Thanet Life

Tourist information
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

A little tourist information for visitors to Thanet. The snow has gone, for now but may return later. Thermal underwear recommended over the next few days and don't even think of trying to catch a train unless the temperature is above zero, as they are inclined to stick to the tracks.

Welcome to the Dentistry Desert

North Thanet's MP, Roger Gale, has described East Kent as "An NHS Dentistry Desert" following figures revealed by a Health Minister.


DefKat
Originally uploaded by G.S..

The MP comments: "No NHS dentists in the Thanet Primary Care Trust region are taking any new NHS patients at all."

Meanwhile, South Thanet's Health Minister, Dr.Ladyman, is faced with the embarrassing closure of another practice in his own constituency and is calling for a dental action team to relieve trouble spots like Thanet and Ashford.

The Government's advice? "Floss regularly".

Thanks to the snow, Thanet is an island once again.


28-02-2005 08-33-33_0028
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

One reader reports that at 06:30 this morning, she was stuck for two hours at Birchington when her train to Victoria broke down. The new trains are notorious for breaking down in the snow and the same happened to me last year. In her case, she'™s back at home now trying to work out a route to London, with the BBC reporting the coast road closed at Whitstable in both directions and the M25 and M26 blocked with accidents.


28-02-2005 08-19-58_0020
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

For local children, it's all great fun as you can see from the photos. More snow is forecast into the early evening. (click on photos to see more)

Hare Freight Service

In preparation for Easter and to assist in the further development of Kent International airport, Charlotte Moores of Chartfield School in Westgate, plans to start her own "Hare Freight" service from Manston in the school holidays.



"I've identified a gap in the market for the export of Easter Bunnies to France through Le Touquet", said ten-year-old Charlotte, who has been flying light aircraft since the age of six and plans to become an airline pilot or a vet, preferably both, when she grows up.

KCC Plans to Sue Government for £15million

If the Home Office fails to pay-up the £15 million it owes Kent taxpayers for picking-up the immigration bill for the County by March 10th, then Kent County Council plans to sue.

In the last Thanet Life account, we revealed how Thanet North MP, Roger Gale had pressed Home Office Minister Des Browne, in Parliament this month, only to be given the arrogant reply "If it is found that money is owing, 'consideration' will be given to payment."


Home Office Minister Des Lee

KCC and our local MP have now had enough of government's procrastination over a massive debt which goes back to 2002 a shortfall in funding which threaten services in the county. Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart, head of the council, has now written to the Home Office threatening legal action and if many people in Thanet had their way, they would widen the Wantsum channel, turn Thanet back into an island and declare a republic until the debt to local people is paid in full.

Gold Medal for Local Man

Congratulations to Ramsgate martial artist, Peter Gibbons who won a gold medal at the recent European Jodo championships.


Peter Gibbons seen bottom left

Jodo is the way of the Jo, or wooden staff. It was started around the end of the 16th century by Muso Gonnosuke (Katsuyoshi).Very little information is known about him. Most accounts associate his invention of the staff techniques with an encounter with the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, founder of Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu and author of the The Book of Five Rings.

Iaido is also practiced in Thanet. It is the art of reacting to a surprise attack by counter attacking with a sword. As a martial art, Iaido has been passed on directly from teacher to student over generations in an unbroken lineage for 450 years and information is available from Richard Obbard.

Thanet College - Needs You!

Weekenders Saturday courses!

Do you want to learn a new skill, study for a qualification or take up a hobby?

Do you want to develop your IT skills, learn some basic brickwork, or refresh your language skills?

Or perhaps you would like to do an Art or IT course with the family, or relax while the kids prepare a tasty treat on our Junior Masterchef courses?

Do something interesting with your Saturdays!



Thanet College offers courses in IT, DIY, Languages, Cookery, Personal Development, Art, Digital Photography and much, much more!!!

Many of our courses are FREE and run on a Saturday between 10.00 and 4.00 pm at the main College Campus, in Broadstairs.

Childcare and dining facilities are available, and assistance is available with course fees and other expenses (if applicable).

Request a copy of our Weekenders brochure now, and see what exciting courses we have on offer! Call Central Admissions on 01843 605040, or visit our website at www.thanet.ac.uk

I'm grounded this morning. Airads did have an appointment with BBC Scotland on a farm-strip somewhere near Edinburgh but the weather is too bad to risk flying up there with a cloud base as low as 200 feet in places.

Some clouds can have hard centres when one's flying over hills and the Met Office is showing that airframe icing in cloud will start at 1000 feet, so I don't really fancy trying to follow a GPS through the Scottish valleys, in cloud and with ice growing on the aircraft. Even Newcastle, our refuelling stop, is giving 500 feet and as the minimum descent height is 700 feet for my IMC rating on the instrument approach without a visual reference, that's out too. Pity we had a job to do over Man U on the way back as well.

People complain when flights are occasionally delayed or cancelled out of Manston but very few understand how "interesting" some conditions can be for the pilot, in freezing low cloud, even with all today's electronic toys.

Near Broadstairs
Originally uploaded by les2001.

An unusual photo of the seafront near Broastairs, entitled "Not the Circus Maximus."

More aerial views of the RNAS seaplane base at Westgate on Sea in 1914 looking South. (select photo to zoom in)


St Mildreds Bay 1914
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

Note the shadow in the photo cast by the wires of the biplane taking it. You can clearly see three seaplanes parked in front of their hangar on the seafront. Compare this with the other postings this week.

Seaplanes St Mildreds
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

A seaside view of the same Royal Naval Air Service station at St Mildred's Bay, in 1914.

News that Thanet Council is to reduce it's 2005 -2006 beach and street cleaning services budget by £75,000 should be a source of concern to all.


Shopping Trolley
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.


Keeping Thanet's seaside clean and tidy is already a hopeless struggle as you can see from the photo of Westgate's childrens boating pool and cutbacks will only make matters worse.

Would Somerfield in Westgate like to send someone to collect the missing trolley seen in the photo please? It's not going anywhere soon!

Losing the Political Plot

All is not well in Thanet South. Disgruntled Ramsgate Labour Councillor, Ken Gregory, has joined the Conservatives, accusing his former colleagues of "Political point scoring" and "Losing the plot."


"What shall we do with Thanet South? They've lost the plot"

Meanwhile Thanet South Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Mark MacGregor, has had his campaign fund lifted by the donation of £21,000 by former party treasurer, Lord Ashcroft, narrowing the chances of Labour's Steve Ladyman, successfully defending Thanet South even further.

When the General Election date finally appears, the future of Thanet South is likely to go down to a nail-biting political finish. Perhaps we're worth a flying visit from Tony Blair in an effort to secure more votes?

Where Are the Fokkers?

I was catching the 6:25am train to Victoria this morning, when I overheard another passenger on the platform, complaining angrily to his friend about EUjet cancellations this week.



Apparently, he had been trying to get to Edinburgh and his flight, along with a number of others, were cancelled due to the bad weather we've seen. "Acts of God", he could put-up with but he told me, he was really annoyed at being unable to find any information on the phone or the Internet when it came to checking the status of his lost flight.

"The phones were constantly busy", he said "and when I did get through, nobody seemed to know what the situation was. For an online business", he added "all the EUjet Web site could tell me was that the flights were 'scheduled' and nothing more. It simply isn't good enough."

I have some sympathy. In November, I was at Dublin airport looking at the departures screen, trying to find the check-in my ride back to Manston. It wasn't there.

I found myself standing with a group of equally puzzled EUjet passengers who had been told they were on the right spot by another airline but nobody from EUjet was to be seen.

I also tried calling the main EUjet number but didn't fancy a long hold and a large bill on my mobile phone and so I called the Head Office number and asked: "There's about thirty of us milling around the counter here at Dublin Airport, what on earth is going on? Are you flying back to Manston today or not?"

"I don't know", said the young lady at the other end of the phone but I'll find out."

Ten Minutes later, the departure screen suddenly flashed up our flight, a desk opened, followed quickly by a call from EUjet telling me that everything was now in order and apologising for the inconvenience.

Now that was a good customer service experience, quickly recovered by the girl at EUjet but only because I had their numbers stored in my mobile phone. Given the influence of weblogs, such as this, as a force for dealing with consumer issues, I would hope that EUjet make some subtle changes, putting-in place a separate flight information line, clearly labelled on their website and perhaps, an even better idea, an online flight information service, with up-to-the-minute passenger information on delays and cancellations.

It's a great little airline but like so many other budget operators in the airline business, it needs to iron-out a few rough edges. Customer service wins every time.

The snow finally reached us this afternoon with a relatively thick dusting in Westgate but at present, it's not cold enough to offer a foundation for anything heavier; famous last words perhaps?


Snow Shower Westgate 2
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.


My daughter Charlotte believes if she can tie Sammy, the Yorkshire terrier, Daisy the Labrador and Crispin the Highland terrier to a sledge, then she can set out for Alaska. Catching them may not be so easy.


snow dog 5
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

Winter Fuel Allowance

This winter weather must have prompted some thinking on fuel costs. Note, the last date for claiming the winter fuel allowance is 30th March, if you fit into the government's birthday lottery!


