What's Looping the Loop? it's the idea that we can link up the three towns of Thanet (Margate, Ramsgate & Broadstairs) with some mesmerising theatre and do it all through travelling on the Loop bus!
Full information is at www.loopingtheloopfestival.org.uk or http://ramsgatearts.org/looping-the-loop . Some details are attached and we hope you like the project!
With best wishes from us all
Ramsgate Arts
Creating inspiring new activities for local people and visitors
Registered charity 1150096
13 comments:
Solo Gays, surely you have realised by now that Ian Driver is an attention seeking sensationalist. Much of what he says should be taken with a sizeable pinch of salt.
His latest post talks about snouts and troughs, but it was not so long ago that he sold his vote back to the Labour group in return for the chair of a committee which carried a generous allowance. No mention of snouts snuffling then was there?
As for Richard Card, he has been pushing out his theories on perjury, the Deal bombing and illegal gun ranges for years. Most blogsite administrators delete his stuff as spam, but Ian, probably due to a shortage of other comments, publishes it.
I do not dispute that TDC at times leaves much to be desired, but not sure the Driver or Card version is where we should be going for facts.
16.23 It is healthy to question the motives of anyone in public life, but I think dissatisfaction with local party politics has been building for a long time now in Thanet. Ian and Richard seem to be offering an explanation as to why things have gone so badly wrong, and without any credible rebuttals I can only see their arguments becoming more and more believed. What they are doing is part of our blogging culture now, and I feel I should mention them in passing from time to time, though I do concede I would be happier if I could meet with them both and have sight of some evidence? But then who am I to ask for such a thing?
Credible rebuttal in Richard's case is almost constant. Do you seriously believe that some Tory councillors were complicit in the activities of an illegal gun range in Birchington where Uzi wielding Arabs seem to have fired alongside police and councillors?
Do you seriously believe that a decade ago a Tory councillor committed perjury in the High Court, a story passed on by Richard to all and sundry including the police, yet has not had his collar felt.
Michael is pretty good at discerning serious contribution from spam so follow his lead. Who knows, next you will be telling us that the aquifer man has a point and Manston should close.
I do not know Michael, or his motives for providing the service he does, or the arrangements he has with anyone.
I have highlighted gross planning injustices not only done to my own family, but also that of my community, and no attempt is being made to put this right? Thanet Tories are directly involved here, and I fear matters could end in bloodshed. These are my concerns, not "Uzi wielding Arabs" or a complacent overstretched Police Service. Mind you, if important information was not passed on regarding the Deal barracks bombing, then I would imagine quite a few people would be unhappy about that?
Solo Gays, terrorist bombing investigations and military alert states are not dependent on information from some ex TA bloke retired in Thanet. Ask yourself, what could he know that the security services do not.
Perjury in the high court is a very serious matter. It would not be ignored like some report of a break in to the garden shed might be.
I have read of the injustice done to your own family and I am only sorry they should suffer such an experience. There is, however, no relationship between that and the rubbish Richard comes out with.
Ok, without having met Richard Card or seen his evidence, I will on this occasion remove the reference to him on my piece here. Though arranging a meeting with Richard Card is something Ian could do. That is up to him.
As you say, the way things have been run in Thanet leave a lot to be desired, and guilt by association is (only perhaps) too easy an answer to offer. Thankyou anyway for your kind words regarding the 10 years of insecurity my mother and her disabled partner have endured, and may yet have to continue to endure, since there does not seem to be an end in sight any time soon.
My family, having lived in a cottage in Manston, were torn apart by a pending divorce in the late 1990's. The land attatched to the cottage, which was previously used as a business, became my mother's home around 2003.
A neighbour of my mother never liked her (I think it was because she never grew up in the countryside). It was also around 2003 that this neighbour was co-opted onto Manston Parish Council, and soon after in fact became Chair. And it was at around 2003 that mother found herself having to enter into dialogue with Thanet Council about regularising her situation in relation to the land she owned and occupied.
I will return to the above another time, when she feels able to start telling us what happened from there onwards. But what I can safely say is that happily a new relationship with another man blossomed around this time of 2003, and he too was going through a divorce. But sadly as things went along she discovered a troubled history of physical and mental health problems. All this further complicated dialogue with Thanet Council.
Since 2003, each time mother sought advice about her situation from planning staff, they encouraged her to make various applications to settle there under one pretext or another. But each time she paid considerable amounts of money to make an application, she was just rejected out of hand. TDC Planning Staff were also replaced frequently. There has always been a problem with record keeping as well, which my mother went to great lengths to point out, but this did not change anything. So new staff were never really understanding the full context of their situation. The costs of appeals against Enforcements started to run into tens of thousands of pounds as well, much of which has not been recovered, and which is needed to cover health costs in retirement.
Each rejected application and successful appeal against Enforcements frustrated the Manston Parish Councillors. In their minds this has added weight to their view that they have been given enough time to remove themselves from the land by now. It is a very troubling situation for the Manston Parish Councillors and they frequently implied this in their Manston Parish Newsletters, which they distributed around the Parish on a regular basis.
