented by career politicians whose one claim to fame is "being on all the councils". When the different candidates come knocking on your door (or calling you on the phone) find out where else they are elected to and then ask them: What have you done for me so far?

My answer is simple: What I have done is draw your attention to the fact that no one is working for you and made a solemn vow to be the change we both seek.

I'm sure the others will give you a lot of talk about how busy they have been going to meetings and stuff but not actually say how they have helped you because the chances are they have not helped you at all. If you want a councillor who will actually be there to help you then you need someone who care enough to speak up even when there is not an election on and even when they are not elected to any office at all.

Ian Driver has stood down one of his council positions and Sandy Ezekiel has not. Who was right?

In standing down in time for the County election and triggering a hyper local election Driver, at first glance appears to have cost us several hundred pounds but his timing is everything the cost of one more vote count when there is already one on is negligible if any at all.

So while Driver's publicity stunt was well timed and cost no one any real cash jail bird Sandy Ezekiel's refusal to stand down a will mean that we have to shell out a lot of money to hold a by-election just for his ward. We have no choice - it's too late for including his count in with the KCC vote and yet he is automatically out of office as of roughly right now.

Thus in the event that Driver makes it into KCC and honours his commitment to stand down TDC he can time his resignation to coincide with dishonorable Sandy's by-election and cost us exactly nothing more. I am sure he did not plan it that way by Driver is unlikely to cost us a penny.

Is Driver right about sitting on more than one councillor is he just trying to get publicity?

Do we over pay our councillors?

Independent Thanet District councillor Ian Driver talks on Thanet Watch's blog about stepping down from Thanet District Council if elected to Kent County Council as he feels that the money issue can too easily become central to standing for council and not doing good and serving the people you represent.

Is he right that professional politicians rather than real public servants are a problem in Thanet and Kent?

Should a new law banning people from sitting on more than one council be enacted?

In the past I have tried to point out Sandy's history of inappropriate behaviour and have written many an article where I have consistently pointed out that Sandy was not doing his job and was, in my opinion, a selfish bully who was, somewhat officially, Insufficiently skilled along with the rest of the cabinet having no plan. Yet for reasons that escape me his was a favourite among the conservative party which only suggests to me that who one does business with was far more important than actually serving Thanet. Why then the surprise when Sandy is found, yet again, to have broken the rules?

Given the number of complaints made against councillors, mostly by each other it should be no surprise that the man on the street thinks every last council member is bent. Even I outright called them all bent when I called the results of the last election back in 2011. So when Sandy Ezekiel was found guilty and sentenced to do some bird that same "man on the street" was not particularly surprised.

This conviction is a wake up call for us all - a reminder that in the public office of the council a candidate should be of good moral character, personable and above reproach. They should not be given to back biting, "misspeaking" and pointless factions but should be passionate for the one task of serving the public interest. The number of members that come close in our council is shockingly small so perhaps now is the time for parties to allow the people to select the candidates and not the "leader" with the political agenda.

It is time to pay attention to the Constitution for Governance of Thanet District Council and to treat it as gospel because Thanet council was elected by a minority and it can, easily be argued that Thanet District Council has never been democratically elected. There is not a mandate for any council member to do as they wish and simply flout the rules when they are inconvenient. It's that or elect a mayor to lead the council. Your call councillors.

This weekend reporter Thomas Brown reported doubts over funding for the Pleasurama site in Ramsgate but was Sandy's involvement here just as shady as the one that took him to prison for a year and a half?

Back in June 2009 chief executive Sue McGonigal wrote a report exposing uncertainty over the SFP Ventures UK's ability to complete the £22 million build at the Pleasurama site. she apparently wrote that proof of funding was not possible but (now convicted) ex-leader Sandy Ezekiel lead the cabinet in recommending the project to the council for approval anyway. Why, one wonders, would he do that if not for personal gain of some sort?

SFP Ventures UK wants to build a 60-bed hotel and another 107 apartments on the site despite having yet to raise even a fraction of the money it needs.

Of course now councillors have spoken of regrets over the decision to sign a development agreement without the slightest proof of available funding or even a hotel operator so much as nominally on board with the project.

Would it be going to far to suggest that the councillors did as they were told by Sandy while nothing-on-paper deals took place in the shadows? After all it is not always the thing a public official is finally nabbed for that is the first thing they do wrong.

Do not get started on the above market value purchase of the Marks and Spenser building under Sandy...

On Friday the news was breaking that Sandy Ezekiel was found guilty but was the real news that no one (outside of politics) was particularly surprised?

This result, which was by a unanimous jury verdict, has opened up Thanet Council to wider investigation as Police reveal that they are preparing several further cases against previous elected members. While, at the same time, The Information Commissioner, responsible for both openness in public life as well as data privacy, is investigating claims of a Thanet District Council cover-up. It seems Thanet District Council has repeatedly refused to comply with requests under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. [more]

One has to wonder if Ezekiel's insistence that he was innocent is more a reflection that he and his colleges honestly feel that they were entitled to act as they did and in their eyes have done nothing wrong regardless of what the law actually says. If that is the case just how many laws have been silently broken and covered up in the halls of Thanet District Council while the conservatives were in power?

The council is finally in the spotlight and, painful as it might be, hopefully we can see the rot removed giving us a council able to do the job it should have been doing for years.


Update: When I say no one was surprised I mean no one who isn't ensconced in the ivory tower of politics and still lives in the real world.

According to Recent Figures more than one child in four (28%) from Thanet live in poverty.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty has published new figures that provide a child poverty map of the country. According to The Press Release: The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that child poverty will rise by 400,000 children by 2015 unless the government takes a more progressive approach to tackling the deficit.

Alison Garnham, Executive Director of the Campaign, said: Child poverty costs us billions picking up the pieces of damaged lives and unrealised potential, so it’s a false economy if we don’t prioritise looking after children today.

She went on to call the current cuts a disaster when she said: Targeting cuts on families will prove both an economic and a social disaster, with businesses losing billions of pounds of demand and families struggling to keep their kids clothed, fed and warm.

The Government, says, Alison Garnham, must act now. The Government urgently needs a serious plan to stop the rise in unemployment and to create jobs so that young people and parents can get out of the dole queue and into the workplace. We need a plan to target investment through the family purse to stimulate the economy, so that shops, services and businesses get the customers they need to stay afloat and recruit staff.

The map shows just how big an issue child poverty across the country has become and the gross levels of inequality that children face in every region. Here, for example, is an oddly coloured map of Thanet with blue and green areas showing the worst areas of Thanet for Child poverty which in places approaches half of all children living in that area.