A Strife Team member was down at Ramsgate Port this morning to see if any poor punters turned up to cross on The Bonanza Express to Boulogne. He has reported back that none did, which is good news. A cynical TransEuropa staff member commented that " of course, no-one knows how many booked in the first place!"He did report that the chap in the pic above had put up a sign saying, 'Let Down by Euroferries?
Travel with Guiseppe's instead!" and that the photo-shoot for the tax-free shop involved the pulling up of the roll down door at the Old Sally Line and taking a quick shot before it was rolled down again.
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On a more serious note, what are we to make of a report from Santa Cruz (see www.thanetonline.blogspot.com ) that yesterday was the deadline set by Fred Olsen in respect of Euroferries? For those familiar with the history of 'The Spirit of Ontario', deadlines not being met will come as no surprise.
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What might Fred Olsen think though, about this snippet from IOTG this Friday:
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"The company (Euroferries) has so far refused to elaborate on what caused the delay, but sources believe it is due to problems in taking over the ship from Fred Olsen (a long established, professional and world-wide ferry and Cruise Line operator, by the way)! .
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Forgive me for having the temerity to enter any litigatious area, but it seems to me that IOTG have pointed a little finger of blame at Fred Olsen, here. It might not cause much upset at Fred Olsen, unlike Euroferries almost hysterical reaction, as erroneous and unfounded reports last week that Euroferries had gone bust were posted by an 'anon' blogger but of course Fred Olsen are a mature company with a proven track record, many years in the business and have confidence in themselves; they of course know the real situation and have been remarkably tight-lipped; so much so that a grimace might be a better description.
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I should imagine, and this is only speculation, that Fred Olsen painted up Bonanza in a Euroferries livery in preparation for a summer 'deadline' and then painted it out again as that 'deadline' came and went. They then painted it again in Euroferries livery recently and presumably for the 'deadline' yesterday. The paint chappies are probably their own maint team and no great cost was involved with the 'paint on'/'paint off'/ 'paint on' saga.
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One wonders whether 'Manuel and Pedro' will be on a 'paint off' task again?
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Meanwhile, I am told, Guiseppe in Ramsgate Harbour will be perfectly happy to paint his beautifully painted boat with a Euroferries logo without any need for payment by Euroferries.
9 comments:
We (the pirates) turned up fully reefed down ready to take on boarders but none turned up?
Whilst the ships cat/kittens where mightily ruffled (by the weather that is)we could not press-gang any passengers into crewing (us Pirates always have vacancies).
We have however fully protected our rights to our ISP agreements.
Cpt Redbeard
I think this is a perfect opportunity for TEF to take advantage and promote their ferry service.
They are after all "the leading ferry operator on the English Channel between Ramsgate and Oostende."
Indeed they are and the Strife reporters - and the Pirates where mightily impressed with the TEF staffs professionalism when faced with the ugly mug of Cpt Flint and his crew. They are a credit to Trans-Europa.
When the the Pirates imbibed on a cup or two of coffee next door in the splendid cafe (much too clean for Pirates but any port in storm applies) we did hear of some dissent regarding a certain lease anyone know what's it about?
Strife staff member (one eyed Jack)
Snouts in the trough rec'd from TDC
Thank you for your communication received 22/10/2009 09:50:22 where you requested information about value of orders that have been places by different departments of Thanet District Council with Thorley Taverns. The orders to include any monies claimed on expenses and any meals and drinks paid for on credit cards as well as purchase orders.
From our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that it will cost more than the ‘appropriate limit’ to consider your request in its totality. This is in respect of officer and members expenses, due to the level of detail you require specific to one supplier, only being accessible manually by viewing each and every individual expense claim form.
Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local government is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
15.13, an interesting response from TDC. Obfuscation of the truth or a genuine costly exercise?
You might like to make FoI enquiries in the direction of CPRs and the contractor taken on for £50,000 of carpeting of Cecil Sq offices to save us tax-payers money.
Re. the lease for the port café. The lady who runs it has recently been widowed but unfortunately her lat husband's name is on the lease. TDC refuses to deal with her as she is not the leaseholder so she will have to vacate soon.
Double blow for her. I understand she has spent much time and money doing the venue up to see someone else benefit.
08:41, thanks for that snippet. have heard unpleasant rumours about the lease transfer not being facilitated by TDC. Will follow this up further.
3.5 days = £450 no wonder there is a black hole in the budget.
Typical of TDC someone trying to get on and do something positive and along comes a paper shuffler to stop them. One for Roger to sort out i think, probably the grumpy one at it again.
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