Ramsgate Bookshop Goes Bust and other Sunday rambles.

Well its not a post heading that I would appreciate, it would hardly encourage customers to turn up, anyway I am still here and likely to remain so, the fact that nearly all of the other independent bookshops in the southeast have gone in the last few years isn’t really of great significance.

Truth of the matter is that I have the range of books at the prices people can afford and as more bookshops close I am seeing customers from further afield.

I suppose what I am thinking about here is the power of any sort of media and the effects that can have on businesses and peoples livelihoods, my concern here is particularly about information published that is plainly not true.

I think of all of the bits of negative Ramsgate publicity that have been published recently the comments in The Independent:

“The once-thriving royal resort of Ramsgate should, in theory, be the perfect destination for a daytrip to the seaside, thanks to the imminent high-speed rail link from St Pancras. I had it all planned: a blustery walk on the beach, fish bought straight from the boat, perhaps a little antiques shopping, before a hearty lunch eaten in sight of the sea. I was thinking, it turns out, of Whitstable. Ramsgate is not, nor could ever be mistaken for, Whitstable.

The short taxi ride from station to harbour (courtesy of a driver with "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his knuckles) took us past boarded-up shops and repossessed properties. It was clear that the flood of wealth which washed over south-east England during the last decade has largely by-passed this far easterly corner. As my fellow day-tripper Harry said, taking in the blighted landscape, "Suddenly I see the point of Brighton".”

Have most annoyed me, they certainly made me think is it possible for a newspaper to libel a town, perhaps the town council should take legal action.

Oh sorry I forgot click on the link if you want to read the whole article http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/reviews/age--sons-charlotte-court-ramsgate-kent-1814670.html

I suppose from the point of view of a national newspaper this sort of thing is just another cynical way of selling a few more papers, from the point of view of a small shopkeeper running a business in the town it is just a kick in the teeth.

Frankly for its size I think Ramsgate still has more quality shops and restaurants than most towns in the area, in fact I think the criticism was most unfair, something along the lines of they couldn’t be bothered to take a look so they just made up what they though their readers would appreciate.

A question that you may want to ask yourself, is do you buy a newspaper in order to read something that someone has just invented?

Sorry I couldn’t get any good pictures of Remembrance Day in Ramsgate today there were just too many people in the way, so only the back of their heads.

When it comes to information and who it comes from I am very reluctant to mention peoples names, but seem to be coming up against quite a bit of anonymous comment suggesting that I have just made it up.

I was talking to the people that look after the Royal Victoria Pavilion today, the picture of the ladder is really just to confirm this.

One very worrying thing that was mentioned is that the amount of deterioration is rapidly increasing, the problem being that the building is made of an iron frame with brick infill.

What is happening is that water is getting in and the iron is rusting expanding and causing the brickwork to burst out of the frame, the distortion is causing more leaks and more water to get in.

What we have here is a wrangle between a wealthy company (The Rank Organisation) and the council causing the destruction of one of Ramsgate’s important pieces of heritage.

I do wonder if it would be better for a national newspaper to point out this sort of thing, perhaps it would be cynical to imagine that The Rank Organisation has the potential to be a good source of advertising revenue and is best left alone.

Ramsgate was busy again today with quite a few shops open and the choice of places offering a meal quite astonishing, with considerable competition obviously helping with both the prices and the quality.

Click on the link for today’s pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id17.htm

Euroferries Ramsgate to Boulougne ferry service, update from Tenerife

HSC Bonanza, ready.
Dear Michael: Finally I went to the dock (Los LLanos), to know what was going on. Nobody was near the catamaran, outside, who could inform about (only amateur fishermans).

The starboard side is finished (fresh) also, 1400h. She could depart tomorrow morning. The voyage will take 2 and a half days, so if all is in accordance betewen Euroferries and Olsen, she will arrived long before next saturday. Saludos de Antonio desde Tenerife.

An “Independent” view of Ramsgate.

I have just noticed the post “Restaurant Praised, Ramsgate Rubbished in Independent” see http://eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com/2009/11/restaurant-praised-ramsgate-rubbished.html and thought their view of Ramsgate seemed a bit warped.