"When this war is won, we'll all be warm, mark my words."

You need to be 60 or over 60 but there is the birthday lottery to consider.

If you are sixty in 2004, logic would say you are entitled to the winter fuel allowance for this winter but no !!

You need to be 60 before 30th September 2004 to qualify!

So, for some Libras, all Scorpios, Sagittarians and some Capricorns you have to wait till the winter of 2005/2006.

The Government............ are they mean or what? (Barrie Smith)

Drama Queens

If you happened to read the front page of the local newspapers, you might be forgiven for thinking that a dramatic emergency had taken place at Manston on Sunday with an EUjet Fokker 100.


ooops10
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

"We want an investigation" shouts one local action group. "Flaming wreckage might spill over onto the roads." "Our houses are in danger from the flight path." And so on.

If you look back to the Sunday entry in Thanet Life, you'll see I was listening to the story on the Manston tower and approach frequencies (126.35) and writing it down as events unfolded. What I heard on the radio in the short conversations between the crew and the tower and what I see written down in the local rags is at variance.

Even if there had been an undercarriage failure local lives and property would not have been threatened and from what I can see, the "emergency" was turned into a convenient exercise to test the police and the airport emergency procedures, which worked very well in the circumstances.

OberLt Drehs' ME109 of III/JG54 was shot down between Manston and Westgate on 12th August 1940, one of many Luftwaffe pilots who ended their missions on the Isle of Thanet. Manston was taking such a pounding from German bombers that it had to temporarily close.

For local people, not only were there the risks of bombs and aerial mines, such as the one which destroyed houses in Fitzmary road Westgate but later on, the "FreiJagd" roaming of fighter aircraft, on Hitler's orders, which attacked anything and anyone. on sight, including shooting the spire off the church at Westgate.

OBLT Drehs JH54
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

An AIRADS photo of St Mildred's Bay in Westgate from the summer. Note the tennis courts and the putting green that have taken the place of the Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base of 1914-18 and the housing, to the right of the photo that did not exist until the 1950s, when corn fields still lay between Margate and Westgate. (Select to zoom in)


Westgate on Sea - Click to zoom in
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

An original photograph of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) base at St Mildred's Bay in Westgate for comparison with a recent photo from a similar angle.

Clearly visible is the "Round top" fortification on the top of the picture and the aircraft hangars and barracks to the right, where the putting green is today. Bottom left is the Coastguards house, the oldest building in Westgate which pre-dates the town to 1791. (Select to zoom in)


Manston 1914 Westgate - Click to zoom in
Originally uploaded by DrMoores.

A Little Local History - D.G.Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a famous pre Raphaelite artist and writer, described by John Ruskin and Walter Pater, as the most important and original artistic force in the second half of the nineteenth century.

He is buried in Birchington and Art lovers will be familiar with his work, paintings and drawings of ladies including Jane, the wife of his friend William Morris, with whom he had an extended affair.



Rossetti came to Kent after his wife died, he was burdened by mental illness and drugs which eventually got the better of him. He was never able to recover from his illnesses and died in Birchington on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1882.



His gravestone is a large Celtic cross, made by his old friend Ford Madox Brown. There is a window in the church dedicated to him, well worth seeing. - Barrie Smith

Image(31)
Originally uploaded by S'mart.

Margate by night. A photo of the entrance to the High Street making it look rather more romantic than it is during the day.

Whitstable Beach 1
Originally uploaded by Nick Reynolds.

A nice photo of Whistable beach from the www.flickr.com website.

Sue the Government Says Local MP

Conservative, Thanet North MP, Roger Gale, says it's "Time to sue the government over local asylum costs."


Roger Gale MP

The Government has been accused of not paying its asylum seeker debts of £14.8 million to Kent County Council placing an extra burden on local taxpayers.

In a written parliamentary answer to Roger Gale, who queried the non-payment of the outstanding millions, Home Office Minister Des Browne has said:

"The Immigration and Nationality Directorate does not readily agree with the claim by Kent County Council that any additional payments are outstanding. Officials from the IND are working with officials from KCC to reconcile the claim that money remains owing. If it is found that money is owing consideration will be given to payment".

"The Home Office response to my inquiry", says Roger Gale "is both arrogant and offensive. KCC have spelt out very clearly the basis for the claim that dates back more than two years. To challenge the legitimacy of the debt is in itself outrageous but to then say that "If it is found that money is owing then consideration will be given to payment" demonstrates the Government’s unwillingness to pay to a Conservative authority the money that is owing."

"There is no reason", he added, "why Kent`s Council Tax should be increased to bail out the Home Office: the Government should pay up immediately."

The Thanet North MP points out: "KCC`s County Secretary set out the position in a letter to the National Asylum Support Service on 10th February. That letter intimated that unless a resolution was found then legal action would be taken to recover the money. In the light of the Minister`s response I believe that the time has come for the County to sue this appalling Government for what is in fact our taxpayer`s money."

Ed: Kent isn't alone. As "Kent on Sunday" commented, government has short-changed County and District Councils across the South East and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has refused to accept the most recent census information in making the calculations upon which grant-funding is based. As a result Kent, already owed £14.8 million by the Home Office in unpaid asylum costs, has missed out by several millions more.

Utterly Crazy

One brave reader has asked about making a wing-walk to raise money for charity. The Utterly Butterly Stearman pilots and the delightful girls that accompany them, are regular visitors over the Summer, dropping-in to Maypole Farm in Hoath for fuel, tea and sandwiches between air displays, such as the Whistable airshow.


"You'll regret wearing the shorts when the slipstream whistles through your underwear at 120mph"

Ramsgate Harbour

A view of Ramsgate harbour looking North-west. You can see a pilots-eye view of the Manston runway (28) at the top left of the picture.


Photo Airads

Richborough Castle

Thanet is of course notable for the fact that when the Romans, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, decided to invade, to give Claudius the military success he needed to keep his throne, it was Richborough at the Southern end of the Wantsum Channel, where the fleet landed and where one of the largest triumphal arches in the empire was subsequently built. It is of course where Watling Street starts and is presently hidden to the North of the Pfizer complex.

The Romans crossed the Channel from Boulogne and legions with some support from elephants, were sent to conquer different parts of Southern Britain, meeting stiff resistance from tribes under Caractacus and having to fight two major battles to cross both the Medway near Rochester and the Thames, possibly near where the QEII bridge is today.


"So this Julius Caesar bloke then, is he any good?"

Of course, Julius Caesar was first but this was more of a reconnaissance in strength than a serious invasion effort, even for Caesar who probably landed at Deal, near Walmer Castle during the two Roman excursions to Britain of 55 and 54 BC.

In 55 BC, the Roman cavalry ships were forced back to Gaul by a storm, and Caesar's troops were confined to the shore. In 54 BC, a larger Roman expedition once again landed at Deal and penetrated inland along the River Thames.

Legend has it that his Tribune, Julius Berrus, is buried in a mound at Julieberry in North Kent, at the site of a battle where he fell.

In the photo, you can see a group of locals who were late for the first punch-up and are still hanging around.

Remember Hawkwind?

One of Thanet's most famous musical sons is Nik Turner, of Hawkwind fame. Having achieved no less than cult celebrity status he now lives in South Wales but used to live in Roxburgh Rd in Westgate in the sixties. Former racing driver turned-photographer, Barrie Smith of Westgate writes:

“I well remember his Sax music soaring from the top window of his family home on the corner of Roxburgh Road Westgate in the early sixties.”

Nik's mother had an industrial sewing machine, Nik was a dab hand at using it, he used to "drainpipe" our jeans for us in order that we kept with the latest fashion of the day. His gig dates can be found on his Web site ."


Photo Barrie Smith

Ed: I remember Hawkwind well. The band used to practise on the seafront at Westgate and "Hang-out" at Pav's cafe in the summer months.

Disruption on All South Eastern Services

As predicted, the world has come to a stop. While my part of Thanet at least, is without snow, Chatham and Rochester are giving a good impression of the Swiss Alps on the BBC's weather bulletin and the trains are "Subject to disruption and delay between here and London. This has forced me to cancel my meeting in the city this morning, as there is no guarantee that I'll get there in time.


Landing at Rochester may be a little tricky today!

Just to add a little extra touch to the problem of getting to London, the M2 southbound is apparently closed at Faversham due to an accident involving a jack-knifed lorry.

In Thanet, we are only seventy miles from the centre of London and yet we might as well be in the deepest reaches of Siberia but for the fact that there, it has to be below -30 degress centrigrade to have any impact on their limited public transport system.

We might have Broadband but in contrast with our European neighbours, the first sight of snow is enough to bring the country to a standstill.

Snow Time

For anyone reading this page from outside Thanet, it's official, the Siberian weather has now reached us here. With Manston forecasting more on the way, another dusting and it should be enough of a foundation for any overnight snowfalls.


