The following schools are believed to be closed tomorrow.

Manston Airport is in the news - this time because Iranian aircraft, often dangerously low on fuel, are being forced to stop here on return journeys.

BBC News - How Iran's planes get around sanctions stopping them refueling

Ever since the recent economic sanctions imposed by the US on Iran, travelling to foreign destinations on Iranian carriers has become a daring adventure. Iranian carriers can land in London, but on their return journey they have to fly to the privately owned Manston airport in Kent, in south east England, to refuel.

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The question may well be raised then, that this could be an influencing factor in the recent repeat application for allowing "night flights" - the demand to allow late night refueling at the airport. If this is the case what impact, if any, should this have on the final decision by the council?

What are your thoughts?

The man who was seen swinging a cat by it's tail sought by the authorities.

The RSPCA were appealing for witnesses after CCTV caught footage of a man swinging a cat by it's tail. The incident took place in Ramsgate on Saturday 29th of October at about 8:30am outside the Camden Arms pub.

A man has handed himself in (according to Sky News) and is "helping police with their enquiries".

Warning: This video may shock sensitive readers

Anyone who witnessed the attack or who recognises the man in the footage may wish to contact the RSPCA in confidence on 03001234999.

HRH Highness the Queen is expected to start her walk about in the Old town in the next few minutes.

If you have plans of seeing out Queen then you might want to be there before 11:15am.

Are you there now?

Were you there?

Tell us about it.

According to Thanet Online the council (TDC) seem to have misplaced all details of the royal visit (see below). Any mention of Her Royal Highness' visit failed to appear until some serious time later. Of course it does seem as if the council are keeping their head down and pretending this did not happen

In celebration of this truly stupendous royal gaff I have created a line of memorabilia featuring what one might imagine is the line of reasoning in use here.

According to a press release (found for a long time only here) Margate Old Town and the Turner Contemporary are to be included on the route that The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will be taking on their historic visit to Margate on Friday 11 November.

thanetonline: Council website misplaces royal visit.

I don’t know if this some sort of equivalent of a queen sacrifice in chess but the boffins at TDCIT seem to have lost the queen from the council’s homepage.

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Leader of the Council, Cllr. Bob Bayford, has, according to the press release, said: I am both delighted and honoured that Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will be visiting Margate. The Queen last visited the town in 1993 and so this is a great opportunity to show the nation the regeneration that the town is undergoing. This has been a year of achievements marked by the opening of the Turner Contemporary and this visit celebrates the culmination of many years of hard work by Thanet District Council, its partners, local residents and businesses. As a community we should be very proud that Her Majesty is joining us to see this transformation and I hope that Thanet residents will make the Royal party very welcome.

Everyone is welcome to come along to Margate, support the town and join in with the celebrations on this momentous occasion. Crowds are asked to observe the Armistice Day two minutes silence, the start of which will be signalled by the RNLI who will release the traditional maroon at 11.00am. The Armistice observation this year will take place in the Market Place, rather than at Regal Walk.

Thanet's Labour party are denying a U-turn on their pre-election pledge to oppose night flights from Manston airport.

According to the thisiskent.co.uk website Leader of the Labour party in Thanet Cllr. Hart said his members would be giving their own views during the consultation. This, it is reported, seems to contradict their earlier promise of a strict no night flights policy.

Labour denies U-turn on night flight pledge | This is Kent

THANET Labour leader Clive Hart has denied a U-turn on his party's pre-election anti night-flight pledge.Manston airport's owner Infratil has revealed plans for up to eight movements a night, in an...

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Tell us what you think: Is this new approach compatible with Labour's earlier pledge?

All members will now have their own page which they can start to customise themselves. As we develop things further all users will be able to add additional information, share more and embed headlines from their own blog(s) on their profile pages.

If you would rather not share this information you can set it to private or friends only. The friendship system is something that we will be rolling out in the next few weeks.

Those that have been invited to be part of a news team will see their news stories appear on their profile pages. Also once the My News feature is ready every user will be able to report the news that matters to them and it will appear on their profile page. Members that have been invited to be part of a news team will be able to select stories that people have written and promote them to the front page.

Later we will be implementing a method whereby you can vote on each other's news stories with those receiving the most votes also being added to the front page. As we begin to find sponsors who are willing to support Thanet News Network those whose stories feature on the front page will be given a share of the advert revenue.

Yeah, you read that right - we want to pay our best members for being so amazing!

New features are generally provided to our members first and on the whole existing account holders are more likely to be invited to join a news team. Talking of news teams one of our future plans is to allow highly active members to create their own news teams and specialist news centres within the site.

