Thanet Council Insufficiently skilled says Mr Wise
Written by Matt B · first published 15/04/2009
Thanet District Council has spent nearly £1 million on consultants in just three years, Finance boss Martin Wise has told thisiskent.co.uk because the council does not know how to deal with the tasks set before it.
According to ... Finance boss Martin Wise said that Thanet's council needs consultants to help it understand new legislation being introduced by the central Government and the authority not having officers with the skills to deal with it.
Let's stop and recap in case we missed that. Mr Wise says that the current officers of Thanet District Council lack the skills to do the job.
Is it me or did that come dangerously close for political speak for "not fit for office"?
Ignoring, for a moment that we have a Conservative council saying its all the fault of the Labour Government as normal (log, eye, own), let's think about that.
If the 50 plus councillors that stood at the last election have insufficient skills to do the job then what, in all fairness, did they think they were doing standing in the first place?
Mr Wise is also quoted as saying of the consultants hired:
We use these people to unravel the legislation and how to proceed with it. They do the donkey work. These are huge pieces of work that take a lot of time and all our officers have a day job to do and we don’t have the people to do the work.
Is it really that the entire council is made up of people lacking the skills to get the job done or is it that it lacks in-favour-conservatives to get the job done? It seems to me that our council, according to Mr Wise, is controlled by people unqualified for the power and responsibility that they hold.
According to the article Council "leader" Sandy Ezekiel argues that central government should let local authorities get on with the job rather than bogging them down with unnecessary spending. (Such as overpaying for property in Margate, Sandy?)
It's no good blaming the government, blaming the press, blaming everyone involved when it long ago became clear to everyone that the problem was a lack of responsibility. Rather than spending every ounce of energy fighting the other party maybe someone would like to actually get something done for once? Then we'd not need to try and kick up dust to cover the fact that no one is doing their job and they are getting paid very nicely for it too.
If Sandy and co are unable to complete the work the council must undertake they should step down today and call for a new election to find someone who can do the job.
Maybe it's time that Sandy's gang put pride aside and looked to the whole of the council to find the skills and time that they need. I happen to know that at least one Labour Councillor is currently unemployed and would probably jump at the chance to show his Tory counter-parts how it all works.
Alternatively maybe Mr Wise and Cllr Ezekiel might consider the inaugural Kent Poker Cup a poker tournament at Thanet's G Casino as this holds as much hope of a good return on investment as any other we seem to have been shown by Thanet District Council of late.
If I have to become a councillor to see that this lack of skill and ability is sorted out I shall be very cross indeed.
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One fan short of a hundred. :)
Rocky Raccoon wrote:
Former Head of Tourism and Leisure Dept sent an info pack by a govt body with funds to dish out as grants to seaside resorts in South East.
Govt official arrives some weeks later at TDC.
"Well what did you make of the info we sent and which grant funding do you wish to apply for ?"
"Ummmmm duh well I didn't read the pack it was so big. So I bin waiting for you to come aht and explain it"
"Well that will be zilch grant aid for Thanet then"
A Standards Cttee matter some time later.
"Is it not the case that a TDC Head of Dept is a member of the 6th Thanet Gun Range ? Could this have been an influence in TDC Planning Dept failures to enforce planning and noise nuisance law at said range"
TDC answer .. "Duh you caught us out there holding a Standards Cttee meeting whilst the casefile was withheld. Stop catching us out like this"
Next question "Did a former Head of Tourism get a fifty grand severance sum plus a pension of 25 grand per year ?"
TDC "Not answering"
Next question "Can you, under FOI, send me the records for the former former Head of Tourism and his alleged evidence that he suspected some right wing cllrs were targetting him for help he had given Royal Ulster Constabulary investigate links between the far right and the IRA in Thanet"
No answer from TDC. Reckon they need more info to find the record. More like a request for more info as a fishing expedition.
Recently there was a Cabinet (govt) security fiasco centred on a man called James Shortt.
I have furnished police reason to suspect that Mr Shortt used a Thanet Gun Range for his live fire training courses possibly under the organisation ILETA ...
And also a record suggesting that the Army Physical Training Corps raised MI5 inquiry as long ago as 1982 re Mr Shortt's bogus close quarter battle courses run at Deal Royal Marines Barracks gym. Requesting MI5 inquiry re suspected paramilitary training of far right activists.
One feels that Kent Police have rather a long long history of cock up. TDC ditto.
Public sector parasites.
But a noise nuisance andplanning enforcement officer failing to report the sound of unlawful machine gun fire ? That is not simply unfit for purpose that is lacking moral fibre and lacking a public service ethic.