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Labour face long odds in Thanet council battle

Written by Matt B · first published 30/09/2010

The Labour party (and the Liberal Democrats) face long odds if the local betting is any judge. The money seems to be on a Tory win in Thanet coming up.

At betable.com you can have a little flutter on the outcome of the Thanet elections by putting a pound on the number of Lib Dems the council will have (go on Tony, put your money where your mouth is). You can also put a pound or two on the final outcome of the council in general where the Conservatives are clear favorite to win.

Clive and the Labour party talk a good fight but they will have to do something to beat the current odds:

7 to 2 on Labour to win (Ł1 gets you Ł3.50)
6 to 1 on the Liberal Democrats to win (Ł1 gets you Ł6 if this manages to happen)
3 to 2 (roughly) on the Conservatives winning (Ł1 would net you just Ł1.50)
9 to 1 on a hung council (yes Ł1 would net you Ł9 should this happen)

Do you think that you can predict the outcome of this local election? If so are you confident enough to put a pound on?

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Wind...

Written by Matt B · first published 24/09/2010

Thanet has had some good mentions in the news today with talk of our "green" wind generated energy. Something that worked on hot air might be more effective - we get a lot of it round about here.

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Shave or save?

Written by Matt B · first published 21/09/2010

My beard is up for the chop for charity.

Charity Chop

Each dollar (about 70p) that is donated can be used as a vote to "save the beard" or "shave the beard"!

You have 19 days left to contribute.

Find Out More

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Arrr! Shiver me timbers.

Written by Matt B · first published 19/09/2010

Arr! Today be international talk like a pirate day. Arrr!

I knows this is true facebook says so

Anything interesting happen this week?

Written by Matt B · first published 18/09/2010

I've been away all week so have not really had time to keep an eye on events in the area. Has anything interesting happened here?

Any fires?

Any blog spats, new blogs, people getting sued?

Anyone famouse insulted Thanet this week?

Anything?

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The show must go on.

Written by Matt B · first published 06/09/2010

This weekend the show must go on for Love Music, Hate Racism.

Margate's first Love Music, Hate Racism music festival will take place this Saturday (September 11th) despite losing its stage.

Just ten days before the day of the festival, disaster struck as its event stage was destroyed in gale force winds.

The organising committee went into action to find a replacement, and were phoning companies from Exeter to Edinburgh with no success.

"We were desperate to find a stage to ensure the festival goes ahead." said event organiser Bunny Laroche "Then at literally the last gasp we found a Kent based company who could help. A couple of hours later a new stage was booked, and it's bigger and better too".

The show will begin at 12 noon on Saturday and will bring to Margate a fresh and multi cultural celebration of music and diversity. Local bands will be playing and local schools and colleges have taken part in making the event happen.

...

» Continue Reading: The show must go on.

David Green has been gone a year

Written by Matt B · first published 04/09/2010

It has been over a year since Councillor David Green published an update to his Eastcliff Matters blog giving rise to the idea that "they" have finally shut him down.

You may recall that Cllr Green suddenly shut down his blog under pressure and this gave rise to Thanet's most unanimous outcry. Then, a little later his blog again went silent and this time Cllr Green would not give a reason. Now with this "code" for blogging as a councillor in place it seems that the Conservative dominated council has indeed sealed this source of news.

Interestingly the one I suspect as the prime target has not stopped writing.

...

» Continue Reading: David Green has been gone a year

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Chemical spill shuts road

Written by Matt B · first published 03/09/2010

I was out of the area yesterday but I understand we saw more chemical spillage.

BBC News - Chemical spill shuts road in Thanet

Part of a dual carriageway in east Kent is shut to let emergency services clean up a chemical spill.

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Can you add anything to this story (Richard - you usually have something to say on such matters)

TDC to dump Thanet's poor to save four jobs

Written by Matt B · first published 01/09/2010

TDC to offload social housing burden

In a effort to reduce costs and take less responsibility for things Thanet District Council are offloading their council housing burden to an independent organization.

It's not just Thanet but also Canterbury, Dover and Shepway councils who have put forward plans to set up what they are calling an arm’s length management organisation to manage the joint housing stock. Apparently this will save all four councils about Ł1.5million over a two to three year period. read the story here.

I make that roughly Ł100,000 for each council each year. You could sack a few over paid consultants and make the same saving. Or you could get away with four less employees for the same yearly saving.

I'd bet the cost of disruption is bigger than the very small saving.

Just how much did we use up in one year buying the M&S building? (I believe it was Ł2million over value).

Rather than trying to save peanuts on untested new ideas how about TDC get their house in order first and save a vast fortune by not buying pointless property? Cutting costs by printing a bit less or by wasting less time on inefficient operations or expanding into yet another building would save the same money (or more).

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