The evidence

From experience, the appearance of snow is a recipe for chaos on local roads with people sliding and shunting to each other quite regularly, so please take care. As the first snowflake falls on them, the railways may grind to a predictable halt, as happened last year, when I managed to find not one but two trains that broke down under me between Margate and Faversham, where everything had stopped into London.

If you have any delicate garden plants, like my Fig tree, one visitor has just suggested that you cover them against the cold as the BBC are forecasting -6c for Thursday evening. Don't forget the anti-freeze in your cars!

If it really does snow hard then I'll try and find a better photo of the local scenery than the quick "snap" taken by my daughter above.

No Digital TV

Regular visitor Barrie Smith writes that Thanet is still outside the BBC's digital coverage.

"I use a digital box for my TV reception, checking with the BBC site I find they are still not quoting CT8/9 post codes as areas covered by their services. Thanet and the South East of UK is pretty heavily populated, so, why are we not covered by BBC digital services?

My reception is abysmal to say the least.

I have put this question to BBC S.E. but had no reply as yet."

Ed: What do we pay our outrageously expensive license fee for? "East Enders" and "Holby City" I suppose.

Survey Information

Readers will notice the addition of a new survey and polling feature to this website. All information is treated anonymously and in theory, you should only be able to vote on any subject once, as the engine should store your PC's dynamic IP address when you press "Vote".



You should then be able to see the results of the survey to date and we will be letting these run for a while before publishing the results, in order to make them as valid and as representative as possible of local opinion.



On a technical note, if you are using a Macintosh PC or the Open Source, Firefox Web browser, you may have problems completing the form and the first symptom is a voting form which doesn't display neatly.

If you are willing to indicate your voting preference at the next General Election (anonymously) then please follow the link to the Voting Form as a litmus test of political opinion in Thanet.

The Housing Question that Government Won't Ask You

As the Southeast Regional Assembly and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister aren't going to give any of us the option to properly vote on the plans to concrete over large areas of the South-east, here's a fairer survey that everyone can answer and not just the head of the houshold.

It gives you the option to say "No", which you won't find in the one coming through your door.

How many new houses should be built in the South-east? No more new housing 1,000 to 5,000 5,000 to 10,000 10,000 to 20.000 20,000 to 30,000 Don't know Click above to vote

Wheels Down

A little drama over manston this afternoon with an EUjet (265) Fokker 100 with suspected landing gear problems. I'm listening to the story unfold with my aviation radio and the tower is reporting the gear is down and the crew are giving "Three Greens", so everything sounds alright.

From what I can gather, the crew weren't entirely certain the gear was down and made a few passes over the control tower to check. The weather at present is awful with rain and poor visibility, so it presented a challenge to all concerned. Apparently the aircraft was coming from Gatwick, where it had been undergoing maintenance. ( I wonder if it's the same aircraft that had problems with its undercarriage in Dublin some months ago?)



With no more news from the radio, after the crew calling "UNIjet 265 Cleared to Land" the aircraft seems to be down safely, not much fun the circumstances but all's well that ends well.

Class of 83



A third-year class at the Charles Dickens school in 1983. Over twenty years on, are they still living in Thanet?



Below is the the staff cricket team from the same year, the author, bottom left. Fill in the other names if you like? Chemistry teacher Peter Wray and John Cox on the right.. who else and what subject did they teach you?

It Works

The council, in the shape of the Waste & Recycling Department, have had the unsightly build-up of litter on the putting green at Westgate cleared-up.

Not momentous news by any means but a small start for Thanet Life. If one campaigns for a better Thanet, online and with photographs, attracting attention is that little bit easier.

The Waste & Recycling Department, who kindly removed the rubbish, point out that areas, such as tennis courts and putting greens are the responsibility of the Leisure Department, who don't appear to have any sensible mechanism in place for keeping the amenities that they operate tidy. - my words not theirs -

In fact, last summer was one long running battle to have grass and hedges cut locally, as these too had been outsourced to another contractor, who I was told simply weren't doing the job.

Apparently, there is a derisory fine of something like £5 a week for missing service levels, so it's easier, again I was told, for the contractors not to do the job they were being paid for.

2005 is I'm told different. If it is, Thanet Life is saying to the Leisure Department,Tourism, and everyone else, "Pull the proverbial finger out. Accept responsibility, tidy the seafront, cut the grass and hedges, remove the litter and let's have Thanet looking like a picture postcard resort that really wants to attract visitors." And that means also removing the awful mess from the harbour wall outside the Turner Centre.

Perhaps the tourism section should find some photos of the seafront in the 1960's when there was no community charge but areas like the "Sunken Gardens" in Westbrook were a delight and not an increasingly derelict mess, a seafront with discarded lager cans and an occasional discarded hypodermic needle with the remains of a Heroin fix still visible.

How satisfied are you with Thanet council's cleaning services? Not at all satisfied Quite satisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Don't know Click above to vote

Thanet Parking Charges Shock
Special Council Meeting Report

Residents now face increases of up to 100% for on-street parking bays and a night-time charge of £1 each and every evening.


Margate High Street

Margate and Cliftonville councillors John Watkins and Clive Hart made a joint plea to Thursday night’s Full Council meeting to abandon proposals which would massively increase on street parking fees for the local residents and businesses they represent.

Cllr. Hart called the proposed increases completely unacceptable and argued that the new £1 overnight on-street car-parking fee would unfairly punish residents who live in nearby flats and have no alternative place to park.

Cllr. Hart also explained that he was amazed that the council leader Cllr. Ezekiel fully supported finance chief Cllr. Wise’s proposed increases, especially as he had been one of the noisiest campaigners against on-street car-parking fees in the past.

Cllr. Watkins pointed to the adverse effect such charges would have on Margate businesses and said that the newly refurbished multi-storey car park should be kept open until 11pm each day.

Both Cllr. Hart and Cllr. Watkins said that the timing of the proposed increases was disastrous in the year that Westwood Cross will open for business.

The Labour Group tabled an amendment capping parking increases to 4.5% overall, but the ruling Conservatives won the day and adopted Cllr. Wise’s proposals.

Residents now face increases of up to 100% for on-street parking bays and a night-time charge of £1 each & every evening.

Editors Note: Thanks to Cllr. Wise for sending this report to Thanet Life. Having recently moved back to Thanet from London, I would suggest that the last thing that the residents of the island need is the slow introduction of the local "Police State" parking policies that are an everyday fact of life in councils like Westminster and Wandsworth.

A most recent example was seen in one notorious London borough re-zoning its residential parking overnight and then setting loose its army of parking wardens the following morning book every car in the area for a parking violation. This is not the kind of society we want to see here in Thanet and while I recognise that the council needs to raise funds, squeezing the local motorist is a vote loser which wil result in a vigorous online campaign against such proposals. Please write in with letters or comments of support if you feel strongly on this issue.

Local Parking Charges Should Be: Increased Remain the same Don't know Click above to vote

News Update

Cllrs. Clive Hart and John Watkins have written a joint letter to council leader Sandy Ezekiel asking his leading group to 'think again' with reference to the proposed blanket overnight charge of £1 for on-street parking bays.

The councillors for Cliftonville & Margate are concerned that their residents living next to these bays are being punished unfairly and will be put at unnecessary personal risk of attack when the new fee is introduced.

Cllr. Hart said 'A young lady living in somewhere like Northdown Road who is returning from a nights work say as a waitress, will now have to spend time walking up and down a dark street fumbling with her handbag and then turn her back on the street to place the ticket in her car. Cllr. Watkins and I feel this is adding unacceptable risk to residents journeys in often in areas with high crime rates'.

Cllr. Watkins said 'We have solicitors in Margate who often work late and have to move their cars from the multi-storey car park when it closes in early evening. These people will not only have to find the extra cost of the multi-storey parking but when they have to move their cars in future they will be charged a further £1 for the privilege.'

Both councillors feel that the TDC leadership have failed to think these issues through and hope that even at this late stage they will find a way to overturn Cllr. Wise' ill considered proposals.

Look on the Bright Side

Councillor Iris Johnston PPC of the North Thanet Labour Party, responding to some of the harsher political comments on Thanet Life, has written in with a personal view of how life in Thanet has improved under the present government.

Iris writes:

"North Thanet has seen many changes in the last eight years with residents benifitting from a 57% drop in unemployment and the strongest national economy for 200 years.* Mortages are at an all time low and Thanet is already meeting some of the proposed targets for house building in the South East first proposed in 1994.

New doctors surgeries throughout the island and an updated QEQM make being ill a little more bearable.

Dentists, many sporting an Irish accent, are compensating for the loss of three dental training colleges in the Tory years. As the teachers I knew as a parent and governor at local schools retire its lovely to see some of the 570 new recruits since 1997 bringing teacher numbers for Kent up to 11,460.


The Margate Exchange

Nursery classes denied to generations are now the norm with Cliftonville Primary school putting its planning application through last week. Several others are up and running and complementing SureStart and other family friendly initiatives.