But now it seems everyone wants them to go? Certainly the Chief Executive of Thanet Council has not thought about their circumstances or where they should move to? The matter was brought to her attention in recent years, but she is not interested for some reason?
Of course, Councillor Mick Tomlinson in 2009 for sure was behind moves to drive my mother and disabled partner from their Manston home without thinking of the consequences (ie being reliant on taxpayers for housing among other things). And the harassment continued has continued unabated and we have yet another appeal to get through shortly.
And it was Councillor Tomlinson who spoke in support to get planning permission for the expansion of Bradgate Park Caravans in Manston just across the field from my mother, and at around the same time frame(2009). Manston Parish Councillors did not object, even though there were strong feelings about not wanting expansion onto prime agricultural land, especially without contributions to local infrastructure(Clive Hart was going to look into this, it was reported in Your Thanet at the time). The Manston Parish Councillors now conduct their meetings at Bradgate Caravan Park, I think this is why villagers feel helpless and intimidated. They even had the temerity to invite Steve Albon to their hideout last year to talk about Enforcements. They appeared to have cancelled the meeting he was set to speak at,we could not get anyone on the site to give an explanation, saying something about everyone being on holiday? But by a stroke of luck a friend saw them convene in there about half an hour later after they were due to start, so we managed to get there. A local resident assumed that they were there to discuss my mothers case, but he was hushed up and several councillors went to leave the room, I asked for their names. Steve Albon was then put in a position of having to talk about enforcements in general terms.
Planning Appeal held yesterday:-
Planning Officers Livingston and Fibbens, supported by Harvey Patterson, maintained their stance that the building in which a man in receipt of Mental Health Services resides, should be torn down.
Two members of Manston Parish Council were present, and I put it to them that if they got their way they really do need to consider disability discrimination laws and consider where this man can be housed within the village? I mentioned localism as the mechanism for this. I also alluded to case histories where people with Mental Health Problems have been alllowed to continue living in sporadic settlements across the country. I stated that if the land were vacated they should consider what could happen to the land in terms of development by others?
It did not occur to those Parish Council Members that the health needs of their Parishoners need to be taken into account by law (neither it seems did the planning officers supported by Harvey Patterson?). It was also explained that at present my mother takes on the burden of his care, and that by both of them being there neither of them is a burden on the taxpayer.
I explained to all those present that I tried to arrange a multi agency meeting to discuss this man's case but I was not taken seriously. There appears to be no mechanism or will to do this. Prevention of a Mental Health Crisis is not on TDC's agenda. It is only when citizens harm themselves that there is a satisfactory multi agency response(based on first hand accounts I hear talking to patients and relatives in mental health settings). We can only hope that the reaction, when it comes, will not result in loss of life. Because the Service User has been ridiculed and disbelieved by both Thanet Council staff, Councillors, and Manston Parish Councillors, he was not prepared to share the forensic report about him, and it was stated by us as a family that it was patently unacceptable that Consultants letters were not being taken seriously by TDC
We await the inspectors decision, although there is a problem here also, in that a previous inspector(Woolnougth) foolishly stated when giving a two year grant of planning permission that: " this should give Mr****** plenty of time to adjust to the fact that he must move" (and yet he knew there was an ongoing problem yet to be properly determined?).
That of course suited the agenda of councillors through their spokesmen officers, but fortunately his representative at the time had the presence of mind to seek clarifciation from the Quality Assurance Department at the Inspectorate, and they stated that his health needs should be "sensibly kept under review"?
And it is all very well professional people enjoying debating points of law in front of victims/patients and their famillies, but the many years this takes to determine, is what actually makes the health problems far worse, seems lost on them?
From Cllr Ian Driver's blog today:
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Thanet Council Rocked By High Level Cover Up Allegations.
Members of Thanet Council’s General Purposes Committee agreed last night to seek legal advice about the implications of rejecting, what many councillors felt to be, an unsatisfactory assessment of a complaint that a senior council officer may have improperly interfered with a major planning application.
The complaint, submitted by Thanet Green Party Councillor Ian Driver, alleges that Chief Executive, Sue McGonigal, may have attempted to influence the outcome of a major planning application to build 550 houses at a site near the Westwood Cross Shopping Centre in Thanet. The application was submitted in 2013 by East Kent Opportunities a Limited Liability Partnership jointly owned by Kent County Council and Thanet District Council. Chief Executive McGonigal is a member of the EKO management board.
An external assessor brought in to evaluate the complaint said that there was no case to answer, but some of the councillors at the meeting felt that the assessors report was unsatisfactory, especially because the assessor had not spoken to planning officers to establish if, during the course of 2 separate meetings with the Chief Executive, they were put under pressure to change their recommendations on the EKO planning application. With these doubts in mind councillors decided to defer a decision on whether accept the assessors report and take legal advice on what the implication would be if the report was rejected.
