Fire at council offices– its a worry

I see Thanet council website mentions a fire incident which occurred yesterday, it makes me think and frankly worry about safety of the public.

In September I wrote to Mr Samuel the Chief Exec of the council to point out that doors to the council offices were locked and unattended when the public were attending meetings.

At the time the chief exec replied including this assurance " I'd like to assure those people who were not able to access the building initially, and indeed the wider public, that the security procedure has been reviewed as a matter of urgency to ensure that this situation does not happen again."

It did happen again, did I write to the chief exec, no what would have been the flippin point? Simon Moore's commented at the time "Tony, the Chief Exec apologised to council over the doors fiasco and will address the matter in the morning."

Whether he did or not, I'm not going to take the chance, why take the risk? No public statement was made as to why having been alerted to a safety issue, the council failed ensure public safety!

It's maybe an issue Kent Fire Brigade ought investigate.

Doctors - should they be trusted to run NHS?

The government is pressing ahead with plans to get doctors to manage the NHS should they? In a word no or NO NO NO at least that is my view.

Its simple the police don't run the judicial system because their expertise is in catching crooks and enforcement.

At the risk of being struck off from my current surgery, here's why I think it would be wrong. First off, over the last few years doctors, particularly GP's have dramatically increased their earnings while reducing the hours they work. Clearly a doctor should not have to work too many hours but certainly improvements for general practitioners have pushed up costs.

Hopefully the average doctor is expert at dealing with illness and the best ways to treat patients, I'd imagine like any other profession most doctors have an opinion of how their NHS or industry should be operated, still since most patients experience difficulty in getting to see their doctor, what is the likelihood that doctors have the time to get that involved or manage.

As a rail maintenance worker, working for a contractor I have an opinion on how Network Rail should be run but since I'm at the bottom of the food chain, its probably best that those who manage continue to do just that. If changes are needed then government should direct management.

With the NHS the government, should simply issue the chief executives of each health authority, with objectives a budget and make them achieve it or sack the top tier of management, until each health authority is run efficiently.

Finally do doctors actually want to run the NHS? Probably not otherwise they'd no doubt have trained to be managers and accountants.

How difficult is it Cllr Chard

Last week I emailed Kent County Councillor Nick Chard to ask why roads in these parts were in such a bad state after experiencing perhaps the worst driving conditions (wednesday evening around 8.00)  I’ve ever encountered thick ice, from Brooksend through to Margate, despite claiming that Kent Highways keep logs of their gritting lorries I am surprised that Nick has not got back to me, since Kent claims to be a 4 star council you’d think they’d be able to get straight back.

KCC did issue I understand and rather partial press release but didn’t acknowledge how poorly they’d performed in reality. The press release made great mention of how gritting crews worked all night (Shutting the Barn door) but made no mention of sheet ice  covering much if not all of east Kent roads? One local Tory Councillor with a sense of humour referred to a Blizzard?

Anyway here’s my email correspondence so far

11 February 2010 12:24

Hi Cllr. Chard
I am writing to you as, having heard your comments this morning on BBC Radio Kent, about Kent Highways treating roads, I find what you had to say astonishing I've been driving for many years, and I have to say that last nights weather conditions were in no way exceptional for the time of year, but the road surface leading into Birchingtion and Margate was without a doubt the worst I've ever encountered.
Could you please explain why there was no evidence of gritting the roads including the main roads which were thick with ice.
Regards tony flaig
PS for more information see my blog postings Snow worries <http://bignewsmargate.blogspot.com/2010/02/snow-worries-roads-have-been-treated.html>
or Police contact KCC <http://bignewsmargate.blogspot.com/2010/02/urgent-warning-driving-conditions.html>

11 February 2010 14:35

Thank you for your email.
We log all of our gritting lorries so that we know where and when gritting has taken place.
I shall enquire and respond when I have the detail.
Yours
Nick Chard

11 February 2010 14:56

 

Thanks

tony flaig

If I get a reply I’ll do my best to let you know.

Rubbish mounts up in Conservatives winter of discontent

Thanet residents winter misery is being made worse by Thanet's poorly performing Conservative council.

Not only are we subject to poorly treated road surfaces and pavements which appear to have been completely deserted by both Thanet District Council, and Kent County Council but TDC look to have abandoned any responsibility for clearing refuse.

Bignews Margate accepts that waste collections can not be carried out in poor weather conditions but estimates around a fifth of the local population will have gone almost three weeks before their likely to be rid of waste from Christmas.

You would think that, priority would be given to those homes that haven’t had a collection since the Christmas break but not so, Cllr. Shirley Tomlinson, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services is quoted as saying “Our teams are out and about, doing everything they can to deal with the backlog…….” really, I suggest that council wallahs make it a priority to clear those who’ve already missed a collection, since TDC couldn’t be bothered to collect rubbish from one in five homes at the start of the new year.

Assuming that health and safety is an issue, which I don’t doubt, perhaps those unable to do their jobs could be directed to clear the pavements and help make safe for pedestrians and refuse collectors. Perhaps staff who wouldn’t be missed if they left the desks could also be used like those tied up on writing blogging protocols, planning matters, or even those senior officers who managed to blag fat pay increase off the weak conservative administration of Sandy Ezekiel.

Anyway its an ill wind that brings nobody any good and I’m sure rodents will benefit, still at least its reassuring to know that Thanet council has started the year as it intends, and tough titties to rest of us.

Play KCC’s spot the gritter

Tired of the daily commute, how about this distraction, on your way home, see if you can find any evidence, that the road your travelling has been gritted, it seems that KCC’s bosses have introduced “stealth gritters” in order too entertain and challenge the travelling public .

Anyway me and my colleagues had a go this afternoon and found it quite tricky to “spot the gritter” despite thinking it would be easy on one of the countries major routes the A2 & M2 where the heaviest snow falls were late this afternoon.

So where is Kent Highways spending its money, yes we know they’ve spent a fortune on advertising on telly and local newspapers during the past year but surely there must be some money for salt?

Anyhow if you can spot a gritter in the above picture well done, we did eventually spot one between Minster and St Nicks roundabout but since this one was painted yellow with flashing amber lights it didn’t really count.

Turner Contemporary construction site open to all

I noticed back in July that the constructions site for the Turner Contemporary, had the rear access gate open, today I see that not much had changed from my last cycle past.

Once again the rear gate on the Winter Gardens side was left open and unattended as were the front gates.

You may think I’m being picky and maybe I am, but since children will remain on holiday for a while, leaving gates open is not a good idea, given the inquisitive nature of teenagers.

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous, over the last 25 years according to HSE over 2800 were killed, most of which were probably preventable.

I understand that the one of the gates opens automatically on the Harbour Arm side of the site, given the multi millions this project is costing how much would it cost to have a security guard on the gate.