Saint WHO?

Yes it's April 23rd once again! The flags are flying proudly from every public building, bunting flutters the length of each wall and gateway, morris dancers strut their stuff on village greens the realm over and millions of children, freed from the drudgery of the classroom for one day, raise their eyes to the sky to watch the annual celebratory flypast of pigs.

If ever a day was tailor-made for a celebration of all things English it was today. April 23rd. As if being St. George's Day was not reason enough for a celebration, a Mrs. Mary Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon thoughtfully gave added significance to this day by giving birth to her son William, whose very name would become synonymous with the country of his birth.

Years later William himself, as if acknowledging his countrymen's reluctance to enjoy a knees-up without good reason, made one more valiant and selfless effort to remedy the situation, somehow stage-managing his own death so that it, too, would coincide with Saint George's Day on April 23rd 1616, his 52nd birthday!

Three fantastic reasons for the English to celebrate on one day.

And do we? Well yes, of course - why, in Tesco's car park this evening a single patriotic motorist was displaying a limp plastic flag of Saint George.

Or, then again, maybe it was a forgotten remnant of the World Cup.

New Faces on the Block?

There's just a fortnight to go before the District Council Elections, and with very few votes separating the candidates in 2003 (at least in Cliftonville West) even a marginally higher turnout could see a dramatic turnaround in fortunes, and not just for the major parties.

On May 3rd the "Big Players" will be joined in battle by candidates from both The Green Party and The UK Independence Party.

Electors in Cliftonville East will be choosing between

• Sandy Ezekiel (Conservative)*
• Dennis Franklin (Green)
• Sandy Hart (Labour)
• Margaret Main (Labour)
• Patricia Moore (Labour)
• Brian Sullivan (Conservative)*
• Martin Wise (Conservative)*

While those standing for election in Cliftonville West are

• Linda Aldred (Labour)*
• Justin Bishop (Conservative)
• Doug Clark (Labour)*
• Trevor Cooper (UK Independence)
• Clive Hart (Labour)*
• Patrick Miles (Conservative)
• Greg Wood (Conservative)

* denotes current members of the Council.

"Margate's Big Event"

Those left disappointed by the announcement that there would be no Thanet Air Show in 2007 will be pleased to read the following announcement which has appeared Thanet District Council website.

Plans for Kent’s leading air and land festival have been announced, with the Red Arrows, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, live bands, including Abba Magic, and street entertainers just some of the highlights.

Margate’s Big Event will take place on the clifftops at Palm Bay over Father’s Day weekend, with non stop live entertainment planned on the ground between 10am and 10pm on Saturday 16 June and 10.30am and 6pm on Sunday 17 June. The event will be free of charge and is being organised by Thanet District Council.

Each day will have an hour and a half of flying displays, with the RAF Falcons and Tigers parachute teams dropping into the main arena, with appearances from a Hawk, the historic Stearman aircraft and the Tucano and Tutor planes, both of which are used for training by the RAF. The Aerostars and a SUKHOI flown by Will Curtis, one of the leading solo aerobatic pilots on the circuit, complete the aerial line up.

On the ground, arena acts will range from Jason Smyth, the only quad bike stunt rider in the UK, to the Solent Eagles Motorcycle Display Team and from John Evans, international strong man, and Chinese Acrobats, to Cyril the Squirrel and his racing terriers and a vulture and eagle show by Eagle Heights.

Both days will have live music, with appearances by Hulaballo, Rubber Biscuit, Ronnie Scott Rejects, Pulse and Umbrella Men. Saturday’s entertainment will finish with an Abba tribute concert, followed by a spectacular fireworks finale.

Other acts entertaining the crowds over the two days include trapeze artists, clowns, puppeteers, stilt walkers, acrobats, magicians and even a pair of resident robots, many of which are appearing in Thanet for the first time.

Corporate Director John Bunnett said: “Margate’s Big Event will have something for the whole family, with two days packed full of free entertainment, both on the ground and in the air. This will be Kent’s leading air and land festival and an unmissable day out. It’s the only place in Kent that people will be able to enjoy such a huge variety of entertainment in one place. Where else can you find the Red Arrows, parachute display teams, some of the best live bands in the area, along with trapeze and stilt artists and quad bike stunt riders and acrobats?”

Entry to Margate’s Big Event will be free of charge, with on site parking costing £3 for each day. The Thanet Loop bus service runs to the Old Charles Pub on Northdown Road, just 10 minutes walk from the site and a free open top shuttle bus will be running every 30 minutes between Margate station and the site.

Hi-de-Hi!!

The unseasonably warm weather sparks a bit of a holiday mood, and with it some nostalgia.


(Click on image for readable size!)

In 1955 Butlins acquired 4 hotels in Cliftonville: The St Georges, The Queens (previously known as the Highcliffe), The Norfolk & The Florence. The original plan was that each would aim to attract a different clientèle: one families, one young children, one the retired and elderly and one those without children.


The Queen's Highcliffe Hotel

The following year another was added, this time The Grand Hotel (previously known as the Cliftonville Hydro).


The Cliftonville Hydro

All hotels were located close to each other and were marketed jointly as The Cliftonville Hotels. Later the separate classification for each hotel was dropped and they were all operated along similar lines. Guests were allocated a particular hotel but were free to enjoy the facilities at any of the others. At some point a sixth hotel was added, The Princes, which later became used for staff accommodation.