The Thanet Campus,Surstart at Millmead, Hartsdown Road and soon at The Six Bells, along with the Innovation Centre and enlarged Thanet College are giving all ages a chance at improvement.Working Tax credits are helping 7,200 families and the minimum wage is lifting thousands out of poverty and exploitatation.

The Margate Football Club could have been helped better in the summer of 2003 and in early 2004 should have been guided by the Tories at TDC to apply for some of the 11 million allocated to the South east through Sport England. An opportunity to help was lost and all work that went on prior to May 2003 has been thrown away. Dreamland,which had a buyer in January 2003, is now struggling to find an operator for this season and is in a very sorry state.The outstanding monies from the Scenic Railway campaign are no where to be seen. Arlington House residents are locked in battle with Freshwater who have done nothing to look after communal areas and allowed phone masts on the roof until we forced them to stop recently.

Councillor Iris Johnston PPC North Thanet Labour Party holds Surgeries every Tuesday at the Baptist Church Cecil Square Margate 8.45am to 9.45am, and at 44 Northdown Road every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am and Herne Bay first Tuesday Monthly CVS offices Beach Street Herne Bay from 2pm to 3pm and Roving surgeries elsewhere as advised by leaflet drop."

* Editor's note: The latest employment figures show that 1,126,000 young people were not in work, education or training. under-25’s neither working nor in full time education is 44,000 higher than when the government came to office.

The ONS statistics show that employment has risen steadily from 25.3 million in 1993 to 28.4 million today. But its report also makes clear: "While employment levels have generally been increasing over the past four years, the rate of increase has been no more than in line with population growth, leaving the trend in the employment rate largely flat since 2000."

Thanet Airshow or is it Margate?

I see that the Thanet Council website is having problems. Any attempt to search on, well anything, returns an error. As local government websites go, its nothing to be proud of, simply look at the "What's On" page which looks as if it's been coded by a volunteer on a youth opportunities scheme.

I've pointed out that the search engine is broken but have so far resisted the urge to remotely "NMAP" the website to reveal any other problems that may be hiding beneath the surface.

In fact, I was trying to find out about the summer "Margate Airshow", which I subsequently discovered has been outsourced to an events company, Tonge International. The council were however quite happy to sell me advance tickets although there was some question as to whether these might be parking tickets or tickets to view the air display. In fact airshow tickets I've found out will cost £5.00 for a place on the beach at Palm Bay and the organisers are hoping to attract a number of popular displays, including the Red Arrows.

Calling it "The Margate Airshow" will cause all kinds of confusion on the Internet as there already exists a really big airshow in Margate, South Africa, which might confuse some of the pilots on the way here, if they punch it into their aircraft GPS. Best call it the "Thanet Airshow" I think and that way, it's unique.

As I wrote in an earlier entry on the Thanet airshow, there are lots of historical local aircraft hidden around on the island that might be persuaded to fly-by as well, such as the Tiger Moth, Currie Wot and Stampe 1930's biplanes now at Maypole.

The Maypole Stampe



Now based at Maypole farm, G-BRXP started life as a French Stampe SV4C with an inverted engine, strengthened airframe and Renault PO5 engine in 1948 and found its way to the Armee de L'Aire as a trainer at Etamples. In 1955, it moved to St Yan (SFASA) a special aerobatics unit, with a distinctive red and yellow colour scheme in which it is painted today.

Between 1956, its first major overhaul and 1961, it served with the Patroille de France, St Yan touring airshow, and then when its CofA expired in 1966 found its way first to New Jersey and then to Lebanon, Tennessee in the united States where it was renamed "Kindred Spirit."

In 1990 it arrived in Britain and was given the registration G-BRXP and it was planned to give it a 160hp Lycoming engine. Problems having this approved resulted in it being given a Gipsy Major 10 Mk2 conversion from a Chipmunk.

In 2001 it was bought by Terry Brown and shipped to the legendary Brian Mayo at Maypole Air in Kent for a total rebuild, which was carried out over a three year period. Its UK CoFA was issued on 21st July 2004

Football Comes Home

Margate Football Club should be back in a rebuilt stadium in time for next season. Work should start immediately, as the stadium already has the necessary planning permission but it won't be up to the 5,000 capacity Nationwide Conference standard.

On Council Tax Rises

Council tax bills will increase by more than twice the level of inflation this year with town halls giving warning of even steeper rises in 2006.



Today’s muted council tax forecasts demonstrate once and for all that local democracy in Britain is neither local nor democratic. Householders will be relieved to learn that only 12 councils plan to raise taxes next year by more than 5 per cent. But they should also beware: the lid that ministers have rushed to place on council tax in the run-up to the election will soon blow off again. (See The Times)

The council tax increase facing Thanet residents is 4.46%, just under the government ceiling of 5%

More Later

Presently no news to report in Thanet but back later!


"It's mine and you can't have it"

A Birds Eye View

Nothing much to see when I was floating above Thanet today other than a crane, that has appeared in the grounds of the Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs. Instead, here are a couple of bonus photos from the summer, first one angle of Ramsgate and then, very recognisably, Canterbury city centre. These are actually hi-resolution JPEG files that enlarge in fine detail but can't really be appreciated from these small embedded versions.

However, with a little help from a combination of a good Nikon lens and computer imaging software, a photo can be enlarged enough to see my wife using the pressure washer from space!



If readers are interested in having photos of their own houses, this can be arranged on inquiry.


Ramsgate town photo

Canterbury from above but shown below.


Canterbury city centre

Organ Sale

To help raise funds for the Tsunami appeal, local resident Mrs Hill, is putting her fabulous Wersi Spectre organ up for sale, the "Rolls Royce" of organs we're told! For more information please send an email.

Does Salmestone Matter?

A letter from reader James Maskell

Last week the local Labour Party published a small magazine entitled "Salmestone Matters". Sadly not a single word actually related to Salmestone ward.

Labour could have congratulated the QEQM hospital on working so hard to run an efficient and effective hospital service often under the most tremendous stress.

Perhaps they could have mentioned the great primary school results achieved in Salmestone ward.

The staff and pupils at St. Gregory's, Draper's Mills and Salmestone Primary schools should be very proud of the hard work that they do.

Perhaps the Labour Party could have mentioned the number of small businesses in the ward which are still around despite the tough regulations imposed under New Labour.

The lack of a statement by Cllr Young on his work for the ward is surprising. Is he now a "non-person" in the New Labour catalogue?

I have lived in Salmestone ward for twelve years and am proud to live and work here. Salmestone matters to me. Why doesn't it matter to Labour?

Historical Note:

Salmestone Grange is one of the best preserved and most interesting examples of monastic granges in Europe. Set in beautiful, tranquil surroundings to the west of Margate in Kent, Salmestone Grange is steeped in history and is one of the area's oldest inhabited buildings.

Between 1290 and 1400 Salmestone Grange served as a rural 'retreat' for the abbot and monks of St. Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury.

Small Island - Many Cars

How many more cars can Thanet take before it sinks?

Cars are increasingly a local problem as most of us recognise. Our local roads were never designed to take the traffic volumes that they now have to cope with in rush hour. Parking is a nightmare in some areas and jams are becoming a regular fact of life on our narrow roads.


A view toward Birchington. Unspoiled Thanet

Add to this the scourge of abandoned cars and the local habit of selling vehicles from the side of the road and we’re reminded why “Del Boy” Trotter spent his holidays here in the television series.

Take Westgate Bay Avenue in Westgate as an example. It used to be quiet but now acts as the morning relief road for the Canterbury Road between Birchington and Margate. The blind hill opposite the tennis courts, where the road narrows is an accident blackspot, with five accidents in two years. This is where one enterprising local car dealer, we’ll call him “Del Boy”, cleverly positions his “pre-owned” bangers, knowing that traffic, reduced to a single lane has to stop and look at them or occasionally, run into them.

The police and council point out that although the Canterbury Road is zoned and street trading is prohibited, Westgate Bay Avenue and Westbrook Avenue are still open to “licensed” street traders, except that Del, the police tell me, isn’t licensed, is fast on his feet and has a string of mobile phone numbers and occasionally sends Rodney and Trigger along to move the used cars around when their tax expires atthe end of the month.

How about the council banning street trading along Westgate and Westbrook avenues in the interests of public safety and improved traffic flow? If I’m right, there will be another accident in the same spot within six months and this column will come back to haunt the traffic department.

A Statement from the relevant council department in response to a concerned local resident's letter says:

"Thanet District Council and KCC have produced a list of roads where such activities are prohibited, unfortunately, Westbrook Avenue is not one of these roads. As such, any action taken would depend on the status of the vehicles. If they are untaxed, they can be treated as abandoned vehicles and arrangements made for their removal. If they are parked in a dangerous location, then I am afraid that it would be a matter for the police to enforce."

Of course the Police have better things to do and if you want to have an abandoned car towed from your street, call 577066 and the council will send someone along to deal with it.

