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Herne Bay, England, CT6
United Kingdom

Community website for all things Herne Bay (Kent, UK). Covers: The Downs, Herne Bay Museum, Herne Bay Historical Records Society, Herne Bay Pier Trust, Herne Bay in Bloom, East Cliff Neighbourhood Panel, No Night Flights, Manston Airport, Save Hillborough, Kitewood, WEA, Local Plan and much, much more...

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Filtering by Tag: Ann Taylor

Fun day to open Herne Bay market

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The new Herne Bay market will be officially opened this Saturday (7 June) by the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Cllr Ann Taylor, as part of a fun day.

The city council-run market in William Street and Mortimer Street is open from 8am, with live music from 10am and the opening ceremony at 11am. There will also be face painting, special offers on every stall, a prize draw and family entertainment.

In addition, there is a free find a monkey game (go to the museum in William Street to enter) and the first 100 visitors to the market will receive a free reusable shopping bag.

The market moved to its new home in William Street and Mortimer Street on 3 May following many years at the King’s Road car park. Some minor tweaks to the layout of the stalls and the position of others have been made and it has now settled into its new location well.

Executive member for markets, Cllr Andrew Cook, said:

“We’ve had excellent feedback from the traders since the move was made and many people are saying how great the atmosphere now is in the town centre on Saturdays. Everyone involved is looking forward to the fun day and official opening this weekend and we hope to welcome lots of new customers too.”

Herne Bay market has 32 stalls selling a variety of fresh and local produce and gifts from eye-catching green and white gazebos and is open every Saturday between 8am and 4pm.

The move aimed to increase footfall to the market and town centre and give it a more professional and uniform layout. It also frees up the market’s former home in the King’s Road car park for redevelopment.

CCC website 02 June 2014


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Opening of the Retail Beach Hut Village on the Pier

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logo Pier Trust 120.jpg

Grand Opening of The Retail Beach Hut Village

Hello Everyone,

In the last few weeks there has been a lot of work carried out by both the Trust and the Proprietors at the Retail Beach Hut Village and completion is close at hand. 

The Grand Opening will now be next Saturday 6th July at 12:00 noon.

We are delighted that the opening ceremony will be carried out by Sandi Toksvig, author, comedian, radio and TV presenter and by Reculver Councillor Ann Taylor, Sheriff of Canterbury.

There is going to be a wide range of items to buy and to eat so please come along and be part of the exciting start of the new revitalized Herne Bay Pier.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Stone, Chairman, Herne Bay Pier Trust


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Historic Westgate Towers Museum to reopen

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Amazing views of the city from the top of Canterbury’s historic Westgate Towers Museum will once again be on offer when it reopens to the public for the summer on Friday 4 May. The city council has been very keen to reopen the attraction to continue the work of local businessman and entrepreneur Charles Lambie following his death in January. Discussions have taken place with the executors of his estate to allow it to happen.

The museum will be open every day between 10am and 5pm until September. Entry prices will be in line with those at the council’s other museums in the city, with children and Residents Card holders going free. Any existing tickets with a six month expiry bought under Mr Lambie’s guardianship will be honoured.

The City Gaol Café, which Mr Lambie created as part of his redevelopment of the building, is not included in the reopening. Executive member for culture, Cllr Ann Taylor, said:

“There was a collective shock in the city when the news came of Charles Lambie’s death, but we hoped it would be possible to carry on his wonderful work with the Westgate Towers Museum, because it is one of our most historic buildings. I’d like to thank the executors of Charles’ estate for their help with getting the museum open. It means our residents and visitors have another great attraction available to them again.”

A decision on what might happen in the long term will be taken in the autumn, once the council has assessed how successful the summer opening has been.

For more information on the Westgate Towers Museum and other museums in the district, go to the dedicated museums website . The council has also created a special joint ticket offering entry to the Westgate Towers Museum, Canterbury Heritage Museum and Canterbury Roman Museum for £12.

http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/main.cfm?objectid=7577


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Post mortem and the afterlife

HBM

May's election is done and dusted, the rosettes stored away, the leaflets recycled, and the manifesto promises are just fading memories.

What are we left with for the next four years, here in sunny Herne Bay? Well, we've got eight of the old guard (one re-badged) and five newbies - a decent rate of turnover, by the look of it. Twelve of them are Conservative, one Liberal Democrat. And this is where our problems start.

