Saturday, May 27, 2006

Ezekiels View

Interesting article by Thanet council leader Sandy Ezekiel in this week's Isle Thanet Gazette, what makes it interesting well frankly, things that are missed out. In this article Mr Ezekiel refers to some of the successes that we have had in Thanet this last year, Cliftonville West, improvements in recycling domestic waste etc. Nothing too contentious so far, but I find it is what he doesn't say which is more interesting, for instance he refers to the success of Westwood Cross and vaguely the developments taking shape at Thanet reach but no mention is made of the appalling traffic conditions in the Westwood area.

I honestly would like to know whether Mr Ezekiel has a view regarding our traffic congestion, we currently have a road system which is barely coping with the traffic that already exists, in a matter of weeks we shall see the opening of a massive PC World along with Homebase and Argos, I just wonder whether he has any solution to the traffic problem, that will ensue, another perhaps even more serious detriment to traffic flow within the centre of Thanet is the prospect of the new cabbage patch housing estate, Westwood Bland (for the want of a better name) which is set to contain at least 1000 homes, in my experience that would probably lead to 1000 additional cars needing to travel through Westwood, morning and afternoon. Perhaps Sandy would have a view on the local traffic situation next time he writes.

One of my pet interests is the purchase of the old Marks and Spencer's building, finally we get a little glimpse of the cost involved, according to Mr Ezekiel £8.5 million has been secured from Seeda to invest in the Margate high-street, of this I believe something in the region of £6 million has been exclusively spent on the M & S building. Now who would have a problem with this, well I do, it has been nearly two months since I believe it was first announced that purchase have been made of this site, normally one might expect that the council would have formulated some sort of idea as to the future of this site. Assuming I haven't missed an announcement, I would imagine that no firm plans have been arrived at, as yet, I can only speculate that any day now if they haven't already done it the council will be appointing some sort of consultant to come up with a plan if they haven't already done so.

One view I take of the Marks and Spencer site, is that it has been vacant for less than a year, therefore what was the rush, if this site is viable as a commercial premises them I think, particularly as we have a Conservative administration in Thanet, this is one area where we could have allowed, a little more time for the private sector to step in.

Well it is quite a while, before the next local elections, and we have time to consider our position, and one place we might consider our vote, is that extended drive we now have either to work, shop etc and currently I thank our Conservative local council, our Conservative county council for giving me that extra 30 minutes per day to ponder the effectiveness of their planning.

Well I'm off to the shops now, see you in the queue.

9 comments:

  1. Lets hope your not in the far queue tony

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  2. Next elections by the time they come we wont be able to drive anywhere

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  3. The elections will be Thursday May 3rd next year.

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  4. anon 7:40pm No Q least no to bad Thanks

    Anon 10:34 James has the answer

    James As I lack any significant knowledge of politics I might stand myself but its unlikely, I don't think the party that would suit me has been invented

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  5. The rush, as you put it, was more down to the availability of the funds from SEEDA and a commitment needed to be made to access trhe money. For myself, I have made it quite clear that this gift horse must be used wisely and well. We should invest to sell on and re invest so the fund can be used as a circulating capital amount to fix different parts of the High Street over time. I know many will feel that we need urgent action now, but we will not be able to access this level of funding again in the foreseeable future, we must be able to use this money again and again. I am trying, and will continue to get this message across to all concerned.

    Chris Wells

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  6. Chris I am all for grabing money when available but cannot see the council doing anything sensible in the short term, the fact no concreate announcement has been made on the M&S site it all looks leaderlest to me. I like to see some positive action now

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  7. Chris I am all for grabing money when available but cannot see the council doing anything sensible in the short term, the fact no concrete announcement has been made on the M&S site, it all looks leaderlest to me. I'd like to see some positive action now. How long is this regeneration game going on for.

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