Metal Guru

Has anyone else noticed that since most of the bigger stores moved to Westwood, a commercial opportunity in both Cliftonville and Margate High Streets appears to surround body piercing, the arcane, as in magic, mystic and alternative therapy shops?



Quite obviously, as part of the local service economy, such businesses are filling an important and enterprising gap in the market for anyone who might wish to combine a Tarot reading with having one's navel pierced but perhaps it illustrates, only too well, the impact that the introduction of out-of-town shopping malls is having on towns in the South-east.

A note of concern though. Parental consent is not required where body-piercing is concerned. It sounds insane and it probably is but if your teenager wishes to have sensitive parts of her anatomy pierced, there's nothing you can do about it under the law.

Cover Girl

Lovely local girl, Shelly Jessup, shows the rest of us that keeping fit should be a way of life. Seen here working out during lunchtime at the Hartsdown Leisure Centre, she's bound to distract the boys from their weight-training!

With almost three million adults in the UK suffering from heart disease, Shelly, aged 26, sets an example for the rest of us to follow.



If you want to join the Hartsdown Leisure Centre, then call Thanet 290212 for membership information.

A Clear Vision for the South East - NOT

I’ve just received the so-called survey for the “South-east Plan” through the door and I’m furious at how the people who designed the survey have treated us as if we were complete idiots in what is a sham attempt at democratic consultation.

And with only one form per household what about my wife's opinion?


Holding democracy by the .".... " Gordon Brown demonstrates John Prescott's grasp on our Regional Assembly.

Before you tick any of the boxes, read the questions closely. I’ve developed surveys in the past and in this example, there is very little attempt to conceal the way in which the questions lead the respondent, you and me, towards the answer that this unelected regional assembly wants to be able to deliver back to John Precott.

The “punch” question is:

“Last year we built 28,000 homes in the South-east. The Assembly is considering other options: Which one of the three would you be most likely to support? (Tick one Box Only):

(1) 25,500 homes per year
(2) 28,000 homes per year
(3) 32,000 homes per year
(4) Don’t Know.

In between the numbers there’s mention of averages and what “some experts say” but you cannot vote “NONE of the above.” If you tick “Don’t know” then you simply add more statistical weighting to the other options. It’s a trick and this question and those surrounding it offer little or no opportunity to object to a plan which will see 25,000 homes minimum without the local infrastructure, to support the sudden growth.

They don’t even provide a FREEPOST envelope which is guranteed to cut down on the number of responses.

My advice for what it’s worth. Do not tick any boxes in question 4 and 5 on the number of homes to build or Greenfield sites to use. Read question 2 very carefully, it’s a leading question and tick “Strongly disagree” to every box in question 6.

Alternatively, less charitably-minded readers might wish to follow my example of completing the survey,as above, and sending it back with a handwritten footnote suggesting where the Deputy Prime Minister can file his vision for the South-east. If every reader did this in protest, then we might make a small impression.

Search Me

With all the statistical "toys" attached to this website, it's possible to see how visitors arrive on the page and where they came from.

What worries me a little is that among the most popular search terms is "Chav". So you might have someone in Japan looking for information on "Chav Culture" and the Google engine deposits them neatly at our front door here in Thanet.



I've written before, that many of us might rather have the island associated with Turner's paintings, Charles Dickens and many more attractions that might encourage visitors but sadly, Thanet appears to have developed an international reputation as a source of Burberry and Nike fashion victims, when in fact, it's probably no worse or no better than any other British seaside resort.

Eskimo

I'm beginning to identify with the Inuit eskimos, after three days of a bitterly cold gale here on the North Kent coast. Even the dog doesn't want to go out and having dragged the poor creature down to the beach, one hundred yards away, yesterday, I only managed to survive five minutes before abandoning the adventure and retreating to the warmth of my study, closely followed by a dog worried by the cold and the possibility of migrating Polar Bears. If this is global warming, then it's missed us completely, this week anyway!



This morning, no encouragement at all will persuade the dog to go out for a walk. I produce the lead and then it runs and hides under the bed. Of the two of us it probably has the most sense.

BBC Valentine's Special

A trip up to Old Buckenham airfield in Norfolk with Captain "Bob" of Thanet's Airads, to do a "Special" for the BBC to support a BBC Valentine's day story. Not the best weather for the trip. Old Buckenham with a cloud ceiling of only 600 feet, was closed to everyone else.


BBC reporter Louise Priest sits in

Leave the cloud on the way home after an hour on instruments and then drop down to five hundred feet over the sea past Southend, across the bow of a very surprised container ship to escape the fog and rain and then home to Thanet.


"I know Thanet's out there somewhere" - Pilot Simon Moores working out how to get home again.

A sky banner was exactly the gesture BBC Look East reporter Alex Dunlop made for his wife Susie Fowler-Watt. You can find the video of the report on the BBC website

The Viking Coastal Trail

Barrie Smith David Lloyd, and Keith Smith, Regular cycle enthusiasts on the excellent Viking cycle route which circles Thanet, much of the appeal of this route is that it is separated from traffic and the section which goes to Reculver from Minnis Bay is along the sea wall.



Below you'll find a small map of the coastal trail, a popular route in the summer months which takes in a large section of the Kent coast at its best between Richborough and Whitstable.

Big Bang

For anyone who wishes to see a presentation of the findings of the "Vibrock Report" into the local enviromental impact of the gunnery ranges at Shoeburyness, there will be a meeting on Wednesday 2nd March at Kings hall, Beacon Hill in Herne Bay at 16:00 hrs.

A report suggests that the ranges may have contaminated the North kent coast with radioactive material in the 1940's but there is no evidence to suggest that levels here are above the normal background radiation.

Visit the Margate Sands

Wildlife Sailing of Herne Bay (01227 366712) runs at least fifty cruises to the Margate Sands every year from April to October.

Similar to the Goodwin Sands but safer because the tides are not as strong and there is better shelter from the waves. There is an hour allowed on the bank for watching seals, finding a variety of sea creatures, swimming and picnicing.



Also called the "Tongue Sands" does anyone remember the lightship and the anti-aircraft tower that used to sit on them?

Anti-Social Behaviour Top Concern in South Thanet Poll

The results of one of the largest opinion gathering exercises in South Thanet history have revealed deep public unease about Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour. The postal survey of over 1600 residents was carried out by Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, Mark MacGregor, during November and December 2004.


Mark MacGregor

The main findings of the survey were:

• 4 out of 10 people felt that anti social behaviour and vandalism was the "biggest threat facing them and their neighbours", with a further 25% being afraid of being burgled and 12% fearing violent assault.

• Almost three quarters of those surveyed (71%) thought the community had become more dangerous over the past few years. Only 1% thought the area had become much safer.

• The top three measures residents thought would make them feel safer were "putting more police on foot patrol" (37%), "tougher sentences" (27%) and "zero tolerance" (18%).

• 1 in 5 people had been a victim of crime in the past year, with half (54% feeling dissatisfied with how the police handled their case.

Commenting on the survey's findings, Mark MacGregor said:

"These figures are extremely worrying. Too many local people's lives are being blighted by the threat of crime. We have heard a lot of talk from Government but after eight years in power, people in South Thanet simply do not feel safe in their own communities. We need a much tougher approach to deal with anti social behaviour, more police officers actually walking the streets and real alternatives for young people who might drift into crime."

Mark MacGregor will be writing to the local police in Thanet and Dover as well as the County Council with details of the figures. He added "I am also concerned at the level of dissatisfaction among victims of crime with how the police handled their cases. Crime can only be defeated with the enthusiastic involvement of everyone in Thanet. If people feel the police are not taking their case seriously or failing to follow up their call, that can only help criminals."

Midas Craft Fairs
New Season Information

The new season for Midas Craft Fairs for 2005 is about to kick off at the Kings Hall Theatre at Herne Bay on March 5th and 6th ( Mothers Day ) with over 70 stalls of Crafts, followed by Thanet's Northdown House, Northdown Park Road, Cliftonville, on the 1st of May, with over 60 stalls.



More information can be found at the Midas Leisure website.

Vital Statistics

For any readers interested in statistics, since last Monday’s launch, Thanet Life has racked-up over a thousand visits and is attracting an average of fifty new visitors a day and regulars from as far away as Ekaterinburg in Russia and even Microsoft’s campus in Redmond. Why Thanet pops up on the radar of Internet users half a world away is a source of curiosity, so please write-in and let us know.


Margate Caves - a local attraction

Obviously, Thanet Life doesn’t rank with the Web traffic of other popular sites but as a local interest exercise in an area where Internet penetration is relatively low, this isn’t bad and it is obviously spreading by word of mouth, thanks to the local newspapers, as my hairdresser who doesn’t use the Internet, commented yesterday: “I see you have started a local Web site.”

We need local information and photographs to break-up my own running commentary as a local and much poorer version of “Richard Littlejohn”, so please send in your own ideas.

A Tough Choice, UKIP or Lulu

Pet photo of the month goes to Lulu, owned by Suzy and Roger Gale, the Thanet North MP. Newfoundland, Lulu will be campaigning for both the Conservatives and animal welfare in the general election and will be counting on your vote.