Right now you can create your own account by visiting this page.

Thanet District Council has received another application for night time flying from Manston Airport.

The documents submitted by Infratil, owners of the airport, detail proposals for a new night-time flying policy and also include an aircraft noise assessment report and economic assessment, which are technical reports, explaining the implications of the proposal. The documents were submitted to the council on Thursday, 27 October 2011.

The current planning permission for the airport includes a S106 agreement which bans all scheduled night flights during the hours between 11pm and 7am. Infratil have made a number of applications to have this restriction lifted.

This latest application follows on from previous proposals for night time flying which were submitted to the council by the airport in September 2010.

The issue of night flights is not without controversy with a number of websites springing up to object to the proposals. However it is also claimed that night flights would boost business and provide jobs while it is also claimed that without them the airport may close.

Thanet District Council will be seeking an independent assessment of the latest proposals and technical reports by an external company before public consultation on the proposal can begin.

A full consultation process is proposed to run for a minimum of 12 weeks to ensure that people have the chance to have their say. The starting date of the consultation will be announced on completion of the independent report.

Leader of the Council, Cllr. Bob Bayford, said: The council is committed to ensuring that local people have plenty of opportunity to comment on these proposals. We know this is a hugely important issue, especially for those living under the flight path, so will be providing a minimum consultation period of 12 weeks for people to have their say. Before this process begins we will be seeking an independent assessment of Infratil’s supporting reports, and will publish the findings. I’d like to encourage everyone with a view to ensure they take the time to participate.

According to The Guardian David Cameron has said that he "shares the frustration" of KM Group's failure to get regulatory clearance to buy seven newspapers in Kent, but denied it represented a failure of the government's supposed relaxation of merger rules to help struggling local publishers.

The KM Group have withdraw its bid to obtain the Northcliffe Media titles in Kent after The Office of Fair Traiding (OFT) refered the matter to the competition commission in a blog post The Gaurdian have reported that the KM Group chairman, Geraldine Allinson, has said: We have invested a huge amount of time on this project over the last few months. The costs and time required for a full competition commission review would be completely unreasonable for a business of our size and for a deal of this scale.

KM's former managing director, Graham Mead is reported to have said while we fully appreciate that the OFT team have to work to a strict framework, I don't think that framework is at all relevant to the current state of our industry.

The Ofcom report (which can be read here) says (1.10) The evidence available to us suggests that the target business and the regional newspaper business of KMG will struggle to achieve profitability in their current form, which might lead them to respond by closing newspaper titles or reducing quality (or both)

Interestingly (for Thanet News Network supporters) the report also talks of a steady decline in newspaper and radio consumption but a growing increase in Internet use. Citing Ofcom's own report Ofcom Local and Regional Media in the UK, 2009 the report says:

At the same time, the internet has become an increasingly important part of the local media mix. By 2009, a third of adults with broadband access said they use local websites at least weekly while consumers said they value the internet for accessibility, convenience and quality of information.

We asked just yesterday if this could spell the end for Thanet's printed press and the evidence suggests that it might.

Where do you think local news can go from here?

freelancemarket.co.nz is reporting that it has now emerged that in a local media assessment carried out prior to the decision, Ofcom warned that blocking the deal could lead to both KMG and KRNM ceasing to operate altogether.

The possibility that Thanet might loose it's newspapers due not so much to finical issues but to poor adaptability was first raised over three years ago. If this is the case then the importance of news sites such as Thanet News Network and a number of leading Thanet blogs may significantly increase. This importance will not only be to provide local people with local news but to create a forum where local businesses can promote their services.

As such seeing at least some form of ongoing reporting may be vital to Thanet's recovery. That is where Thanet News Network (TNN) comes in. TNN is a community funded project whose first full month was fully paid for by the you the reader. Of course we still need to see this month paid for and we welcome contributions.

Sites like this are becoming all the more important in reporting local news that matters. Soon we could be all that's left.

If you want to see local news reporting continue in Thanet then you should not only use the buttons below each article to share them but also Donate today.

November is Supported Housing month according to Kent homelessness charity Porchlight

According to the article on 24dash.com National research from the Department for Communities and Local Government shows that every pound spent on Supporting People saves £2.65 on other public services. Porchlight, the article says, wants to highlight the work and impact services are having throughout the country.

Supported Housing benefits us all » Housing » 24dash.com

Kent homelessness charity Porchlight is backing a national campaign to promote the importance of supported accommodation.Mike Barrett, Chief Executive of the charity that provides supported accommodation in Canterbury, Ashford, Dover, Thanet and Ton...

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