Last week, the Government announced a building target of three million homes by 2020, two million of which are to be delivered by 2016. This is now an absolute priority for New Labour and supersedes both health, defense and education, leaving the audit commission to comment that such a priority has only been seen three times in British history, during the industrial revolution and at the end of the First and Second World Wars. For those of us in Thanet worried by the spread of concrete and incr

Reported in Friday's Gazette, town centre car parking charges are rising 16 - 27 %, another large nail in the coffin of the shops in the town centres hammered in by TDC. Bit above inflation? But of course parking at Westwood Cross is still free, mind you, with the traffic chaos that causes, all the approaching roads will soon be designated 'car parks'!

Those blighters at the council look set to close our Royal Harbour's splendid Maritime Museum! The news is tucked away in the corner of this week's Gazunder feature on the council's 2008 budget. The Blue Rinsers are apparently considering withdrawing the museum's grant as part of urgent cost-cutting measures. But the news is not all bad, as they'll be diverting more resources into keeping the town centre spick and span - by closing the public khazis. Presumably the idea is that the resulting ri

When it's Thanet Gateway Plus, of course! The latest edition of our beloved council's very own trumpet-blowing magazine Thanet Matters devotes a front page and several hundred words to the revamping of Margate Library, which re-opens its doors on the 7th of January and now features Thanet Gateway Plus (urgh!), a 'one stop shop' for council services. But casting the old Eastcliff mincers over the lavish, double-page spread, I clocked only two mentions of the word 'library'. Oh yes, plenty of 'cu

The Thanet Gazette devotes a great deal of coverage today to the island's fiscal challenges ahead. Bearing in mind that the total funding we will receive from central government over the next three years us set to fall in nominal terms, and fall further after inflation is taken into account, the council is having to be very cautious with what little money there is available; remember that only 40% of the income comes from the community charge and Thanet is a welfare and grant dependent environm

I see the President of France today signed £14.5bn worth of deals with the Chinese. So, have Thanet's illustrious leaders, who've also recently been in China, done as well? Here's an extract from Sandy's China Diary, which I found on a CD marked 'top secret' that TNT popped through the letterbox this morning: Day 1: Lord luvva duck! Those tossers at BA lost my effing bag. F*cking tossers. 'Ad a couple of Axminster samples in it too. Tossers. Day 2: Bleedin' 'ell. They served up snake liver last

When it's a 'one stop shop', of course! There appears to be a fierce debate going on in the pages of this blog (see comments under Gazunder Goes Gaga below) about whether our beloved council plan to use Ramsgate Library, which is currently being rebuilt after the 2004 fire, as a 'one stop shop' for council services and the like. Such plans are already well advanced for Margate Library. Observer, generally one of our better informed local bloggers, has opined that such rumours are mere gossip a

Chatting to some of the local millionaires over a glass of bubbly down on the Croisette last night, I learnt that the Royal Harbour's ancient dredger, Ramsgate, is up for sale. Apparently it's all part of Councillor Latchford's plan to bring in new, super-duper dredging arrangements and get rid of the sandy beach that appears in our harbour entrance every low tide. I've dredged up this photo (geddit??!!!) of the old tub in happier times. So, now you can buy the whole of Ramsgate for £65,000! A

I see the Uranians have selected the finalists for their Thanet Is Beautiful photo and video competition. Strangely, my film of Ramsgate's Oasis blight flights doesn't appear to have made the cut. They've also cunningly split the Ramsgate vote by shortlisting two very similar photos of our Royal Harbour. So, what's the guessing Boredstares or Margate wins? Although with all the gruesomeness currently happening on the north side, it could do with whatever good publicity it can get, I suppose. T

Cripes! I see local teeny-tiny council campaigner Gerry O'Ramsgate has waded into the murky waters of the Pleasurama Development (aka Royal Sands aka Titanic aka Elsbels Palace Hotel). In a recent email to all our local councillors, he writes: Don't forget that at the Eastcliff Resident's Association meeting where the developers (£££££££££) met the people (********) I extracted an undertaking from Chief Planning Officer Brian White (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) that he would keep an eagle eye on the height

All the recent hard work on those shelters here on Ramsgate's swanky East Cliff seems to have been worth it, as these before and after pictures show: West shelter, February 2007 West shelter, November 2007 East shelter, February 2007 East shelter, November 2007 Hats off to the Foreshores Department of our beloved local council!

The headline is completely bogus but if there were such a competition, I'm sure Thanet council would win by a significant margin. I had the misfortune to take what Americans call a comfort break whilst visiting Ramsgate Saturday. Its sometime since, I have used the conveniences in Cavendish Street, and my mind had blotted out the appalling stench. As I'm currently in my middle age, it cannot be long before the provision of public toilets becomes a major consideration. I just hope that befo

The Sandy Beach sandy beach which currently graces our harbour entrance could be destined to top up our, er, sandy beach. Reader Jane writes: I've heard that Councillor Latchford and co, who are putting the new dredging contract for the harbour out to tender, are investigating the possibility of using a JCB with an extended arm based on the East Pier itself to dredge the harbour, following the trial of the barge-based JCB recently. The idea would be to hoik the sand over the other side of the h

Well, I felt I must write this on my blog, only hoping one of the TDC might pick it up and act. All summer I have been going past the Hugin Ship Picnic site both mornings and evenings sometimes mid afternoons, on very few of these occasions has the barrier across the entrance been open. I have seen many people turn into the entrance only to turn round and go away again. I thought we were publishing the Viking ship as one of Thanets Best and yet we are no doing anything to encourage visitors to s

Following last week's ECR fonejack, Thanet Council appear to have got a wriggle on and are finally replacing the backs of the shelters here on Ramsgate's swinging East Cliff, which they removed to 'repair' eight months ago. You'll recall that the nice lady in the Foreshores Department, who was responsible for these shelters but couldn't help with the fountain that's 20 feet away because that's the responsibility of the Open Spaces Department, promised on the phone that, with the summer 'rush' n

Crumbs! Or should I say crumbling? This hole has appeared over the last few days on our crumbling East Cliff. Having spotted a contractor's van parked in the vicinity last week, with a few council types milling around, I assume that it's part of the tendering process for the repairs. Still, I'm not about to remove the counteriser-ometer from my sidebar just yet. 905 days and counting since the temporary fencing was erected. What's the betting we make 1000?

This week's Isle Of Thanet Gazette has the frontpage question MARGATE - WHAT NEXT? The gazette addresses issues over the controversial plans for The Dreamland amusement site. I must say for a variety of reasons, I'm more than confused, I shall elaborate. Over the last few years some things have never been explained adequately, the owners of the Dreamland amusement park have dismantled an established business with a worldwide reputation, surely not as some long cynical process, to turn the s

Word reaches me that some of you have been having a spot of bother getting through to the right department when dealing with our beloved Thanet District Council on the phone. So I thought I'd give it a go myself. Here's what happened (the voices have been disguised to protect the innocent)...

Well, I've posted my entry for Thanet Council's competition to find photos and videos of the Ile as part of their 'Thanet Is Beautiful' campaign. It's bound to win me that long-overdue BAFTA (Biggles Award For Thanet Arts) I richly deserve! Enjoy!

There's a mutiny among our local matelots! According to this week's Gazunder, fisher folk have been holding parties on the new beach that used to be the entrance to our Royal Harbour to protest the fact that, although they're charged for deep water berthing, they're unable to get in and out unless it's virtually a spring tide. The blue tub in the photo is Ramsgate's The Ramsgate, and it's supposed to dredge the harbour and channels, keeping them free of all that estuary silt that builds up. But