None of the Above

Thanet businessman and former bookmaker, Alan Brown, will be handing over a cheque for £400,000 to South Thanet UKIP at Minster community church hall today. By anyone’s measure, four hundred grand is a great deal of money to give to a political party and UKIP hardly looks the best return on investment for the General Election in May.


"I'm Voting UKIP"

Following on from the Kilroy-Silk fiasco, the UK Independence Party simply looks like a “None of the above” vote for people rightly disillusioned with conventional party politics. The danger, from a local perspective, is that voting for UKIP may simply split the vote, giving opportunity to the party one likes least.

There’s no doubt that Thanet deserves better than the support it presently has from central government but even if UKIP were to win locally, what would that give us, a local MP sitting on the edge of Westminster and shunned by the three larger parties that draw-up all the rules in the first place. Not a strong protest vote against party politics and a surrender of government to Europe but a potentially bad result for the people of Thanet I suspect.

A Thanet Airshow

This morning's view of the beach with a sandstorm raging.



The council appear quite excited by the prospect of a summer airshow in Thanet and as a working pilot, I'm sure it would be fun for all to see. However, given the previous fiasco, we now have a bad name with several well-known display pilots, who are owed money and it may take rather more than goodwill to lure back aerobatic "stars", such as Denny Dobson, one of the UK's best known crowd-thrillers, after his previous experience at the hands of Thanet Airshow organisers.



I hope the show, now sponsored by EUjet, is a success. We have a number of interesting vintage aircraft tucked-away on farmstrips, across the island that could add to the spectacle if the council asks.

The Floods of 53

If you look at the photo below, it will remind readers that severe floods and gales regularly hit Thanet every twenty-five years or so. The picture below shows the devastation on the seafront at St Mildred's Bay, with the original cafe, which was subsequently rebuilt and became the famous "Pav's", owned by the great British film director, Herbert Smith, wrecked by the great storm of 1953.

Here is a link to a webpage with photographs of the cafe, offering a colourful local history of a popular Thanet institution for fifty years.


Photo courtesy of Barrie Smith

Coincidentally, before the storm destroyed it, the cafe was owned by another celebrity, English star of the French 1930's cinema, Vanda Greville, who lived at the Old Boat House in Westgate.


Vanda Greville in 1930

The cafe is still very much in business, under different ownership and is a great spot for an early English breakfast in the summer months as it opens at 8am.


Pav's cafe 2005

Count Your Blessings!

Rather worryingly, Thanet Life has been told that at 2.86% ,central government's grant increase to Thanet is among the lowest in the country, less than the Retail Price Index at over 3%, and not enough to maintain current levels of service.


Steve Ladyman MP

Apparently, South Thanet’s Labour MP, Steve Ladyman, has told Thanet Council to "Count its blessings” following his own analysis of government grant for 2005/6.

The government’s grant to local councils has 2 basic parts – cash aid given because of deprivation, plus an increase in normal service expenditure.

Because of the deprivation in Thanet, the island receives relatively high cash aid but below that received by Canterbury, Swale and Shepway.

However, we are told that this is undermined if the increase on normal service expenditure is too low. Most Kent authorities received higher increases than Thanet; none received less.

At 2.86% the government's grant increase to Thanet is among the lowest in the country, less than the Retail Price Index at over 3%, and not enough to maintain current levels of service.

The council tax increase facing Thanet residents is 4.46%, just under the government ceiling of 5% which, when homes are re-banded, which is the next blow, is going to hurt everyone who has seen the price of local housing soar but no relative increase in salaries.

In contrast with Wandsworth, where I moved from last year, the council tax in Thanet is almost three times higher and service levels simply don't compare. With an £8 billion "Black Hole" in mostly public services for Gordon Brown to fill I wonder how much more expensive life can become?

Try Volunteering!

Volunteering helped Clive recover from a bad back and get back into paid work

"2005", says Councillor Hart, "is the year of the Volunteer and I am working closely with the charity TimeBank to promote volunteering and to encourage more people to start volunteering."


Cllr Clive Hart - Cliftonville West.

Just a few years ago Clive thought that his career could have been over, but volunteering has helped him make a career transition back into paid employment and make a real difference to his local community.

"Anyone", says Clive, "can be a volunteer, whether you can spare one day a year or one hour a week. There are all sorts of volunteering opportunities that can help you make changes to your life. Volunteering can help you lose weight and get fit, become less stressed, help you meet new people and can give you valuable work experience and new skills."

If you are interested in volunteering please visit the TimeBank website at www.timebank.org.uk or its sister website Stopstart.

Head to Head

I just took a call from Channel 5 News about the possibility of going "Head-to-Head" with Tony Blair, on the question of letting refugees who are given the "Right-to-remain" vote in our national and local elections. Now that would be interesting!

However the researcher said a problem might be that I'm not "Joe Soap", which is really who they want, whoever he is. I pointed-out that the Prime Minister, as a trained lawyer, will walk all over Mr Soap and anyway, drawing his attention to our existence, here on the edge of the political universe, would be a good result.



For a very funny, satirical look at Labour's election campaign for May 5th - A Russian MP just let it slip that the PM couldn't visit Moscow because of the date - visit the "I'm Backing Blair Website". It needs Flash and a good Broadband connection but it's well worth the visit and a guaranteed chuckle. It also has the latest version of "Going Underground", written by two doctors, fed-up with communting on the Central Line.



Back from visiting the politics department at the University of Kent, I realised that it took an hour to get there from Westgate. Sturry not only has the railway signals but single alternate traffic and temporary traffic lights running. God alone knows what it will be like in the rush hour this evening.

But that's alright, the Regional Assembly wants 25,000 more homes in the area, which may rather delay the journey time to Canterbury even further over the next decade. It may prove faster to fly EUJet to Dublin (60 minutes) and live there instead.

The Hole Truth

I vaguely recall that in 1999 Mr Blair promised a National Health dentist for everyone within two years, by phoning NHS Direct. In Thanet he's more likely to discover those missing weapons of mass destruction, he also promised to give us, than an NHS dentist with room on his list.

Recently, it cost me over £90 for a family checkup, an "in and out job" without any treatment. Thanet is a "Black Hole" of NHS dentistry and today, the National Audit Office has said that NHS dentistry will collapse unless rapid action is taken to clarify a new contract and persuade dentists to take more health service patients.

Meanwhile, in Thanet, brave words about dentists for everyone sound like more toothless promises from our President.

Beat the Street

Westgate Community Support Officer , Tony Bailey is a recognisable and well-liked figure in the village. Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Tony and his colleagues, the minority of "tearaway" troublemakers have their mischief in the area limited mostly to the hours after dark.


Tony Bailey

What we need though is more attention given to the problems that occur when the community officers have finished for the day and the thin blue line of Thanet Police are tucked-up in their patrol cars or racing between trouble spots on a Saturday evening.

Having a presence, on the streets during the day and when the schools turn out is a good result which has made a real difference to the security of the community but we need to keep the kids off the streets at night, when the real damage takes place and clamp down hard on those off-licenses in Thanet that are prepared to sell under-age teenagers packs of Carlsberg Extra Strong.

Valentine's Weekend

Don't forget Valentine's Day on Sunday and that if you want to try a very special message, Thanet is home to "Airads" and it's very own "Captain Romantic", Bob Shilling, who you may have seen on Meridian News in November as having proposed to over seventy women. Seventy one by Saturday as he has one to do on Thursday in Norfolk.

Saying it with a banner is not much more expensive that saying it with flowers, well alright, lots of flowers but it's something he or she won't forget, ever.

Daily Politics

I was watching the BBC's "Daily Politics" show on BBC2 this lunchtime which included a report on "Blogging", Weblogs or what this Website is and how important these are becoming in shaping political opinion, both locally and nationally.



By coincidence, Thanet South, MP Steve Ladyman's office heard the interview I gave on KMFM today, describing the Website and asked if he could have a link, which is now included alongside that of Roger Gale MP in our links section.

I emailed the Daily Politics programme as it was on air, about this Website and within five minutes, I could see the BBC scanning its pages. There's a statistics engine working on the Website which tracks where visitors are coming from, a common feature many Web users forget when they visit "unusual" Websites, unless they are deliberately disguising their identities behind an extra layer of technology. If this kind of thing interests you, then please visit my technology Weblog at zentelligence.

I'm pleased to say that in the space of three days, visits to Thanet Life have gone through the roof and so I would like to encourage you all to have your say and send in interesting photographs and local stories. Local volunteer photographers would be a good idea too, Don't worry I'll edit everything to size and style if necessary.

The Great Race

Pancake day in Westgate and a strong showing from the winner with a final sprint burst to the line, much to the excitement of spectators.



Sponsored by Angelo's delicatessen and the local Rotary club, the village turned out to see the fun, which would have passed me by if I hadn't been wandering-up to buy milk.



