Is Sandy about to do some bird?

Thanet Star has never exactly shied away from the glaringly obvious fact that Sandy was never the right man to lead our council but now that he is back in the spotlight again we ask: Will the old bird do some bird?

Please ignore the fact that the charges would most likely lead to (at worst) some fines. After all it's not like he's been beating up old grannies, failing to act properly or being raciest or anything like that (). Ignoring the inconvenient facts of the story (that isn't news)



In short let's discuss some non news and tell the world if you think Sandy will be found guilty and sent down or found innocent and set free.


I've been calling the Thanet Conservatives bent for years so it's still not news Peter.

The failed Broadstairs Community Centre was the right thing to build.

The problem with the Broadstairs Town Council's failed Community Centre is not that they tried to build it. Broadstairs could do with a more community focused space.

The problem was not that they tried to update thier plans to include Age Concern although some insightful planning could have braught them onboard to start with.

The problem was not the ammount they spent planning - although they did spend far too much getting the planning not so far.

The problem was not even that they tried to build it in the park even though this was the worst possible location that they could have chosen. Honestly it is harder to think of a worse place to locate the building. That was not the problem though.

The problem was not that Labour (and to an extent Liberal Demorcats) opposed and questioned the plans. When you have the balance of power across a number of councils this is not something to worry about.

The problem is that there was no community buy in.

At no point was it safe to say that the people of Broadstairs were saying "by jove, we need a community centre".

The building comittee (or whatever group was pushing the project) could have gotten a lot more milage by selling the community the idea that a community centre would be a good thing even if this meant spending less on consultations and meetings.

One simply has to look at Millmead Hall which is a different story. The community there were saying the equivilant of "look at this bally old scout hut! Something needs to be done here and quickly, by golly."

So when Thanet Council came along and started renivation works on the building everyone was really pleased. The result is a community focused building that is well used and popular.

This community buy-in is what was missing from the Broadstairs project and because it was missing Labour had a a free hand to bring a stop to the project without risking a single vote. After all the Conservative party members were unlikely to vote for Labour anyway.

More than £82,000 has been spent chasing the conservative dream of building in Broadstairs park.

The project, which has been strongly opposed by some residents while not enjoying any outspoken support, has spent the money while failing to actually achieve anything.

£82k is a lot of money to shell out with nothing to show for it. A level of spending easily described as wasteful is not what Thanet needs, now or ever. Whatever happened to good stewardship of resources?

Just to show how out of touch they are the Broadstairs town council members are talking about suing Thanet District Council for their losses.

I think it is about time Broadstairs voters seroousely considered a different flavour of councillor come the next ellections. Perhaps a councillor that is likely to oppose excessive parking chanrges and actually intends to look after the area.

With all the little spats involving local politicians showing up of late I wonder if there is an underlying cause.

On the one hand Chris Wells has upset another blogger (you might remember the rounds of name calling he threw in my direction last year) and on the other hand Ian Driver and Mike Harrison have had a falling out too.

What is going on here and is it good for the people of Thanet?

While on the surface it might seem like our local council members are aggressive, rude and out of control and on some levels this might be true I think that the blame here has very little to do with the actual councillors involved.

Yes that's right. Abrasive as he is Mr Wells along with (Mr Driver and Mr Harrison) are simply products of the system no more able to recognise the faults that cause them to act as they do as a fish is able to change the nature of the water in which it swims.

When we elected our council we foolishly believed it was to nominate the men and women that would help run local matters and wisely spend our taxes. Yet somewhere along the way it was declared that this was actually a Royal Rumble where the last man standing wins.

Chris Wells in attacking bloggers and council members alike is simply doing what he has been conditioned to do. Consider a dog trained to fight - when that dog enters a tense situation conditioning takes over and it goes for the kill.

It would not be right to blame the dog but rather we look to the trainer. The trainer who should have known better. The trainer who would, if we could find him (or her) get a large fine and a ban from dog owning.

So who holds the leash on Wells, Driver and Harrison?

The answer is the nobody does. The dogs are off the leash and in the fight. Our council has become a killing zone.

I am sure you were expecting me to say that the likes of Clive Hart and whoever the nominal current conservative leader happens to be today are the ones directing the dogs but these guys are no more able to control their respective gangs than we are. The best they can hope to do is marshal the aggression and try not to notice anything that they might have to react to.

But the intense inter-gang warfare we see between those in the red corner and those in the blue did not spring up by itself. These two local parties behave according to the internal culture that drives them.

We saw when Mark Nottingham was deselected by labour that inside what should be a bastion of respectable order is actually a tense and deadly game of the quick and the dead. The same warfare we see in council takes place inside each party.

When that happens you can be sure that two or more powerful factions are trying to rule the roost. Nottingham was simply a casualty of war. This war does not respect party boundaries, personal boundaries or ethical. It is fought where-ever there is a person to fight. Blogger, party member, leader or subordinate - it is all the same here.

Why else do we see apparently independent members who while self-funded still side as a group with one team or the other?

The tension is caused not by a challenging or difficult issue but an inbred and cultural need to win. The problem being that the competitors have forgotten what winning is and have set in on each other in the hope to "get them before they get me".

Until we see the winds of change bring a fundamental shift in Thanet's political arena these wars will be fought and the losers will sometimes be red, sometimes blue and all time us.