Anyway I just shot down the road to pick up the some tomatoes for lunch and tried to take some pictures, not easy as there were so many people in the way, what with that and being pretty streamed up about a national paper rubbishing the town where I live they didn’t come out too well see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id15.htm
anyway I am off to put a pretty stiff comment on their website.

The pictures from this morning’s walk aren’t quite as bad as the previous lot see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id14.htm although I may yet still get the award for the world’s worst photographer for the odd one.

Making some explanation about restaurant reviews to my two eight year olds resulted in us all making our own lunch and having a competition to see who’s was best, click on the link for the pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop/id16.htm mine was the top one, the middle one, my youngest’s won.

Update I did manage it in the end see http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/reviews/age--sons-charlotte-court-ramsgate-kent-1814670.html if you don’t mind filling in an online form, you could go along and comment that your town is not that bad.

Labour Shadow Team comments & questions at Thursday evenings TDC Cabinet meeting.

INTRODUCTION - LABOUR GROUP LEADER - Cllr CLIVE HART

From TDC budget matters right through to seagull proof waste collection bags, this week's TDC Cabinet meeting was full of questions, comment and useful suggestions from our Labour Shadow Cabinet members. Special praise must go to Cllr. Iris Johnston who really was on top form!

Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

Item 4 BUDGET & MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY MONITORING 2010-2015 - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Page. 7. 2.4.6. The Council reported ‘smarter procurement’ procedures and councillor Johnston asked questions on the usefulness of the Schmidt street cleaning machine which was purchased in 2003 and rarely seen since.
An officer replied that he had already responded to Cllr Johnston ‘that afternoon’. Both that response and his email did not cover the poor cleaning record and availability of the machine which was purchased on the say so of former Councillor Ingrid Spencer for in the region of 80 to 90 thousand pounds.
Page.13. 3.4.9 Councillor Johnston asked for clarification on ‘£315k required due to KCC’ for ‘tipping away’. Which TDC are asking to be phased to assist the budget position. An officer explained that KCC now required this money for further ‘tipping’ at longer distances.
Page 15. 3.5.12 Councillor Johnston asked where the decision and paper trial on the agreement to give some members phones/BlackBerry's was noted. Eventually the Chief Executive said it was an ‘operational’ matter and didn’t need member approval. Cllr. Martin Wise said he never used his but wasnt giving it back because someone else might use it and create a large bill. Apparently the Blackberrys have been given to cabinet members to help them keep in touch with each other and staff.
(When Labour ran TDC all members bought and paid for their own phones and would see this as what their considerably smaller allowances were for. Councillor Johnston a former Deputy leader personally often spent £110 a month on her landline and mobile).
Both the Chief Executive and Leader said members needed to go away and look to helping cut the cost of support to all members but it seems the cabinet are not affected.
P20. 4.3.5 p21 4.5.1. Councillor Johnston asked of any further extension on contracts and referred to the importance of proper supervision and monitoring. Councillor Wiltshire appeared unaware of any other extension except that agreed with Mears for one year ‘to March 2010’
(On agenda item 5 2.2 and 9.1 Councillor Johnston raised the underspend of £78k attributable to ‘supervision and management’ at a time when more of both were needed. An officer responded and he would speak with Cllr Johnston.)
Page 32. Environmental action Plan Fund. Councillor Johnston asked for details of when the EAP group met and a break down of where they were spending funds. She referred to her constant request for help with flowers and improvements to Margate High Street which she has also brought up with Cllr Ezekiel. ( Flowers have not been provided in the High Street for most of the years since the Conservatives took control in 2003 and the flower beds have become giant ash trays) Cllr Shirley Tomlinson said she was aware.
Page 34. Local Authority Business Growth Incentive Grant.
LABGI. Councillor Johnston expressed concern about the lack of directing this fund to town centre businesses who were affected by out of town shopping. The Chief Executive said the money was never intended for this. Councillor Johnston asked for a full breakdown of where the monies had gone. Neither officers or members could elaborate except for the CE who said it had gone to ‘regeneration and economic development ‘ projects.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 4 BUDGET & MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY MONITORING 2010-2015 - Cllr. Peter Campbell
Cllr. Campbell gave the following observations of the report:

It is in part obscure, uses financial jargon that assumes an intimate knowledge of financial practices & does not put the figures into any context. This report will not aid your objective of “engaging local residents in the financial choices facing the council”

Top of page 8. What does “Take a medium term view of business improvements, to include a whole-life costing….” mean?

