Thursday, July 02, 2009

Charter Mark a meaningless standard

bike trip2Thanet Council’s has a government Charter Mark for excellent customer service and Kent County Council claims to be a four star authority.

What does it all mean, I’m afraid the answer has to be utter bollix, as a customer of TDC, or Taxpayer as I prefer, I just think about Thanet council’s latest pig’s breakfast, having two vehicles on the road uninsured.

bike4 No big deal you might think, except, that had either of these vehicles been involved in an accident, its not inconceivable that Thanet District Council could have been exposed to millions in liabilities for injury claims.

I just wonder if anyone has been disciplined, sacked or promoted for this cock up, if so why not, maybe Sandy Ezekiel council leader, could elucidate or even Richard Samuel Chief Exec.

Anyway Mrs Me, thinks I spend too much time on this stuff so she forced me to cycle out to Reculver dangling the carrot of buying me lunch.

biketripIt’s good to see that some enterprising soul has set up a bicycle hire outlet at Minnis Bay , what a brilliant addition to leisure facilities in these parts.

A word of caution there are days when I’ve cycled out to Reculver when the wind is difficult on the way back and you don’t have a gear low enough for comfort.

biketrip3 Worth a mention, and worth cycling from Cliftonville, I had an omelette (Cheese and Ham) at the King Ethelbert Pub, Reculver  and have to say it was the best I’ve had in blooming years.

Thank god for private enterprise.

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousFriday 3 July 2009 at 01:29:00 BST

    Here here. A Super pub with really nice hosts!

    And lets insure our council vehicles? Can't do that, too involved with becoming property developers and entertainment gurus!

    Spend the tax payers money on waste disposal? No thanks, money to be earned elsewhere!

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  2. UnknownFriday 3 July 2009 at 08:58:00 BST

    Tony
    The Charter Mark is far from a meaningless award and a great many people have worked very hard to achieve it. Like it or not, TDC customer services rank among the best and huge improvements have been made over the last few years to gain such recognition, which is something to be proud of!

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  3. AnonymousFriday 3 July 2009 at 09:08:00 BST

    Tony

    I agree with you. The Charter Mark is cosmetic.

    People may place reliance on this sort of thing. It is like Quality Control accreditation in industry.

    When I involved BSI (the accreditors for Cummins Generators) it emerged that their accreditation does not extend to the factory supply network. (Unless the supply sub contractors are separately registered for accreditation)

    Hence control electronics assembly subbed out to what was then a non ISO accreditted company. Who in turn subbed out PCB assembly to homeworkers !

    IE the electronics control boards that one day may stand between UK and multiple Chernobyl started life quite possibly in Thanet black economy as homework in non=static protected environment.

    But what comes out of the gate of the factory ? An ISO (BSI) accredited product.

    And the former MD now has seven Queens Awards to Industry to his name.

    But I would expect nothing less than a few Queens "Charter marks" for a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County.

    The next meaningless charter mark is the teacher's "MOT".

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  4. AnonymousFriday 3 July 2009 at 09:16:00 BST

    Simon

    This is in your area of interest ... when discussing badging up standards but this relates to Ian Taylor MP (when DTI minister) believing that market forces would police the quality control accreditation schemes and this in turn would be the mechanism to defend us against sabotage consistent with Stage 3 OIRA Garland Plan.

    more market forces baloney

    ReplyDelete

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