The racing form of each of the contestants was scrutinised closely by the professional judges as you can see from the photo below:


"I'll offer you 3:1 on the one in the green jacket"

It is, after all, Shrove Tuesday, so not forgetting the religious connection to the race, encouragement and a little help from above was offered by the Vicar, seen holding a symbolic saucepan of his own.

Wrong Side of the Tracks
Can We Have our Sign Back Please?

The residents of Roxburgh road in Westgate have had their steet sign flung on to the edge of the railway line by vandals. Because it's on railway property, they can't have it back.



You'll also notice the quite unacceptable levels of litter along the railway line in Thanet. A railway worker told me recently that they don't have the budget to keep the line clean and it's all they can do to try and keep the stations free of litter. As a consequence, rubbish continues to build-up and once again, we have another eyesore and nobody wishes to take responsibility for removing it. from the verge. Wrong side of the fence again you see. No money in picking-up litter if your'e a railway company.

Going South

I'm reminded that I'm neglecting South Thanet, so I'm asking readers to send in comments and photos to keep Thanet Life truly representative.

With a General Election looming in the Spring, here's the Website of the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for South Thanet, Mark MacGregor who writes:


Mark MacGregor

"South Thanet needs an MP who will take its problems seriously. We all know what's wrong. Too many people live in fear of crime. Too many children don't get the education they deserve. Too many people get a raw deal. But it doesn't have to be this way. With your support, I am determined to make our community a better place for all."

Asylum - Home Secretary Ducks the Question.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has again declined to give straight answers to questions relating to Asylum seekers in Kent.


"Trust me, I'm Charles Clarke"

Challenging the Home Secretary on the floor of the House of Commons following a Ministerial Statement on Monday, Thanet North MP, Roger Gale said:

"In August of 1997 I, and to be fair his Hon. Friend The Member of Parliament for Dover, (Gwyn Prosser), warned the Home office, on the basis of information supplied by Kent police, of a likely influx of illegal immigrants."

"In the Autumn of 1997 My Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Michael Howard) and I called to see the Minister (Mike 0`Brien) to reiterate our concerns. Our warnings were ignored and the floodgates opened. "

"In 1996 there were approximately 50 applications for asylum in Kent. Could the Home Secretary tell the House how many asylum seekers are currently resident in Kent? "

"And could he also tell the House what, in his statement, will address the issue of the asylum seekers whose names currently appear on the electoral register and who will vote illegally in the next election?"

Responding, the Home Secretary could only refer Roger Gale to a Home Office document published yesterday. "I do not have figures for Kent, " said Mr. Clarke "but the documents published today shows that asylum claims are now almost running at 1997 levels". He did not reply to the query concerning voter registration.

"The Home Secretary`s response was woefully inadequate" says Roger Gale. "I asked how many asylum seekers were currently resident in Kent. The Home Secretary must have that information because his Department is - although paying late - footing the bill for them! "

"The Government", said Roger Gale, "is also very reluctant to address the question of voter registration -which leads me to believe that there is a can of worms waiting to be opened!"

"I shall be pressing the Home Secretary for more satisfactory and substantive answers."

Absolute Rubbish

A note from Westbrook resident, Barrie Smith says that Thanet Life is a great idea and what about putting up the email addresses for local councillors and Thanet District Council departments – which you can now find on the site - Barrie is annoyed that like many of us, he's paying over £130 a month poll tax and his rubbish isn't being collected regularly. I know how he feels because I have had to call the council several times a year when the dustmen ignored my own black bags.

In mitigation, they council are very good about sending a vehicle along to pick up any lost bin bags but this does lead into a larger story, rubbish and how much of it there is littering the seafront areas of Thanet.


Rubbish in no-man's land - Not my job mate it's gone throught the fence! - The street-cleaner's "Wheelie bin "is parked in the green hut.

St Mildred’s Bay is a good example. The street cleaner leaves his wheelie-bin, overnight in the large green shed opposite the putting green and tennis courts. These and the sea front area are coated with litter because the seagulls tear the resident’s black bags to pieces in the time between leaving them out and the rubbish collection.

The council say that because the rubbish has blown through the fence into the putting green and on to the tennis courts, they can’t touch it, because that’s up to Thanet Leisure Force. The latter don’t have a rubbish collection facility and do little or nothing, from what I see locally, to maintain any of the amenities at the best of times.

So the Westgate litter sits in a no-man’s land and a week after enquiring who might be responsible, I’m no closer to finding out.

This whole issue of rubbish collection and a cleaner Thanet is a job for our local councillors, so use the email addresses and lobby them to have the council “Clean-up its act.” Conservative KCC candidate Robert Burgess says you can email him too. We pay enough poll taxes here and many residents see very little in return. Before we think of grand ideas like the Turner Centre, let’s get the basics sorted out.

Small but Sharp

Nine year old Emily Jackson, a Karate (Junior) Blackbelt and possibly the UK's youngest student of Iaido, the Japanese "Way of the Sword", illustrates the wide choice of martial arts training on the island, which embraces Judo and Aikido at the Quarterdeck in Cliftonville to Shotokan Karate for both adults and children with Chris Barton and 4th Dan instructor, Dave Roe on Monday and Thursday evenings at St George's School in Broadstairs.



If you wish to learn Iaido with Emily and her club in Broadstairs, then call instructor Richard Obbard on 01843 603281 as they are now accepting new members for 2005.

Thanet Life - A New Name
From the Editor - Simon Moores



This website has now been renamed as "Thanet Life", with the aim of giving a much broader news and opinions perspective on what's happening around the "Republic of Thanet." Special thanks to Adrian John at KMFM 107.2 for telling everyone in his Friday morning show.

Since it first started, it's readership has been growing steadily, with the site log showing people looking for information from as far afield as Australia and the United States. To make it a better read and not just my own random thoughts and opionions, please add your own comments and send news, photos, links and ideas to me at this email address. It's completely free and your chance to have your say on what's right and what's not in Thanet today.

Do you have a Thanet resource or website to list on www.thanetlife.com. Do you have old and unusual photographs of life in Thanet or interesting and artistic shots of the area? Do you have photos that show a story the council should be made aware? Send them along to us and share them with the rest of Thanet’s online population.

Thanet North MP Roger Gale welcomes the new idea:



“Being able to share our local experiences, opinions and news freely over the Internet is an excellent initiative, particularly when this opportunity is open to everyone of any age. I welcome it and I will be using it to keep in touch with my constituents”

Clock Tower Lights Victory

Kent County Council KCC have allocated £180,000 to replace the hated Clocktower traffic lights. Cllr Martin Wise, an ardent campaigner to reverse the previous Labour administration’s consent to their installation, said: “It has taken two years of hard negotiation to get this decision but local residents will be over the moon to know that this will be in the work programme in the near future”.


Spot the clock tower traffic jam from space

Alongside the cash for the end to the lights comes £40,000 towards an Impact Study as part of the Margate Master Planning exercise. “This will form one more element, alongside the public consultation, that will help inform proposals to shape the future of Margate” commented Cllr Chris Wells. “We are also working with English Partnership and Freshwaters, owners of Arlington House, at ways of enhancing the visual impact of this building. The Margate Master Plan is set to become a real blueprint for the future of the whole area”.

Next up for urgent local action is the problem of parking in and around Margate QEQM hospital. I can't wait!

Cllr Chris Wells is working with KCC Transport Authority, to find a solution to onstreet parking adjacent to the hospital. “Visitors and residents both need a fair deal” says Chris, “and at present there is a real problem. We are all working together to find an ugent, satisfactory solution to this problem”

Local Democracy Online:
Who represents you in Thanet? Find your local councillor's details here.

Extended Drinking Hours - Some Say No

Conservatives Join Forces to Oppose 24-Hour Drinking Laws

Catch-22 is a military term that is confusing and difficult to describe. In short, its basic meaning is that if there was a rule, no matter what the rule is, there is always an exception to it. It is a mysterious regulation that is in essence a circular argument.

Conservative Councillors and Parliamentary Candidate are joining forces to oppose the Labour Government’s new 24-hour drinking legislation. This new law will increase the binge drinking culture as well as adding extra costs to Thanet District Council who will be responsible for policing the scheme – money that would be better spent on front line local services.


Jack Russell of Marine Parade Margate a tragic local victim of flexible drinking hours

Now, it has also just been revealed that the Government plans to gag local Thanet councillors from objecting to late licences. In a classic "Catch 22" slice of bureaucratic nonsense, councillors cannot speak against licence extensions in their own wards, disqualified by having to declare an interest.

Cllr Chris Wells, who has campaigned for months on this issue said: "These plans will turn Thanet District Council – in concert with others all over the country – into little more than a vehicle to enforce ill considered government policy. It will simply be impossible for local councillors to protect the interests of local residents who may not want pubs and clubs opening throughout the night".

Mark MacGregor, Parliamentary Candidate for South Thanet added: “Binge drinking is already a serious problem in our town centres. This has already led to an increase in the kind of violence and drunkenness that makes many people simply afraid to use certain areas at night. 24 hour drinking is only going to make matters worse. When local residents are woken by the sound of drunken revellers staggering home down their local streets, they should remember that it is Labour’s ill-thought through plans that have created the disruption.”