3.4.7 Further income reductions.

Contains a list of 12 income reductions but none in context of the loss in comparison to the overall income for each item. It does not therefore indicate the severity or not of the loss in income to the council.

An officer explained in some detail the technicalities raised but accepted Cllr Campbell's comments on the list of 12 income reductions and assured members there would be more detail in the final budget document put before council next year.

Cllr. Peter Campbell - Phone: 01843 585738
Item 5 BUDGET MONITORING REPORT 2009/10 - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Page 39 4.2. Councillor Johnston questioned the 13.1K overspend on the Dickens House Museum. She referred to the over 90k TDC had to return in grant in possibly Novemebr 2003 when the Tories failed to use Labour had obtained. The Leader said he was unaware of this and no reason was given for the present overspend. ( Councillor Johnston said later the original grant was to extend the building and perhaps share as a VIC. All of the work had been programmed under Labour but the Tories missed the deadlines and a female Tourism officer now left TDc told her the money had been returned to Europe).
Page 40 4.9. ERDF Reclaim Councillor Johnston asked for a detailed report to Scrutiny on grant funding that would need to be repaid where applicants had not adhered to the criteria on grant use. Councillor Ezekiel said it would be hard to get the money back and the Chief Executive said TDC were no longer the accountable body. This was the GOSE. (Cllr Johnston said later TDC are certainly ‘accountable’ when the money needs to be paid back).
6.0 Housing and Council Tax benefit from Government has risen to 65 million per annum. Cllr Johnston asked for a breakdown of the recipients from age to landlords who buy property to let. The Cabinet and Chief Executive referred to the recession and were unable to give a direct response. Councillor Johnston asked for a written reply from officers which she has requested in the past.
Page 43. 9.1 An officer is to respond directly to Councillor Johnston on the comment on ‘double counting’ in the repairs budget leading to £180 surplus.
Page 48. Councillor Johnston asked for clarification on the removal of a figure of 200k ( much lauded at Budget making) and 9.5 k from the Disability budget. She also queried the two spate amounts from Government in the reports one of 600k and another on page 46 of 897k. Which figure was correct.? There was no response to this.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 6 QUARTERLY CORPORATE PERFORMANCE PACK - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Page. 53. 2.7. Councillor Johnston asked Cllr Wiltshire if the Compact report due out at the end of October was available. There appeared to be some confusion in the response but an officer said it would be arranged for Cllr Johnston to have one shortly. Cllr Johnston also asked for a copy to be sent to Cllr Steve Ward who had asked Clllr Wiltshire for an update some time ago.
Page.58. Cllr Johnston said she had been promised an update on Margate renewal Partnership via Scrutiny which now may come to the November meeting. She referred to the loss of Dave Kinnear from the Margate Town Partnership and his valuable work. Cllr Ezekiel commented on the changes in both Margate and Ramsgate and that the MTP would shortly be holding a meeting to elect a new Chairman etc.
Page 74. 6.2.2 and Page 76 6.4.1. Councillor Johnston asked for some real improvements in serving residents from other towns especially those who had to travel to Margate’s Gateway for housing help. Many had family commitments and had to rush back to collect children from school. It was also an added expense. She suggested an outreach vehicle or a dedicated office. Conservative members referred to the lack of funding.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 7 SEAGULL PROOF BAG - PILOT TRIAL IN RAMSGATE - Cllr. CLIVE HART
I'd just like to point out that this idea was a motion put to council from councillors David Green and Peter Campbell, who suggested taking this action as a possible solution to litter strewn streets. They spent time researching this issue and gaining the support of residents groups and I think it should have been a matter of common courtesy to have mentioned these facts and their names in the summary at the top of this report.
After a very long and convoluted reply Cllr. Ezekiel did finally apologise for the oversight in the report.
Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770
Item 9 ADOPTION OF THANET'S OLDER PEOPLE'S PLAN - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Councillor Johnston welcomed the final draft and thanked Mr Ryan for his help when she had some queries on the original draft.