In Herne & Broomfield, there was no change: Bisset, Sonnex and Vickery-Jones sailed in. In the papers the next week, Sharron Sonnex wrote about continuing to "robustly represent" her constituents. I laughed till I stopped. After attending HBAMP meetings on and off for a couple of years, plus the occasional Council meeting, I had never heard Sharon Sonnex speak (or Evelyn Bisset, come to that). When the Herne & Broomfield blarney fairy was handing out the gift of the gab, I think Peter Vickery-Jones must have cornered the market.

Over in West Bay, old hand Peter Lee topped the poll, closely followed by Sebastien Byford. Who? Well, Sebastien is one of the new foundling councillors, magicked out of nowhere by Conservative High Command and dropped neatly into the gap left by Vince McMahan. As you can tell from the number of votes - nearly as many as the experienced financial wizard Peter Lee - he is clearly top-class councillor material.

In my home Ward of Reculver (where I was beaten into fourth place, but still ahead of Labour and LibDems), we hung on to Cllrs Reuby and Taylor, and acquired Jennie Edwards. Putting her glamorous past behind her, Jennie works in the local Conservative office in Birchington, where she was sprinkled with fairy dust and became - tadah! - another foundling councillor.

Heron Ward in central Herne Bay is home to our lone remaining LibDem, Ron Flaherty, and two more newbies - Andrew Cook (King of the Beach Huts) and Joe Howes, about whom I know nothing, other than Andrew apparently met him whilst out dog-walking.

Greenhill & Eddington was all surprises - Robert Bright (once a Conservative, then a LibDem, now a Conservative again) topped the poll, closely followed by David Hirst (already a busy Kent County Councillor for Herne Bay). Councillor Bright is said by his (current) leader John Gilbey to have "ratted and re-ratted" - and there the similarity with Winston Churchill ends, completely. He had not been reselected by the LibDems due to his poor performance as a constituency councillor. For me, his election lends the lie to the idea that the Conservative party has a formidable election machine - you can pin a blue rosette on a rat and it will get votes.


So, what are we to make of all this, and what's going to happen next?

Dear Reader, I must confess I'm worried for our town. All of the retorgrade steps in recent years have, by definition, happened under and because of the Conservative majority in Canterbury. We now have an overwhelming Conservative majority in Herne Bay - anything and everything that is suggested or ordered by Canterbury High Command will go through on the nod. I forecast poor attendance, and worse debate, at HBAMP (the meeting of our local councillors) as the unchallengable majority become increasingly lazy and arrogant.

Our local democracy is already in poor shape - the Central Development Plan gets a mixed reaction from 119 people, and goes ahead; the village green application gets solid support from ten times as many (1,181) and is fiercely opposed by the Council. Over the last couple of decades, we have seen blue and red landslide victories in national politics, and both have turned sour. I fear this local landslide will follow the same pattern.

And what of HBAMP itself?

We're at the stage in the game of political musical chairs when everyone changes place. The chairmanship alternates annually between Kent County Council and Canterbury City Council, as does the vice-chairmanship. Last year we had David Hirst (chair, KCC) and Vince McMahan (vice-chair, CCC), so this year we must have a CCC Chair, and a KCC vice-chair.

The vice-chairmanship is easy enough to forecast - there are two possible candidates, David Hirst and Jean Law. As David has just had a year of chairing, it will fall to Jean Law to be vice-chair. The chairmanship is a little trickier.

Traditionally, members of the Executive are ruled out - they don't want to give the impression that the Executive runs everything. Perish the thought! So that rules out Lee, Taylor and Vickery-Jones. The newbies are out of the running for a whole host of good reasons, not least inexperience - so that rules out Cook, Howes, Edwards and Byford. Cllr Reuby was chair recently, and there is not a chance in hell that LoneDem Ron Flaherty would be made chair.

Which leave us with the Silent Sisters Sonnex and Bisset, and Blue Rat Bright. Tough call! The word on the street is that Bright wins by a whisker, much to the annoyance of local Tories, some of whom refused to stand in the same Ward as Bright, and even threatened to resign rather than be too close to him. Bright managed to rile people, councillors and public alike, sitting as a councillor on HBAMP. As chair, he promises to be insufferable. He may turn out to be the only significant problem the Herne Bay Conservatives have.