The only question is who in Thanet has the brass ones big enough to bring such change.

Some members of the conservative party are really nice people and an example of that which is good.

I think that it bears pointing out that while some conservatives (who shall this time remain nameless) are an example of all that is wrong with our district council they are some councillors who are actually decent folks, good councillors and an example of the type of person of whom we could do with more.

Yesterday I wrote about an (ex) Conservative who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and was giving his party's name a further blackening (in my opinion obviously).

Peter Checksfield pointed out that while he worked as a doorman it was the Conservatives that were the most polite to him. This has prompted me to write this short post to say that, yes, I need to say that there are some really decent Tory's out there. Mr and Mrs Gale with whom I do not see eye-to-eye politically have been dead helpful and taken the time to help me on a number of occasions. There are a number of other conservatives who I shall not embarrass but are deserving of plenty of praise too.

Our District Council here in Thanet has recently changed leadership from Conservative who have held the reigns longer than I have been blogging about the area to Labour who have long contested that they can do a better job.

In this article I will take an in depth look at the implications of the changes and what it might mean to long standing concerns, power and council attitude.

Certainly no one was willing to say that they thought that Labour had a chance of taking control of the council. The straw poll I took on the Thanet Star Facebook page suggested that most people saw the winners as the Independents which in a way was true.

The Most Powerful Men in Thanet

If you hold true that men on our (Thanet) District Council hold any true power (as to, say, certain, shall we say, business men) then it would be safe to say that the most powerful men in Thanet may have changed.

Actually this is not true. The most powerful men in Thanet have simply let their strength be known. These men are of course Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen whose vote from among the Independents on our council first placed Cllr Bob Bayford in power and then removed him.

Cllr Bob Bayford for all that Cllr Clive Hart says about him being exceptionally well respected missed the truth of his leadership. A leadership which in truth had always been in the hands of the independent councillors. I am not sure exactly what the Conservatives have done, if anything, to loose favour with the Thanet King Makers but loose it they have.

Of course this might simply be a very astute move from the Independents to be sure that their power is respected. It was assumed that they would side with Labour for a change of leadership and yet they struck a deal to vote for Cllr Bob Bayford after the elections. One might argue that this was simply to let the Labour members know who was in charge when, as has happened, a change of leadership took place.

I am not saying that Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen were party to such tactical voting but I am not saying that they were not. What is clear is that Cllr Clive Hart's grip on power is subject to the opinion of two men who represent two thirds of the power in the Birchington South Ward.

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» Continue Reading: The changes in Council leadership: What do they mean for us?

Roger "I don't understand technology" Gale (MP for North Thanet) has struck again. This time suggesting that human rights should in some cases be secondary to police powers.

There he is pictured on the right there looking about as clued up as ever. Gale once told me that he didn't need social media as email would always been good enough for him and his supporters. The real irony being that his understanding of email and it's use could be better so how he feels qualified to speak out on police use of technology is almost beyond me.

Now I have always been a defended of Gale to the point that I have been widely accused of being a closet Tory. (Mr G, I'm looking at you). However even I have to admit that perhaps Gale is no longer qualified to act as a parliamentary representative. Sure he is famed for the work he does for local people so perhaps a good retirement would be to step down from national to local politics where he might at least bring a dint of maturity to proceedings (thus remaining useful).

however when it comes to technology this man's reaction is to ban it and do things the old fashioned way. Change, he has failed to understand, is always with us - those that cannot adapt to the change will be swept away. Gales inability to embrace change makes him as much a liability as an asset.

Thanet News Network are reporting that Thanet District Council and Kent County Council spent £43,219.56 on this year's consultations for the Eurokent site.

In short they wanted us to say that we were happy to see houses built on greenbelt land set aside for job creation.



Given the current PR company that carried out this round of consultations has been working for EKO since 2007 it does not take a genius to work out that the total cost most be in the order of about £216,000 over that time period.

What I would like to ask is what exactly have we gotten for our money?

Labour have accused the conservatives of forgetting Ramsgate.

Cllr Nicholson (Shadow Cabinet member for Finance) accused Cllr Bayford of failing to mention Ramsgate at all in his leaders report to the Council. Cllr Nicholson's (amateurish) press release (dated 15/07/2011) was extremely dismissive of the successes reported to the council regarding the Turner centre, progress in Dreamland and the coming of the Tesco store near Arlington House (foregone conclusion apparently).

Cllr Nicholson reports that Cllr Bayford mentioned amongst other bits of waffle, about the success of a beach in Broadstairs but Cllr Nicholson was not impressed that Cllr Bayford forgot Ramsgate going on to say Obviously it has slipped of his radar, if he wishes to style himself leader of Thanet District Council then he should pay attention to the entire Island, not just the bits he favours.

Is it me or does this sound a bit petty?

Michael Child is reporting on the recent publication of Thanet District Council's accounts. Of particular interest to me is what the accounts as reported by Michael show.

Despite Cllr Simon Moores and Cllr Chris Wells calling Thanet Star, her readers and myself (the reporter) all sorts of rude names over our reporting of the Chief Executives pay-out the leaked information was pretty darn accurate. Mr Wells and Mr Moores please note I vet and protect my sources and it would do yourselves and your party credit to admit that your protests were non-factual.