Legal 4.2.1 Page 92. And Transport page 103. Cllr Johnston stressed the importance of TDC not just paying lip service to the Plan and mentioned the difficulties in getting a recent petition on bus services to Full Council. She reminded members of the Travel Forum meeting on 16th November and hoped everyone would try to attend as Stagecoach and South Eastern train representatives would be present. Poorer access to a GP surgery and Age Concern had been obvious since the May time table changes and TDC need to be involved in helping residents.
Page 102 Cllr Johnston had queried the figure of 600k from Government for Disability Facilities noted here and contrary to previous figure in an earlier report.
Page 111 Healthy communities Councillor Johnston said health and safety issues in the home were important but also ‘on our streets’. She had had two residents visit her at her last surgery with injuries from street falls due to bad pavements. One appeared to be a KCC responsibility and the other on TDC land. She had been in touch with officers who were investigating.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 10 RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Councillor Martin Wise confirmed to Councillor Johnston that he was the Risk Management Champion for TDC and she referred him to one of his previous comments that he left ‘detail’ to officers. Cllr Johnston suggested he needed to have all the facts at his fingertips if he was to keep abreast with the issue.
Page 127. Councillor Johnston asked how TDC looked after ‘whistle blowers’. Councillor Wise left this answer to an officer to respond and she said they were treated in confidence and their contribution examined correctly.
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 11 HOUSING ASSISTANCE POLICY - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Page 131. Councillor Johnston welcomed the funding from the Regional Housing Board which was yet another example of extra funding coming into Thanet despite the comments from some of the Conservative Cabinet.
Page 141. The use of the funds which would help with home improvements is to be monitored by the Council or their nominated home improvement agency. Cllr Johnston asked that TDC must have full confidence in the nominated body and also needed sufficient staff to cover any project (The Government has a target that 70% of all homes in the private sector must reach decent homes standard by 2010).
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 12 BUILDING BRITAIN'S HOMES & COMMUNITIES AGENCY BID - Cllr. IRIS JOHNSTON
Councillor Johnston referred to her visit to the House of Commons last February and the Government’s further commitment to enabling the building of new council homes. She expressed disappointment that TDC had missed the first tranche in July but welcomed the bid due in for 30th October. She queried whether TDc might face ‘technical’ difficulties over the difference between ‘outline’ and ‘full’ planning permission agreed at a recent Planning meeting. An officer felt all would be well and Cllr Ezekiel asked Cllr Clive Hart as a member of planning committee if he had noticed any problems?
Cllr. Iris Johnston - Phone: 01843 299207
Item 12 RESPONSE TO QUESTION (on line) ABOVE - Cllr. CLIVE HART
Cllr Hart then explained that on the night of the planning applications from TDC there certainly appeared to be some ambiguity. Indeed on one application members would have liked a site visit but the whole process was so rushed that this would not have been possible within the time constraints of the bid. There also did appear to be some confusion on the night as to what was 'outline' and what was 'detailed' in the reports concerning the TDC applications being discussed.
Cllr. Clive Hart - Phone: 01843 298770

Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office - 44 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2RW.

Thanet grammar school pupils the drug ecstasy, scientists and politicians, responsibility.

Looking at the local paper the Isle of Thanet Gazette today I notice the lead article is about local grammar school children who got caught with the drug ecstasy.

I hesitate to say from the scientific point of view, so I will say the shop assistants understanding of this drug is that it increases the amount of pleasure one experiences by causing chemical changes in the brain.

There has been a long argument between the government’s experts advisors and the government about the reclassification of ecstasy, mainly because when it was first classified it was very new and little was known about it.

In 2000, the UK Police Foundation recommended ecstasy should be transferred from Class A to Class B."