In a separate development members of the General Purposes were shocked to receive a 13 page letter with 20 pages of supporting documents alleging that the investigation into Driver’ complaint was being undermined by Chief Executive McGonigal with the support of Labour Council Leader Clive Hart, Labour Councillor Michelle Fenner the Chair of the General Purposes Committee and Human Resources Manager Juli Oliver Smith. The letter also alleges that Director of Community Services, Madeline Homer, may have also improperly interfered with the management of the planning application.
The letter was written by Thanet Council’s Monitoring Officer, Harvey Patterson, who is responsible for ensuring that council officers and councillors follow legal and constitutional rules in the conduct of their business.
Commenting on these developments Ian Driver said “extremely serious allegations relating to misconduct in public office by very senior people have been made. I am very concerned that there appears to be an attempt to cover up any potential wrongdoing and to prevent a proper independent enquiry from taking place. I have now received a copy of the Monitoring Officers letter which, in the public interest, I have passed on to the media. I will also publish the letter myself. I am appalled by the secrecy, cover-ups and lack of ethical standards which appear to be a feature of Thanet Council. Any alleged misbehaviour in public office must be exposed and properly investigated rather than covered up.
"William wrote about "Constant negativity". He is right in my view. But investors (thin on the ground anyway) don't pay as much heed to negative sentiment as they do to negative substance.
For example years ago the rule that visiting coaches had to be out of Margate by 6 PM. How to kill investment in one easy lesson. The area's police could not handle the job of public order. Rather than address the problem this is an area that would rather leave the problem in place and commit tourism economic suicide to sustain the problem as the norm.
The area's history of police corruption goes back decades with, for example, one major inquiry into Thanet CID, by Northumbria Police, driven by Met Police.
BBC and ITV each broadcast programmes critical of care standards in private care homes. Both used Thanet as their subject. In all of the country ? Yes Thanet features as the dross.
In all of the country where was Territorial Army infiltrated successfully by paramilitaries ? Yes Thanet.
There is information that in about 1980 Kent Police got rid of a number of Special constables for "Political infiltration" reasons. Yes in Thanet.
In all of the country where did the well funded extremist right wing IRA supportive League of St George set up ? Yes Thanet.
The UDA drugs importing ? Thanet
Mercenaries despatching ? Yes Thanet.
IRA defrauding the benefits system?
Yes Thanet.
Senior tory gets his own business rates written off and gets very lenient sentence for forging qualifications and dollars. Thanet.
Senior tory associates arrested in possession of sub machine guns. Yes Thanet.
Jewish business certainly aware of private military cadet groups and holocaust denial lectures. Question mark Thanet again.
Industrial sabotage via infiltration of GMBU. Thanet.
Thor and Sericol massive contamination of aquifer ? Thanet.
Question mark about penalty clauses and contractual standards on Pfizer development possibly indicating Pfizer had no long term plan to sustain their operation in Thanet. Investors look at this sort of thing. (And were right)
Reputation of area after Ferry Walkway collapse.
Freeholders (Like University colleges) anxious to get rid of paramilitary training nuisances off their land. Thanet.
The truth is that former coal mine tradesmen in East Kent made far more attractive employees because they had skill and employer would always know where he stood with them.
Whereas local Thanet people have a reputation for moving behind closed doors. Being treacherous.
Some contracting firms do say no local labour for Thanet contracts. I know of one firm that would rather bring lads from Port Talbot area.
Like the London cabbie said "Thanet ? Giro munchers always moaning about their council"
Invest here ?"
Today my mother was on the verge of telling her side of the story on this blog of how some neighbours in Manston have lied and colluded with those in Authority to present a negative impression of her and her partner. After battling this onslaught for the best part of ten years, this has now resulted in the very real threat of them being required to bulldoze their home early next year, which they converted from an old dis-used farm building.
The tragedy is that Thanet Council sat back and for many months allowed them to spend all their money on this conversion before serving Enforcements (a week before Chrismas), in effect giving around 12 months notice to remedy the situation i.e. flatten the structure. The Officer who said the Development could proceed went off sick for about six months afterwards and issued a denial on his return. My mother has decided to give dialogue with Thanet Council Planning one last try. I think she could be in for further humiliation, but hope I am wrong? Meanwhile, Thanet Council, the Inspectorate, and a judge are aware of the threat of self harm. They are too old and ill to take too much more.
CORRECTION: I wrongly assumed Steve Albon had "issued a denial on his return" (from a period of sickness).Recounting a conversation I had with mother today, it was Trevor Heron (recently deceased)whilst preparing an appeal which was eventaully heard this year who had previously asked Steve Albon about this matter of allowing a pitched roof a year or so back. It was then that he said to Mr Heron that it was too long ago for him to remember.
In my mind I had naturally assumed the planning dept would have had a discussion with Mr Albon prior to serving Enforcements in 2012, that he would have denied such a conversation/permission took place (for reasons known only unto him as to why he would find it necessary to lie), and that following such a denial Planning then proceed to issue enforcements late 2012.
It is looking likely that no such discussion took place with Mr Albon. If it had, maybe we would not be where we are now?
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