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Ann Taylor

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Wall of silence

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The council taxpayers of Herne Bay have just received a reassuring message from the city council. Apparently the town’s museum is not being closed after all - it just will not be open to members of the public! Talk about semantic gibberish!

As a concerned council taxpayer, I wrote to some 16 Conservative Canterbury city councillors in early December, expressing my opposition to the proposal to close the Herne Bay Museum as part of the 2010/11 budget cuts. I asked the councillors concerned to consider alternative methods of making the necessary savings and urged those representing the town to put the interests of the community before those of their political party.

Out of all those councillors contacted, only two - Ann Taylor and Peter Vickery-Jones - have had the decency to come back to me on this matter. The remaining 14 have not even deigned to acknowledge receipt of my correspondence! They might not agree with my sentiments concerning Herne Bay Museum, but surely common courtesy dictates some sort of response - if only to say that my comments would be given further consideration.

I am not a political animal and, accordingly have no particular party axe to grind. I deliberately targeted the Conservatives for the simple reason that they are currently the controlling party on the city council and, as such, form the executive which dictates policy. As a retired local government officer who served a number of local authorities in Kent for more then 30 years, I have never had a particularly high opinion of elected members in general. Some are hard-working and do have the best interests of their local community in mind, but many would appear to be there only for their own personal egos.

Their failure to reply to correspondence would only seem to indicate their complete unwillingness to discuss matters with concerned council taxpayers and has most certainly done nothing to enhance my opinion of them. For most people, pursuing a sporting interest, hobby or pastime costs money Councillors have chosen their particular pastime as being local politics. Why should other members of the community subsidise them in the pursuit of this chosen hobby?

Are the council taxpayers of Canterbury City Council getting value for money for the majority of their elected representatives? Council leader Cllr John Gilbey has been quoted in the local Press as being of the opinion that the number of elected members sitting on the Canterbury City Council is excessive and I, for one, fully agree.

An immediate reduction by say some 20 members (with the resultant reduction in associated allowances and expenses) would save council taxpayers somewhere between £100,000 and £150,000 per annum - a not inconsiderable amount and certainly much more than the projected annual savings on the whole of the city’s museum services budget.

I wrote to chief executive Colin Carmichael more than two weeks ago expressing my frustration at having received no response from city councillors. To date I have not received any response from him either on this matter! Have other readers encountered a similar wall of silence from Canterbury City Council?

John Fishpool, Herne Bay
HB Gazette letters, 4th Feb 2010


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Gale's attitude problem

Coasted

Saturday: a beautiful frosty, sunny winter's morning in Herne Bay, and time to meet our MP. My fine & beloved woman and I strode up to the dodgy automatic doors of the Herne Bay Council offices and pried our way in. There we found Roger Gale, and Cllr Ann Taylor (HoS) who had kindly made time to see us.

Given that the Evil Land Grab is entirely a Council-level rather than MP-type issue, we asked Roger about the options open to us if the Council behaved illegally. He came up with some sensible suggestions (Secretary of State, Local Government Ombudsman, District Auditor) and a couple of other useful leads.

However, I was taken aback by his views on the covenants. "Twenty-five years experience as an MP... a Council can just say 'Rats!' to a covenant... not worth the paper they're written on...".

Bad attitude, Roger!

I'm disappointed and dismayed to see an elected law-maker wearily accept the spectacle of other elected representatives trampling over covenants. When it comes down to it, even the Law of the land is 'worthless' unless and until it's enforced. The covenants are legally binding, cannot be disregarded, and will be enforced.


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Shame

Coasted

Here's another kick in the teeth for local democracy: local Councillors who can't be bothered to reply to an email from one of their constituents about a constituency matter.

My fine and beloved woman emailed the Councillors for Reculver Ward.
One out of the three replied.
Congratulations Gillian Reuby.
Shame on you Ann Taylor and Gabrielle Davis.

She also emailed the Herne Bay Area Members Panel.
Three out of the thirteen replied.
Congratulations Gillian Reuby, Peter Vickery-Jones and Ron Flaherty.
Shame on you Ann Taylor, Gabrielle Davis, Evelyn Bisset, Sharon Sonnex, Peter Lee, Vince McMahan, Margaret Flaherty, Roger Matthews, Ken Hando and Robert Bright.

If any of the "shy" Councillors have a convincing explanation for not replying, do please let me know. Otherwise, you keep your place in the Hall of Shame.


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