Margate Parkrun - Join In The Fun!

After a long week, many of you will love a Saturday morning lie-in. I sure do. However, I've given up the past couple of Saturday mornings to help out with an event being held in Palm Bay, Margate, called Parkrun. You may have heard of these events being held elsewhere, but its now come to Thanet!

Basically, it’s a free timed 5km (about 3 miles) run along the seafront between the Cliftonville Bandstand and the Pumping Station each Saturday. Run by volunteers, it’s a community-led event giving opportunity for people to get together and have some fun, running at whatever pace suits them. It won’t take long and the event is over by 10am!

Volunteers and runners simply need to register online and print off a barcode that they bring to the event and can be used at any Parkrun event across the country. The jobs involved in running these events are simple and wont keep you too long. Any help would be very welcome. 

For more information, please visit the Margate Parkrun website

A Real Tragedy

This past week we've had a couple of events in which the word "tragedy" has been used to describe it, first during speeches paying tribute to former Cllr Ewen Cameron at Full Council Thursday and then a day later after the conviction of Cllr Sandy Ezekiel for his various offences.

What happened to Ewen Cameron was definitely a tragedy and few would argue with that description. However, to describe the guilty verdict laid at Sandy Ezekiel as a tragedy, even if that is meant personally, is pushing it. For all the sense I've heard him say in the Chamber, he chose to mislead and manipulate and betray the public trust. Forget this notion of highest standards, this breached the most basic of them. If its an active choice then there's no tragedy about it. It's the price you must pay. 

As reported in the Gazette Friday, there are further investigations taking place, which is only to be expected after the verdict. Doesn't prove a thing in itself, so those people getting all excited about the possibility of another prosecution could find themselves disappointed. Its not a coincidence that Cllr Ian Driver has posted a slightly edited version of a near-decade old report into Pleasurama involving Ezekiel. Its curious that he omits a name but after his meeting with Council top dogs last week, it doesn't take a genius to work out why.

Breaking Old News

Sorry to disappoint those wanting a review of last night's Council meeting but while I was there for the start and the finish, I seemed to miss all the action, so I am reliant on the Councils own recording. Finger's crossed!

To update on a couple of items which seem to be attracting traffic, work is progressing on the former Focus DIY site on Pysons Road to get it ready for it's re-opening as a childrens soft play area. No idea when it'll be open (Update - Now Open) but I'm sure we'll all hear about it when it does. 

Secondly, the planning application for Soper's Yard, Margate was refused by Planning Committee last month. The reason I didn't blog on that one was because the Gazette published all the results for that Planning meeting on its front page that week so it seemed a bit pointless. Contrary to some reports, it wasn't refused on the Chair's deciding vote, rather it was a straight majority decision.

Onto this week's excitement over gay marriage, with Roger Gales speech being available online via Hansard not long after he made it, the fuss made about it should have been considerably less than it was. He made his view known and voted accordingly. No one expected him to do otherwise and there was no way the vote was going to be won by the Noes, so what's the problem? Is it perhaps because the speech he made was not too many days after Phillip Hammond was attacked for speaking his own mind on a similar note therefore its an easy target? I dont agree with Roger on the issue but that doesnt make him a liar or indeed a "chief bigot".

Above said, in a weeks time all that will be forgotten and itll be something else that will be sucking up all our attention.