SANDY ITS EASY WITH OR WITHOUT HINDSIGHT TO ASSESS COCK UPS

I just wonder how stupid or clever politicians are or how stupid they think we are or even how stupid we must all be to put up with them.

How often have we read recently that things at TDC are improving, there’ve been quite a few references to Thanet being in the top 50 most improved, but since things are presumably improving from being pretty poor, is it such a big deal.

Planning is cited, as being much improved, particularly its improved processing of applications and by this they mean speed, as mentioned in Sandy’s “Leaders View” in last Friday’s Gazette.

Brilliant you might say and Ezekiel seems happy enough no surprise, but wait a minute, hold the phone, what's that on page 7 of the Gazette, Oh yes, maybe a year after top brains at the council suggested they could just flog off Northdown House, to the first spiv developer to come along, despite being told from the outset, that this was not possible, since it was protected by covenants too prevent, just such a casual sale, its taken all this time for the council to acknowledge that.

Worse still it seems that Sandy Ezekiel, along with those officers, who are paid very well, to deal with these things, failed to check, into the legal position of any potential sale, astonishing as its incredible.

Just to illustrate the depth of Sandy’s thinking consider this excerpt from the Gazette “Cllr Ezekiel said it was the purpose of consultation to bring out issues such as covenants, adding “Its easy to say with hindsight that it shouldn’t have been put on the list for sale,………..

Well chew on this one (particularly Tories who claim to be running the council), it would be even easier with foresight to insist, that an officer take a cursory glance at the property about to be considered for sale, just to check that it is actually possible, instead as has been the case wasting large amounts of public money on what many might consider a hare brained scheme.

Briefly coming back to planning, the same paper reports another failure of the planning department, has resulted in a belated admission, that it did not send letters to residents, concerning changes to plans for the New Meridian Village development, which means that residents in nearby property will presumably suffer an incursion on their privacy, never having had the proper notification and therefore little chance to voice concerns to the planning department, still as Ezekiel points out at least the planning process is faster than it used to be, which presumably includes its ability to cock up!

If Cllr Ezekiel wants to actually prove that he is the leader of Thanet Council, I suggest that asks the Chief Executive Richard Samuel something like, “Just what the hells going on?” and perhaps instigates an enquiry into these two failures and insist that those responsible either get sacked or sidelined to where they cannot do anymore harm.

I suppose that Sandy Ezekiel and Richard Samuel realise, that these errors aren’t some abstract issue, but have bought misery on the lives of real people, particularly those whose privacy has now been destroyed by failures of the planning department. I believe there was a time when people in public life, accepted the consequences of their actions, clearly those days have passed.

PS Some time has passed since Sandy’s most recent censure by the Standards Board and I’ve still yet to hear or see any positive comments in favour of the man from his own party. It will be interesting to see if Sandy makes it through to the next council elections.