What an interesting week; Bonanza pic at last of the new paint job; a bicorn/ beanie combo, indiscrete revelations on an insecure Facebook site and wheelie bin chaos.
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As Policy 25 of TDC's Core Strategy has been in the news, some news on CGI (formerly CGP), would be appropriate as they would appear to be primary beneficiaries of TDC's folly to propose to allow building on agricultural land all over Thanet, if 'jobs' are dangled in front of TDC. Share price not good yet at 15.5p but they managed to raise £148,391.74 in cash for general working capital in Dec by issuing 1,507,283 shares at 9.45p. A lot were bought by Mr Wills and Mr Prosser which indicates they have had to put their own money in to keep things rolling along. This appears to have triggered a drop notification of HSBC Holdings as a % of total shares from above 8% to 7.9%. Unless Chinese money can be attracted to buy and set up on Manston Business Park soon, the winter cereals will be harvested in Aug 2010!
Having banged on about Eurokent not being needed for housing for the 2026 traget of 7,500 new dwellings in Thanet for some time and revealing that TDC Cabinet ignores its own TDC Officers reporting this to them (Annual Monitoring Report April 2009) it was nice to get a reply sent from Planning Dept at TDC to one of the Strife Team's request for info. Here is an extract:
"I understand that at March 2009 we had granted permission for 4624units that have not yet commenced. I cannot confirm whether these are
all on sites that have not commenced, ie it may be the case that sites
with permission for 20 units only have 1 or 2 completed at present.
The significance of this snippet is critical to the lies about Eurokent needing to have houses on it to meet the Housing target! TDC already has 1,983 completions of the 7,500, and these 4,624 (if proceeded with) means that by 2014 alone 6,607 dwellings will have been built. That leaves applications between now and 2026 for only another 993 dwellings and ALL TARGETS ARE MET.
Whilst on the subject of Planning, a Strife Team Member followed The Planning Committtee around on Friday as it went site visiting. (Only 6 Cllrs out of 15 were able to attend) He reports that 'Our Ken' was not too pleased to see genuine Conservative Cllrs like Cllr Hayton and Cllr Bruce tagging along and that abruptness from 'Our Ken' towards his experienced and capable predecessor as Chair of Planning, verged on rudeness. Our suspicions about certain Ezekiel Party Cllrs not really knowing where their Wards are, were confirmed on Friday. About to leave Lanthorne Rd to go to Oaklands Ave in St Peter's , a person asked how to get there. 'Our Ken's response as ward Cllr for this Ward was " Up past where there used to be a pub." Perhaps 'Our Ken' needs to drop in for a pint with his constituents sometime at The Red Lion, which is still there and 50 yds away from Oaklands Avenue!
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Now to straws in the wind.
I was amazed at the pic of 'Mauwice' in 'two hat' mode at the annual Blessing of The Sea Ceremony last Sunday. Then a thought struck me. He looks very unhappy and was it just the cold? If I had frozen my butt off as Council Leader for the 7th time at this ceremony, and I knew it was my last time, would I be tempted to say 'Sod it. Wont be here next year, so may as well keep warm'?
So Strife Team members have been tapping sources all over Thanet for past 24 hrs and it seems there may be changes coming about shortly. The straws in the wind they have caught would indicate Clive Hart and his Labour colleagues could lose their prime vote attracting ally for 2011, Cllr Ezekiel, in the spring. The question is will he retire or resign?
The next question is, will The Ezekiel Party try and retain its position of leading Thanet's Conservative Party in the year upto 2011 by 'blessing' a successor or will there be a genuine Leadership Election and a clean up of Cabinet and Planning? Will they achieve a simple baton change or will there be a new race?
It's about time Thanet had some proper Conservatives in key positions rather than 'ex Labour chancers'. We need the return of a Conservative Party that the traditional conservative electorate will support in 2011. We need a capable and principled new Tory Leader, a new Cabinet and new Planning Committee.Whispers would indicate that Ezekiel Party loyalist Cllr Bayford would like to take on the 'baton' from 'Mauwice'; the result would be an Ezekiel Party without 'Mauwice'!
We have now started a 'pool' in The Strife Office with the following names in the hat: Bayford, Bruce, Gideon, Jarvis, Moores, Wells and Wise. Will have to get on to Dickie (www.eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com) to see if he can run a 'cast your vote' thingee on his blog for these 7. Sadly we lack the expertise to set up that sort of thing but at least we still have an excellent tea-lady, in Edna.
9 comments:
Cllr. Bayford being the same one who stood against Ezekiel for the Leadership. Lost the vote and then got cast into the outer darkness. Is that the same Cllr. Bayford who is currently on KCC as well and boasts he never reads his e-mails?
Surely he couldn't run TDC whilst a KCC councillor so could that mean a Broadstairs KCC election if he did get the throne at TDC? He couldn't do all that and run a business as well, surely?
Have brought a comment across from the 'Two Hats Ezekiel' posting that was posted this morning.
NTCA member said...
A thought strikes me. If Ezekiel does step down what happens to all those Ezekiel Party councillors he shoehorned into seats despite the local ward having other candidates in view?
You referred some time ago to a situation in NTCA where there was discontent over the candidate selection. Will some sitting councillors find themselves deselected in favour of others?
It's interesting that some of those currently languishing on the Tory backbenches were non-Ezekiel choices.
Says a great deal about the STCA and NTCA in my view at least.
18 January 2010 09:06
I thought Chris Wells challenged for Leadership last year whilst being a KCC member? Several KCC Councillors have in recent years also been Leaders of District Councils, so it is not unusual. For example, Mike Smelling in Gravesend, Roland Bliss at Shepway and Roy Bullock at Tonbridge Wells.
Re: the poll, happy to oblige Bertie old bean.
It'll be on my blog for the next seven days. So far, Orville the Duck is ahead by a mile.
You don't know Bayford if you think he is an Ezekiel clone Bertie. He is his own man, and doesn't take orders from anyone. Perhaps you are just hyping the story so you can continue your anti-Tory tirade if Bayford gets the vote?
And there is another as leader of Dartford council. Maybe somebody could tell me how they have the time. Memebers of KCC and local councils are often saying its a full time job. But they would would'nt they to justify their allowances and expenses.
Would like to see A Bruce take on the role, or failing that Chris Wells.
They seem to be the two best candidates to my mind.
However, if I were a betting man I'd put my money on Moores...
Bayford would be the worst possible person, he is not up to it.
It's too early for Jarvis, by the way, although I hear he is a good chap.
Perhaps a leader for the future but not yet...
As for J Gideon, she will be the dark horse in any race.
I can see her as many people's 2nd choice, so could sneak it, or end up as deputy leader.
My apologies for delay in putting up comments.
Dickie, many thanks.
17:37, not anti Conservative, just The Ezekiel Party version we have in Thanet.
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