Another dubious honour as Thanet tops the list of poorest areas in Kent.

When it comes to child poverty Thanet is well ahead of the pack with a quarter of all children coming from deprived backgrounds. The two worst areas being Newington and Margate Central.

According to one source (poverty.org.uk) more than half of all the children in low-income households have someone in their family in some form of paid work. Which goes some way to explaining that while the figures for poverty in Newington are higher than the figures for families claiming out of work benefits the area continues to suffer with households stuck with insufficient incomes.



One of the issues being fingered for this failure is the lack of quality employment opportunities for younger people (teens and twenties) which would have otherwise helped to break the cycle.

The simple fact is that a child growing up in poverty in more than twice as likely to continue to live in poverty in their adult life regardless of weather they are able to find work or not.

Now that Thanet Labour have a grip on the local authority (albeit a tenuous one) have they got the chops to make a difference?

Our Council promoting the adult activities but probably meant activities for adults.

There is a difference guys

My mind truly was boggled at the headline in my feed reader "free adult sport activities".

Okay so I know what they mean is they want to offer sports for grown ups (at least grown up in body) but I also think they might want to rethink that page title.



The imagination runs wild as to what Adult Football might be. It sounds painful although Adult Rugby might be... best not thought about too much.

As I sit here, drink in hand waiting for the year to end I thought I would join in with the current trend and enjoy my yearly game of guess what happens next.

These are my twelve predictions for twenty-twelve.

1. There will be more wrangling over Margate's amusement park and the scenic railway, cinema and other part collectively called dreamland. I can't see the likes of the developers who have sunk quite so much capital into the land giving up without trying everything they can to build houses there. For their part our council will probably light some bulbs and put up some signs with very little if any visible progress by the close of the year.

2. Thanet as a whole will continue to feel the worst of recession and credit problems with further shop closures and dereliction something that we continue to have to live with. However some small enterprises will start to buck the trend prospering where others are failing. When a bomb blast, drought or a fire wipes out life in a woodland the trees do not "just grow back". There is a process whereby different groups of plants and animals move into the niche and in doing so make way for the next stage. Eventually all is trees again. We will see innovation in 2012 and people will be cynical and then surprised.

3. At least one more member of the two leading parties will defect to the Intendants. Given the unity that Labour members appeared to show during the count (I was there) the smart money should be on Conservatives shedding another member. The cracks will continue to show in the Conservative party for some time to come I think. It's all part of the healing process and something that they need to get over with as fast as possible to they can provide a decent balance to Labour's new leadership (under license from the independents).

4. The independent council members will remind Labour several times that they hold the balance of power. As such expect Labour to answer to her new master. Which leads me on to...

5. There will be renewed calls for a Mayor and Cabinet model of Council as both parties have little to loose and the electorate has much to gain (if only in terms of a stable council).

6. There will be calls for Margate to become Parished as are all other areas of Thanet (and almost all of Kent). Margate is crying out for a hyper-hyper local body committed to addressing her problems and her problems alone. Our district and county councils are simply not set up for that level of attention to detail.

7. One or more newspaper titles for the area will end or change considerably (from paid to free or from weekly to monthly for example). I would be very surprised if the titles that KM tried to buy do not find another home this year.

8. The turner centre will perform uncannily to projections sagging in only a few places. There's too much pride at stake for the centre to not hit visitor numbers in 2012 but only the old town will see much benefit. Indeed all of the regeneration effort will be invested into the old town with Margate high street left to rot.

9. Someone will attempt to turn a high street shop into a house. The blogs will object with a certain dry cynicism and not much passion to oppose.

10. There will be at least one public falling out that will spread across the blogs. At least one blogger will ask themselves "why bother?" Although to be honest those of us that are left are fairly fire proof so I don't expect to see anyone quit this time.

11. Thanet News Network will shake things up a little. Not in necessarily big ways but it will set the bar a little higher for those of us that consider ourselves "news" sites. I think people might be surprised.

12. Labour bloggers will start to come out of the woodwork once more as the anti-blogging attitude dies with the change of party at the top. Some people might be quite bitter about this but on the whole I think the community will be richer for the diversity and the debate.

Have a happy new year folks.

What can you see in our future?

Some members of the conservative party are really nice people and an example of that which is good.

I think that it bears pointing out that while some conservatives (who shall this time remain nameless) are an example of all that is wrong with our district council they are some councillors who are actually decent folks, good councillors and an example of the type of person of whom we could do with more.