In 2002, the Home Affairs Committee of the UK House of Commons, recommended that it should be reclassified to a Class B drug.

In February 2009, the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended that it be re classified from a class A drug to a class B drug.

The frustration here from the experts point of view being that if you are going to have different classifications for different types of drug that relate to how dangerous they are, it is important that you put the drugs in the right category.

Let us suppose we were to put weapons into classes.

A: nuclear; biological; chemical.

B: guns; conventional bombs.

C: Swords; bows and arrows.

Legal: cooking knives, gardening implements and cutlery.

Make no mistake all of them can kill people, but from the scientists point of view the situation prevailing within the government with ecstasy, is like taking a high-powered modern air gun and putting it in class A to prevent all-out airgun warfare from wiping out the population of continents and possibly causing the end of the world.

The result of all of this has been to make an important scientific expert state that ecstasy is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

So how does all this effect Thanet school children, I suppose the answer to this one that most secondary school children at some time or another have tried a cigarette, now over the last few weeks a senior scientific advisor to the government has been saying that ecstasy is no more harmful that cigarettes.

The children in question have lost their grammar school places, somewhere along the line the scientific advice that was supposed to read, “don’t play with guns and bombs,” got changed to, “don’t play with your cutlery.”

Euroferries update

Dear Michael: This time seems to be "more" serious.The first foto is from 3th Nov. with dim light Eurof is erased. Other (& the same cropped) from this afternoon 5th. Foto taken from 3km away, with cropping 1000 zoom eq.The work seems to be almost complete. Depart tomorrow...?? We will see. Saludos desde Tenerife. Antonio Sáez.

Ed sorry I think I may have put the pictures in upside down. Sorry again I mean in the wrong order the first shall be last and all that, we are all busy with the fireworks.

Royal Sands Development Ramsgate more pictures of the cliff collapses.

I have just managed to obtain two more pictures (click on them to enlarge them) of a cliff collapse in this area, this is a slow process, it generally starts with anecdotal information, which is followed by asking local historians if they can find anything concrete, like a photograph or a newspaper article.

For instance several people remember a collapse into the Pleasurama amusement park that demolished a couple of kiosks, there is obviously a kiosk in this picture which is of the first of the two collapses at Augusta Stairs, click on the link for the newspaper article about it http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts11/id14.htm

The question here is, as the cliff collapsed here a second time, during the reconstruction work, have the people that I have spoken to confused one of these two collapses or was there another collapse, that I haven’t got any positive proof of?

Please let me know if you have any information on any cliff collapses in this area of Ramsgate.

Some of you may be wondering why when I have the environment agency’s report, in which is a government expert says that the current plans are dangerous, why I don’t just leave it at that, or pursue the flood risk element more vigorously.

The answer to that one, is one of motive, which is to try to get a safe and viable development here rather than another 12 years of building site.

With the flood risk we only seem to get the sort of tidal surge storm that could seriously damage the development every 50 years or so, with a warning of a possible about every 5 years. In most cases there would be some sort of warning, so I consider that it is within the bounds of acceptable risk, assuming that is that they are prepared to evacuate the development every 5 years or so.
This may seem a bit strange but I believe this is something that the environment agency would enforce.

The cliff collapses on the other hand happen without any warning at all, as you can see from this picture, the fireman are having to sift through the rubble to see if anyone is buried in it.

It is my contention that the cliff, from the lift to the other side of Augusta Stairs, should be properly surveyed and work done to make it safe to a standard suitable for building a residential development very close to it.

Incidentally I don’t believe out fire brigade are properly aware of the dangers here as I recently noticed a fire tender, weighing several tonnes, on the edge of the cliff above the site. As the engineers report on the cliff says nothing heavy should go nearer to the edge than 22 metres, it makes me wonder at the council’s motives in not informing them of this. The fire brigade were statutory consutltees on the plans and presumably must have considered the possibility of having evacuate the building from the cliff top. On second thoughts if the council didn’t show the fire brigade the environment agency’s report maybe they didn’t even think about it.