A special emergency meeting
in which people will get a chance to put questions about corruption in Thanet
will be held at 7pm, on Wednesday 20 March in Broadstairs.
The meeting will take a
format similar to the TV “Question Time” programme, with a panel of experts
answering questions submitted by the audience.
The meeting is being held by
Thanet’s Independent Media Society in the wake of the imprisonment of ex-council
leader Sandy Ezekiel and the news that Kent police are widening their
investigations into other planning applications and major development in the
area.
Mr Thomas, one of the
meeting organisers said: “The trial and conviction of one of our leading local
politicians has, of course, raised widespread concerns in Thanet.
“People are asking how far
and deep this corruption goes and what this means to our local
democracy.
“This meeting will give
people a chance both to find out more about what’s happened and to put their
views about what’s going on.”
Mr Thomas hopes that members
of both the major parties will come. “We need to hear from our local politicians
what they’re doing about this scandalous state of
affairs.”
“Most people I think would
agree that Thanet has enough problems as it is without its elected
representatives getting up to criminal actions on their own behalf.”
The panel of experts will
include Ian Driver, chair of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny committee, and
Louise Oldfield, “citizen journalist” and blogger.
People with questions they
want to be put to the panel should send them to IMS, 11 Grosvenor Road,
Broadstairs CT10 2BT or email inmeds@yahoo.co.uk or telephone 01843 604
253.
“You can simply ask
questions on the day, of course,” Mr Thomas said, “but submitting your questions
in advance will give you a better chance of being called.”
The meeting will be held at
7pm on Wednesday March 20 at the Red Hall, 11 Grosvenor Rd, Broadstairs CT10
2BT. All are welcome.
The address and the name Thomas tells one all one needs to know about what kind of meeting this will be. The gathering of the Trots to decry all things right of Lenin as corrupt or aristocratic idiots. To save going out in the cold, spend 60p on Thanet Watch and you will be able to read all about it. On the other hand, I shall not be bothering.
ReplyDeleteI cannot see anyway in which this meeting could turn out nicely. Its a public trial by insinuation. Pretty spiteful actually. I wonder if TDC is OK with this meeting, because this is the reason why Driver's on the Panel. Does this not bring the Council into disrepute?
DeleteThank you for reading Thanet Watch so carefully you quote it every time you post! Do come.All welcome.
DeleteChristine
Thanet Watch
Certainly a trial by mob, but our "nicely" council has nicely been indulging in massive corruption and fraud and pollution.
DeleteTDC don't have to like it James, it's called freedom of expression and councillors speaking up on behalf of the people that put them there - rather than being a council toady.
While Driver's no saviour of Pleasurama given it's taken him years to eventually speak up after the site is already derelict. But he's the only councillor so far from our silent 58.
Questions on 0% salaries and pollution fines anyone? A vote of no confidence in McGonigal?
One thing is for certain, it will be a very small mob, grossly exagerated by the organisers as they have done with previous gatherings and demonstrations.
DeleteWell at least Mrs Driver and family will have a night off from those dulcet northern tones. Surprised he hasn't been offered a job to stand on the fore deck of ships shouting in fog.
ReplyDeleteDonnygate the sequel ???
ReplyDeleteI've invited them
ReplyDeleteChristine
Bit unfair, Peter, for Cllr Moores has a planning meeting at the same time. I do not know for sure but I very much doubt if any Conservatrive councillors will attend for they would just be setting themselves up to be insulted or shouted at. Believe me, this mob in Broadstairs have stacks of previous, they are lefties and they do not debate, just shout which is why Driver fits in so well. I went once, a decade ago when I first moved to Broadstairs, but never again.
ReplyDeleteMoores can send a written explanation of the 0% salaries or put it on his blog can't he? He was Chair of the committee that approved them, but they're not 0%.
ReplyDeletePeter, like I told you, I have been and it is a bit like going to a meeting of the Socialist Workers Party. Any person openly Conservative would be setting themselves up to be insulted and ridiculed and I very much doubt they would get a word in. Christine Tongue and her following, although small, regularly hijack the Broadstairs Town Council's annual public meeting by firing question after question, often the same question, thus denying the more orderly majority of town folk the opportunity to ask anything themselves. This is not democracy, but who can shout the loudest. They are just rabble rousers who move, like Driver, from one, frequently imagined, crisis to the next.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Peter, but, like you, I have not a clue. Our anonymous friend has been raising this issue around the blogs for as long as I can remember and many people have asked for clarification. Mostly anon ignores such requests or dismisses the questioner as stupid.
ReplyDeleteI think this is the post in question http://birchington.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/council-pay-settlement-2009.html if I remember rightly, the overall cost of the senior management team didn’t increase but some individual's pay did.
ReplyDeleteI think although am not certain it was case of less officers sharing the same money and therefore getting paid the more while costing the same, but as you say because anon doesn't seem to want to or maybe just does not comprehend the issue well enough to explain it, all we have is a wailing in the wilderness.
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ReplyDeleteSeriously, why would anyone to the right of Uncle Joe Stalin possibly want to pop along to this left wing love in, to listen to Driver shout bullshit, at a volume that should be reserved for avoiding being run down by whichever bandwagon he is currently being conveyed on. There will certainly be claims of 100's in attendance (the truth will be closer to 14), and a 5th rate video produced, that will only be watched by the 14 that attended.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, ms Tongue's volume far exceeds her relevance. Sadly she reflects Thanet politics, but steps should be taken to stop her and her TINY band of disaffected OAP Stalinists hijacking Thanet politics, so some progress can be made.
I think it speak volumes that the only politician willing to be associated with her is already a joke, step forward Driver, your bandwagon master awaits.
(anyone else find it amusing how fast Driver leaps off bandwagons that no longer receive press attention, and that even his pleas for help to the occutards are answered by only the most delusional and mentally ill members of that failed organisation ;-) )