Yesterday I wrote about an (ex) Conservative who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and was giving his party's name a further blackening (in my opinion obviously).

Peter Checksfield pointed out that while he worked as a doorman it was the Conservatives that were the most polite to him. This has prompted me to write this short post to say that, yes, I need to say that there are some really decent Tory's out there. Mr and Mrs Gale with whom I do not see eye-to-eye politically have been dead helpful and taken the time to help me on a number of occasions. There are a number of other conservatives who I shall not embarrass but are deserving of plenty of praise too.

This post could as equally be called a beginners guide to responsibility and blog comments but given the situation that has prompted it I think the headline far more, well not apt as such, appropriately witty maybe?

I am off course hoping to weigh in on the latest storm in a tea-cup that is the Cllr John Worrow vs James Maskell. Anyone further left of the political spectrum than the boundary of "undeniably right" might have missed this one completely. So here is a really brief recap:



That's the back story but could you spot who has made a miss step? (It might surprise you).

Keep reading to see not only a number of councillors miss the mark, the point and the opportunity to win votes and just as interesting how Worrow himself is costing himself support with what should have been a free PR boost.

...

» Continue Reading: Bums, Banditry and How to Lose Votes.

Thanet Star will not be going off line due to the
humbug jobsworth society due to some Christmas goodwill and general sponsorship.

Flavour of the month is, for me, Hiltons World Wide Ltd with whom you can get a 15% discount (click here to find out how). I'd like to encourage you all to stop by the shop and say hi. That is if you can find some parking in Margate.

I am forced to wonder if our council is being wilfully ignorant of it's use of IT or just incompetent.

I have just read a Freedom of Information request Use of Internet by Council staff and what I have read is slightly alarming.

Sophie Chadwick, the Contracts and Partnerships Relationship Manager, writes that our council does not have the means to monitor external network communication and so since 2005 has never had to discipline a member of staff for misuse of the internet. As unlikely as this voluntary compliance seems it is fully explained by the admission that our council has no way of knowing if their Internet connection is being abused.

On the face of it this seems to be the sign of an employer that is prepared to look the other way if staff browse porn or generally waste time. It also means that staff can read Thanet blogs at work which is good I think.

However there is more than just a whiff of stupidity here. Our council (and our tax money) is at significant risk due to th lack of good monitoring processes.

...

» Continue Reading: Has Thanet Council been negligent or did it lie?

Having been shafted by the Christmas Humbug Jobsworth Society there is little chance of me paying the hosting bills this side of Chrimbo.

I will however keep blogging until the lights go out.

In the unlikely event that my hosting company are very understanding I hope to pay up in the new year (somehow) and maybe come back on line. If not it has been great knowing you and my many thanks for staying around to read the blog.

Our District Council here in Thanet has recently changed leadership from Conservative who have held the reigns longer than I have been blogging about the area to Labour who have long contested that they can do a better job.

In this article I will take an in depth look at the implications of the changes and what it might mean to long standing concerns, power and council attitude.

Certainly no one was willing to say that they thought that Labour had a chance of taking control of the council. The straw poll I took on the Thanet Star Facebook page suggested that most people saw the winners as the Independents which in a way was true.

The Most Powerful Men in Thanet

If you hold true that men on our (Thanet) District Council hold any true power (as to, say, certain, shall we say, business men) then it would be safe to say that the most powerful men in Thanet may have changed.

Actually this is not true. The most powerful men in Thanet have simply let their strength be known. These men are of course Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen whose vote from among the Independents on our council first placed Cllr Bob Bayford in power and then removed him.

Cllr Bob Bayford for all that Cllr Clive Hart says about him being exceptionally well respected missed the truth of his leadership. A leadership which in truth had always been in the hands of the independent councillors. I am not sure exactly what the Conservatives have done, if anything, to loose favour with the Thanet King Makers but loose it they have.

Of course this might simply be a very astute move from the Independents to be sure that their power is respected. It was assumed that they would side with Labour for a change of leadership and yet they struck a deal to vote for Cllr Bob Bayford after the elections. One might argue that this was simply to let the Labour members know who was in charge when, as has happened, a change of leadership took place.

I am not saying that Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Jack Cohen were party to such tactical voting but I am not saying that they were not. What is clear is that Cllr Clive Hart's grip on power is subject to the opinion of two men who represent two thirds of the power in the Birchington South Ward.

...

» Continue Reading: The changes in Council leadership: What do they mean for us?

I'm jacking in blogging.

Just kidding. I am taking 5 days out from everything. I'll be back.