The campaign, Make Kent Quicker, is being run by Kent County Council and aims to show Internet providers that there is a high demand for superfast broadband across Kent.

Thanet District Council is supporting the campaign to get improved broadband services in Thanet which will make a real difference for residents, schools and businesses.

More than 5,000 people have already signed up to say they want better broadband in Kent but many more are needed to ensure providers can see the demand for quicker services.

The ambition is for 90 per cent of homes and businesses to have superfast broadband access by 2015. Kent County Council and the Government are investing more than £20 million to help make this happen.

Cllr. Clive Hart, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, said: The campaign is a great ambition for Kent and one that we fully support.

He added: We urge all residents to vote for faster broadband for Thanet to ensure that Internet providers see the high demand for this service in the local area and invest in the improvements. It only takes a few minutes to register your demand and every vote will make a massive difference to the potential to secure faster broadband for Thanet. Get your family, friends and neighbours involved too.

The government announced earlier today (Friday 30 March) that they would be allocating £10 million to 100 districts across the country from their High Street Innovation Fund Grant. This will support new business start-ups, whilst bringing empty High Street properties back into use.

Thanet has not been included in this list of 100 districts, despite Margate regularly being named amongst the worst in the UK for its level of empty shops.

Councils were not asked to apply for this money. It was instead allocated by the government using business rate returns. These look at the business rates collected across a whole district for all commercial, industrial and retail units and warehousing. This is then compared with how much business rate relief has been given to empty commercial units throughout an area. This method of calculation does not focus on High Street empty shop levels.

Leader of the Council, Cllr. Clive Hart, said: To me, this is a real travesty. I cannot believe that Thanet is not going to receive any of this money, given our well documented issues with empty shops. Margate is sadly all too often in the national news headlines, perhaps sometimes unfairly, for having some of the highest levels of empty shops in the country. To hear that £10 million is being allocated by the government to tackle this problem and we are not receiving any of this is exceptionally disappointing to say the least.

He added: The way they have calculated this does not give a true measure of empty shops on the High Street and, as such, we feel this is a very unfair way of deciding who should receive the money. I sincerely hope that the next round of Portas funding, which all our three towns are applying for, will see success for Thanet, as the area desperately needs the additional funding on offer.

Kim's photograph of the last moments of Richborough Power Station's iconic cooling Towers.

We also have a video of the destruction of the Richborough towers.

This morning (a little earlier than announced) the towers finally came down.

Payam Tamiz stood down after reportedly refering to Thanet women as sluts took umbridge with comments about him posted to a blogger.com blog. Blogger being owned by Google Payam Tamiz sued Google for the comments.

Google Wins UK Blogger.com Libel Case

Google has emerged victorious in a libel case brought about by former Tory local council candidate Payam Tamiz, after defamatory comments were reportedly written about him on a London Muslim blog hosted on its Blogger platform.

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Council member Chris Wells has, with an ill considered choice of words, offended local blog writer Tony Flaig. Mr Wells has offered a qualified apology in his defence which Mr Flaig has published. Cllr Wells was not available for comment at time of going to press.

BIGNEWS MARGATE: What standards? Councillor Wells " I am expected to follow a code of behaviour different than that expected of members of the public"

Really? Well maybe councillors are somehow different, anyhow I personally think we should all try and maintain a bit of dignity in our lives.

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Thanet District Council is now asking members of the public for their views on proposals for regular night-time flying at Manston Airport.

The night flight proposals were submitted by Infratil, owners of the airport, in last October last year following which Thanet District Council commissioned an independent report which is, in places, fairly critical of the proposals suggestions. There is now a public consultation.

There is a look at the issues on Thanet Star and another on Thanet Online.

The consultation is open to all members of the public as well as Town and Parish Councils, Chambers of Commerce, Community and Residents Associations and Special Interest Groups established in Thanet. Responses received from residents within the Canterbury City Council boundary will be shared with Canterbury City Council.

Your comments may be submitted by email or by post and must include your full name, address and postcode to be valid. You can email consultation@thanet.gov.uk or you can put it int he post and send it to:

Don't forget your postcode and be sure to state clearly if you are opposing or supporting the proposal.