Hi Vince, I'm sorry if my 'council bashing' seems harsh, but I am finding it hard to forgive them for changing the Thanet Local Plan, effectively unprotecting Dreamland and changing the land from Amusement Park land to Residential land. This course of action changed the land value massively
. You may recall Philip Miller of Southend was very interested in acquiring Dreamland - at amusement park value. As a result, this fantastic opportunity was lost, many years of investment in the town lost and thousands of tourists all lost, not to mention the park sitting derelict encouraging the much anticipated fire. We would not be in this situation now of having CPOs etc and maybe the town's High Street would not keep being on National News for having the most boarded up shops. As I said in my OP, at least they are now on board and that of course is great.
Over the years I have never known so many people from the council be up in court. Only recently I believe another rather high profile Councillor was in court for some misdemeanor or another, and we all remember the one who befriended our campaign and ended up with his fingers in the till. I think because of this, people including myself, become very suspicious and untrusting of them. I live in Birmingham and Birmingham City Council is the largest Local Authority in the Country, I can't remember any Birmingham Councillors being in court. (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong)
I may be 200 hundred miles away and don't claim to be an expert on Margate but I am not unknowledgeable either. My parents have had a large circle of close friends who have lived in the town since the 1960s, I have Aunties, Uncles and Cousins who moved to Margate in the 1980s and my parents have had their own property in the town for over ten years now, with myself visiting them for at least a week every two months or so. Over these decades I have never known any of the above have anything good to say about TDC, not once!
So I think we will have to shake hands and agree to disagree on this one, but that is what makes forums like this great - different views and opinions. Anyway hope to see you at the opening of Dreamland where we can have a good old 'knees up'!
Enjoy the sunshine all