The Queens Hotel had a small indoor swimming pool with underwater viewing windows. This pool was later used as a dolphinarium with a pair of dolphins and sealions.



The Queens was demolished in the late 1970s.

By the 1980s only three hotels remained under the Butlins Cliftonville banner, the Grand, the Norfolk and the St Georges. All three were connected by an underground tunnel and had a total of 254 rooms between them. All three were later marketed jointly as 'The Grand Hotel'


The St George's

The Hotels were sold in 1999 to the Grand Hotel Group, but were resold in January 2004 to a local businessman who then announced plans to demolish two of them and convert the site into flats.

Cliftonville's Secret Society

This morning, quite by accident, I uncovered the existence of a top secret organisation based right here in the heart of Cliftonville. A local Mafia branch, perhaps? Maybe a small Al Qaeda cell? No, these would be relatively easy to track down, I suspect. The one in question goes by the name of The Cliftonville Residents' Association.

Of course I'm delighted to hear of its existence, but what is its function? Where and when does it meet? Who are the committee members? And, crucially, how is it that, having lived
in Cliftonville for seven years, the Resident's Association has hitherto failed to make itself known to me?

Well, no I admit I haven't gone out of my way to seek them out. But on the other hand, I really don't think I should have to.

• Is there a Cliftonville Residents' Association notice board displayed prominently and proudly in the heart of the town for all to see? If there is, then it can't be prominent enough.
  
• Is there a simple but informative and user-friendly website that celebrates its (no doubt) hard and worthwhile work in the community? Well, Google doesn't think so.
  
• Have I had so much as a single newsletter or other piece of communication dropped through my letterbox in seven years? I'll be charitable and say that if I have, then the dog got to it before I did.

If any of these things are already in operation, then I stand corrected.

I do hope that someone in the upper echelons of our Cliftonville Residents' Association reads this. This is not an attack on you, merely an expression of disappointment that your work clearly goes on unnoticed by the majority. Cliftonville needs a Residents Association that listens to residents.

How on earth can they contribute if they don't know you're there.

Bank Holiday Paper Chase

You're entitled to ask what any sane-minded individual is doing even showing his head above the duvet at 8am on Easter Bank Holiday Monday. And it gets worse; I've actually just driven to work and back to collect some paperwork that needs doing during the week.

But that's not the issue. The issue is litter, road sweeping and rubbish collection, and how just a little bit of planning and co-ordination might work wonders in making the streets around Cliftonville look a little less like a land-fill site.

Today is Monday, and Monday is dustbin day. I've been caught out before on bank holidays; putting out the bin bags the night before and then leaving them there throughout the day in the vain hope that they will be collected. Alternatively, I've made the assumption that there's no way there will be a collection on bank holiday, I've not put them out, then at the crack of dawn cursed into my pillow in response to cheery bin-men-banter echoing up and down the road outside (prompted, no doubt, by the total absence of black bags awaiting their careful attention).

So, I was going to make no mistake today. Last night I logged on to the TDC's rubbish website (no offence intended, it's a very useful service) to check when my next collection was. There it was, in black and white: "Your next collection is tomorrow".

Out went my bulging black bags just before I went to bed. So far as I could see, I was one of only a handful who had remembered.

Now, you're probably already anticipating where this is going. And you'd be quite wrong.

Back to my early morning dash into work. As I unlocked my car I could already hear, though not yet see, the refuse lorry in the next street. Praise be! for a system that works, I thought. As I drove up Northdown Avenue I could see that the residents here had been really on the ball. Black sacks like sentries at every gate. Although the gulls were already up and at them even at this hour.

But what I saw next defied belief. Trundling up the road was a road sweeper with trolley and broom, stopping here and there to pick up cans and wrappers. And a very good job he was making of it. Real pride in his work. On Easter Monday to boot! Impressive!

But why, for Heaven's sake?

In half and hour's time, after the bin men had followed closely in his wake, this same road was going to be ankle deep in cans, wrappers, egg shells and putrefying vegetables! I almost stopped the car to vent my frustration, but the poor guy was at least working on a bank holiday, and I'm sure the issues of where and when he sweeps are not his decisions. Or are they? Who knows?

Sure enough, on my return home an hour later the pavements of this same street were absolutely awash with it, and the gulls were having a field day.

So, when is the next scheduled road-sweep? Who knows. Probably at the same time next week. About a half an hour before the bin men are due!

Dane Park Consultation Period ends

The Dane Park public consultation period came to an end on Friday.

It opened with a "fun day" in the park on St. Valentine's Day, and Thanet residents were given until Friday 30th March to submit their completed questionnaires to the District Council.

Public consultations are all well and good, but let's hope that this one proves to be more than just a public relations exercise designed to placate residents and to create the illusion of a "listening council" prior to May's local elections.

When, I wonder, will the relevant Council committee be meeting to discuss the findings of the consultation. Before or after the elections? What are the chances of a new council surreptitiously "filing away" the consultation in the bin. Well, people have short memories, don't they!

New broom, new priorities, new agenda.

Let's hope not.

Voted one of the most popular parks in Thanet in 2004, Dane Park was presented to the Margate Borough Council by a local businessman at the end of the 19th century and was first opened to the public in 1898 by the Lord Mayor of London. Today, it is still the main park for Margate residents.

Below: A more genteel age - Dane Park in the early 1900s, complete with lake!