Carbon Footprint
Like many other residents of Westgate out walking their dogs, I was appalled to see the fire damage caused to the beach huts at St Mildred's Bay, adjacent to the toilets.As you will see from the photograph it's a mess.I have spoken with the police who have it dow

Outside Broadcast
I decided to walk to Margate this afternoon for the exercise, all the way up to the council offices for a meeting on the web-casting project, set for its first pilot outing at next month's full council meeting.During my walk, I devised a new measure of time and distance, call a 'PB'. This, as you may have gathered from the acronymn, is calculated in passing 'Pit Bulls' and so while it took five Pit Bulls to get as far as Cecil Square from Westgate, it was much quicker on the bus on the return leg, avoiding the rain and as you might expect, this only took two 'Pit Bulls'.I'm interested to know if any other readers are able to measure their walks in the same way, in Ra

A Little Creativity
I've been trekking back and forth to the Chatham campus on a regular basis since September doing an education course. It's a subject that interests deeply me for a number of important reasons both intellectual and political and in particular because of its vital importance to the future of our society and our place in the world of the 21st century.Much of what I've seen so far is beautifully summed-up in this very good and humerous video lecture by Sir Ken Robinson. It's well worth watching. I also recommend www.ted.com which is a sort of intellectual YouTube, with lots of lectures by well-known people, such as Richard Dawkins, Al Gore, Brian Co

A Little Magic in the Valley
I was out leafleting at Millmead this morning for the Dane Valley by-election. Given that it's the end of November, it was unusually warm in the sunshine and I found a great many residents busy outside their houses for one reason or another. Curiously, I didn't experience any of the 'Anger' at the Conservatives, described by the LibDem's Bill Furness in his campaign leaflet.Bill, who I have never met before was busily doing the rounds, as were I hear the Harts' equally energetically promoting the benefits of New Labour. I wouldn't normally comment on another party's election leaflet but Bill's has left me quite agape with admiration for h

Police Action Proves Effective in Westgate
A quick note on policing in Westgate after my meeting with Inspector Pearson today.The headline figures are a reduction in both criminal damage and violence against the person since prompt action was taken last month. Criminal damage is down 134% and violence is down by 50%. The other good news is that across Thanet in general crime is going down.It appears then that the arrival of the TASK team and the removal of the bench in Station Road has had the desired effect and I'm optimistic that with the dispersal order in place and the arrival of a new 'beat' officer in Westgate, that we have gone a long way towards solving a problem that was steadily