Longer drinking hours in Thanet, do we need it or are we already suffering from the binge-drinking culture?

World Wide Wotsit

A retired couple on the seafront at Westgate, enjoying the Spring-like quality of the weather on Sunday afternoon. I told them the photo would be on the Internet within the hour but as they didn't appear quite sure what the Internet was, perhaps a friend will recognise them?


Wer'e on the World Wide Wotsit

Meanwhile, on the beach at Westbrook in stark contrast between the generations, a motorised paraglider was being put through its paces.


Best avoid the Sea Bathing Hospital!

The very light wind made the beach an ideal place to practise, much to the delight of local children, one of which asked if she "Could have a go." "You'll have to wait until you're sixteen", replied the pilot, a local estate agent.

It occurred to me that we should think of using paragliders as they do in Hawaii and California, issued to the Lifeguards to patrol the beach. This idea may be a little too radical for Thanet Water Safety, though, from the point of view of one who was the very first lifeguard to be on duty on that very same beach at Westbrook a very long time ago.


Not as easy as it looks!

The Turner Dilemma

I’m still struggling to decide whether the Turner Centre in Margate is a good idea, making a symbolic statement on local restoration and arts or a waste of taxpayer’s money in a deprived area.



We need more art and culture and less arcades and bars in Thanet if we’re to attract a different kind of tourist to stop here for less than five minutes on the way to somewhere more attractive or fashionable, which doesn’t smell of lager, hamburgers and onions in the summer. Broadstairs or Brighton perhaps?


An Artist's impression of the finished gallery

If you glance at the picture above, the people passing are more reminiscent of an afternoon stroll in the Cote D'Azur than a walk in Margate harbour. The raised platform on the left of the picture is presently strewn with litter and being used as an open-air toilet for the homeless, so watch your step. It's the latter point that raises a number of important questions in regard to social priorities. Is it possible to lift Margate so ambitiously by its cultural bootstraps or are we kidding ourselves?

Good idea for Thanet or expensive white elephant in a deprived area. What do you think?

Democratic Principle or Problem

A delicate question passed to me to raise on a local basis, involves the right of foreign citizens to vote in this country. Apparently, refugees given the Right to Remain (but not British Citizenship), have the right to vote in our local and national elections. On a national basis, this could of course make the difference between many thousands of votes at the forthcoming General Election but even locally, with an observable population change in the Thanet area, I'm told this raises some uncomfortable questions that Government would rather not address at the moment. In Thanet, I'm reliably informed, there have NEVER been any checks made on the voting application forms.

Examining the broader policy issues of immigration control, the Guardian reports:

"Controversy is likely to centre on plans to restrict 'indefinite leave to remain'. Temporary workers who have been in Britain for four years with a clean record are more or less automatically granted the right to stay when their permits expire", but Trevor Philips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, adds:

"People whingeing and moaning about how their communities are being changed are actually afraid of a shadow, but these people are the real victims of the failure of immigration policy."



Thanet Life asked North Thanet MP Roger Gale for his views on the immigration challenge. In a longer written statement, - available from his office - he replied:

"Current and accurate figures for the numbers of asylum seekers now resident locally are hard to come by but we know that in 1996, when Michael Howard was Home Secretary, there were just 50 asylum seekers a year arriving and we believe that that by 2000 that figure had reached 15,000 coming into Kent alone."

"In 1996 Kent was budgeting to spend less than £250,000 on asylum and for the last financial year that figure was running at £53 million! (Of that money some £15million remains outstanding to be refunded by the Home Secretary, so Kent`s taxpayers are picking up the tab.")

How do local people feel about this? Should being told you can stay in this country but denied citizenship, also give you the right to influence the future direction of local and national government at the ballot box?

Vandalism - A Growing Nuisance

The photograph below is of one of the two cafes in Westgate's St Mildred's Bay. Toughened glass wasn't enough to stop the vandals with a little help from a sledgehammer and the same is true of Westgate Community Centre, with its windows smashed for the second time in a week.



It's not just Westgate of course, Birchington has also experienced a wave of vandalism of late as has every other town in Thanet. How do we stop this continuing as a community? On any evening in Westgate, as an example, you can see small gangs of hooded teenagers in their favourite spots, one in particular being on the bridge road between Westbrook and Garlinge, where one evening recently, one of them threw a bottle which hit my passing car. Theyr'e bored, their destructive and as a community, we don't appear able to offer them anything that will take them off the streets and prevent them causing trouble.

Thanet has a rapidly growing teenage population, with an active minority who have little or nothing to do after school but cause trouble. We need to address this problem as a community with action and not discussion.

A Vision of Thanet

The local world has changed dramatically since the beginning of the 19th century and will again in the next ten years. In 1801 Thanet's total population was 12,346. In 1901 it was 67,023. By 2001 the population was 126,712.

In 1851 However 146 babies in every thousand died in their first year. In 1911 it was 112. By 2001 the rate was 4. One hundred and fifty years ago, Thanet was a tough place to live and their were still traces of the Dutch-like dialect that some local people spoke in the middle-ages.


Airads Photo "Trawler with Nets"

For more detailed, educational, historical and census data on the Isle of Thanet, visit A Vision of Thanet on the Internet.

A Sea View

Excellent Airads photograph of the Stampe Biplane from Maypole Farm, out over the sea near Reculvers.



Meanwhile, Utterly Butterley are looking for local volunteers for a wing-walk experience. Any offers? They normally drop into Maypole for fuel and sandwiches during the Whitstable airshow each summer.

January Winner of Thanet's Best Dog Photo

Sammy the Yorkshire Terrier from Westgate on Sea. Send in your photos.

New Airport Website for Manston

Visitor Dave Williams of Aviation Archives has pointed out by email, that the link to the latest Kent International Airport at Manston website should be www.kia-m.com . This has now been changed. Thanks Dave.

More from Bronze Age Thanet

Pictures from St Augustine’s at Westgate showing the public display today of some of the archaeological finds from the Bronze Age and later Saxon Cemetery in Ramsgate being excavated by Wessex Archaeology.

The Saxon graveyard had twelve graves, the largest of which belonged to an important woman who was buried with a number of coloured amber beads and a small knife. Some of the surrounding graves contained the remains of iron swords, shields and spears.

The Bronze Age site (2400-200 BC) had the remains of three Bronze Age round barrows, some 25 metres in diameter and twelve complete skeletons were found, mostly of women, some of whom had met violent ends,one with her arm severed at the elbow.



The ancient site, will be covered in the coming weeks as new homes are built but I've been asked if I can manage a few more aeriel photos by the archaeologists before this happens.



Spot the BBC “Time Team” archaeologist, Phil "Flint Knapper" Harding, among the local councillors.

Invicta Airways Reunion

There is to be a reunion of Invicta Airways and Air Ferry on April 16th at the Hoverspeed Sports and Social Club. Details can be found at www.invicta-airways.co.uk

Report Highlights Flaws says MP

I Met with Roger Gale, our North Thanet MP over the weekend and we discussed the danger of "building blight" that now faces us in Thanet. The area between Westgate and Birchington has already caught the eye of the developers and I wonder how long it will be before we lose any gaps between Birchington, Westgate, Margate and Broadstairs? Not long if Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has his way.

A concerned Roger Gale has now sent out a press release to highlight the problem and I have reproduced it below. Come the election, one good reason to vote Conservative is to fight the planners in Thanet.

North Thanet Press Release from Roger Gale MP (Cons)



The report of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (Housing: Building a Sustainable Future) has highlighted the flaws in John Prescott`s plans for housing in Kent, says North Thanet`s MP, Roger Gale.

The Commons Report, published this week, reveals that this Government has simply not taken into account the environmental impact of vast quantities of additional housing in the County.

"This Government has been talking "sustainable communities" while failing to support the infrastructure necessary to sustain its imposed house-building programme,” says Roger Gale.

"Prescott seems hell-bent on smothering South East England in houses - fifty per cent above those needed to meet the requirements of the local community - while paying no heed to Transport, Schools, Primary Healthcare, Water supply or sewage disposal.

The unwanted and unloved and unelected "South East England Regional Assembly" is about to embark upon a "consultation exercise" inviting respondents to choose between a minimum of 25,000 new homes and higher figures. There is no space for those replying to indicate a preferred lower (or zero) figure and no space to indicate comments relating to infrastructure.

My constituents want the green open spaces between our towns preserved, reject "urban sprawl" and recognise that concentrated housing development of the kind proposed leads to increased emissions and contributes to global warming.

The transport, health and education infrastructure in Kent is at present inadequate to meet even our existing needs - and the Government has just rejected funding for the improvement of the most vital road in East Kent. The fact is that we need a virtual moratorium on house building until the infrastructure is sorted out - and that is the issue that Prescott and his quango "SEERA" ought to be addressing"