A month ago, I was approached by a major car company *cough* Nissan *cough* to be involved in a new campaign about electric cars.

"Little old me?  A humble blogger from Rainham?"

"Yes," they said.  "You."

"OK,"  I said, "what do you need me to do?"

"Well," they said, "we ... erm ... we just need you to stand at Speaker's Corner in London and read out a blog post about electric cars using a megaphone."

"Hello?  Kate??  HELLO?"

It was a daunting suggestion to say the least but I was definitely up for the challenge.  I knew I would be up against 9 other UK bloggers but was excited that I'd have the opportunity to represent Rainham.  

I've felt for a long time that Kent is under-represented in terms of the blogging community, a community I've been a part of for the last 18 months, and I'd been looking for some way to bring Kent to the forefront.

Here was my opportunity - as embarrassing as it would no doubt be.

A few weeks later, a film crew turned up at my house and set to work taking shots of the Nissan Leaf that had been delivered the night before. 

"By the way, we're not going to go to London now."

I was relieved but a little disappointed.  

"Instead, you're going to stand on stage at your local theatre by the Oasthouse in Rainham and do a speech there."

Oh.

To cut a long story short, I ended up talking to people as they walked past my house and answering questions they had about the car and so we stayed there all day.  

I had a challenge to carry out whilst being filmed.  My challenge was to blog using old technology and so the crew provided me with a very old typewriter, a Polaroid camera, some chalk, a chalkboard and a megaphone.  

And it certainly was a challenge - nothing worked!

If you want to see what I got up to, you can check out my video HERE - it would be really great to have Kent's support and I'd love to get Rainham and Kent on the blogging map!

The gig is this. Every time someone clicks ‘TURN KATE ON’ on the Nissan website  or Tweets about my video, or clicks the Facebook button or posts to their site, I get one point. Every time someone books a test drive (and actually does the test drive during the next month,) I get 30 points.

AND WHAT DO POINTS MAKE?

That’s right! Prizes!

Except this prize … is a biggie.

The winner gets to win a brand new Nissan Leaf!

(*faints a bit*)

You can click as often as you like!

If you're on Twitter, retweets count - my Twitter name is @iamwitwitwoo (you just need to make sure that the tweet you're retweeting has all of the relevant hashtags in it,) and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your Aunt!

For more info, you can click HERE.

Thanks and ... wish me luck!

She has consistently topped the polls in Medway for years, but this year threatens to be the annus horribilis for Jane Chitty.

The lady has survived numerous attacks over the years - being a politician seems to attract abuse and sarcasm. Mrs Chitty, however, has always managed to soar above it. With 28 years on the council (or its predecessor where she was mayor) she has had plenty of experience of the highs and lows.

The year 2011 is already the pits for her. It may be the one where she does not survive,. Certainly if she was a cat she has lost several of her nine lives this week  alone.

The portfolio holder for strategic planning, overseas links and a multitude of other responsibilities survived one clever attack on her when a Labour councillor pointed out that she was not living at the home she cited in her 2007 election nomination.

It was investigated by the Standards Committee for Medway who decided there was no case to answer because at the time of the 2007 election she was living 100 metres down the road while a new house was being built. The reason she insisted on using a mobile phone upto the present was because of unpleasant calls to her home at all hours of the day and night. (Even today her address and home phone number are not published on the council's website: her address is given as care of Gun Wharf.)

Then she lost the support of her ward members in what looked suspiciously like a well-planned attack.

Fortunately for her, one of those who won the right to fight for the seat in Strood North - sitting councillor and fellow Cabinet member Les Wicks - moved to Gillingham, resigned from Strood North and has been selected instead to fill a Rainham vacancy. Gillingham's Conservative association is keeping quiet about his selection but it will probably be in Rainham South to succeed the sick Roy Hunter.

Whatever, Cllr Chitty came back from the dead and fought a campaign behind closed doors that got her selection through by two votes.

Mrs Chitty can be intimidating when the mood is on her. She can also be full of fun, flirtatious, boisterous and can converse Navvy-Speak.

This week the Standards Committee met three times to discuss another set of allegations against Mrs Chitty. Bear in mind, investigations by the committee often seem to replicate a treadmill which has rusted to its pivot.

It is alleged the Conservative councillor was bullying and hectoring in the public reception area at Gun Wharf. The alleged victim? -Labour's political officer of the day. It happened in 2009 but there seems to have been a shortage of oil to speed the wheel of investigation. At their third gathering of the week, the committee announced there is a case to answer as far as it is concerned: Mrs Chitty faces a public appearance on that issue.

But it is on her adventures to China that her political standing now really stands - or falls.

It is alleged (and I do not know whether it is true) that Mrs Chitty had behaved in a somewhat undiplomatic way when escorting a large party of school officials, heads, teacher and senior pupils to China. The allegation was not proceeded with, but Mrs C has since returned to China where she is said to have became overly boisterous once more. The Standards Committee is now proceeding to inquire into allegations that suggest spilled chocolate or wine (depending who tells the tale) led to inappropriate suggestions about how it could be removed.

Mrs Chitty has bounced back a number of times in recent years, but it only takes one finding against a councillor for them to be damned.

A great deal of diplomatic language can be used by lawyers when investigations fail to make the story stand up. Considerable political language will be needed from Mrs Chitty if it goes the other way.

There is one way out for any politician facing the Standards Committee. That is not to resign or (as now) not to be elected. If you are not in office, the Standards Committee cannot do anything about it. Anyone who doubts it should ask the parish councillors of Tonbridge and Malling. Several erstwhile colleagues have resigned in the past few years rather than accept a drubbing from that borough's committee..

MONDAY night was a first for us at the KM Group as we decided to try out a live question and answer session on the internet with Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler.
I know we have been running regular Monday afternoon sessions with myself and Gillingham fans, but on Monday we set a new first, by giving people the chance to ask Hessenthaler questions directly over the internet.
We have been experimenting for some time with the different opportunities that the internet and social media has given us and it’s great to see a large section of Gillingham fans getting on board.
I’ve sat in the Great Hall at Priestfield several times where fans get the chance to grill the club’s hierarchy and it has always proved a popular draw.
So why not try the idea out on the internet?
It didn’t take much persuading for Andy Hessenthaler to agree to take part, even if it meant he had to give up an evening of his own time to join us at our office in Strood.
He seemed more than happy to liaise with supporters and didn’t seem to mind that nobody bothered offering him a drink! All he got was a couple of tic-tacs, but it didn’t seem to hinder the night.
While Hess asked assistant Ian Hendon to cover his scouting duties he came to face a huge number of questions from Gills fans on the internet. Almost 250 came in by the end of the evening.
All credit to Andy for taking any questions thrown at him. His responses were revealing, honest and insightful. It’s just a shame we only had an hour as by the amount of interest and questions coming our way we could have been there all night!
For us it was also a good opportunity to listen to Andy’s thought on a wide variety of subjects, something we don’t often get chance to explore.
If you’ve seen the Q&A session feel free to send any comments, good or bad. The more feedback the better.

On another matter, we’ve got a new columnist appearing this week in the Medway Messenger newspaper.
Mark Bentley’s decision to join Cambridge United on loan meant we had to bring someone in on loan ourselves to replace Benno’s Beat.
Taking over the role is Nicky Southall and his debut column, “Trigger’s Tales” (that was his choice) will be with us shortly!

There is plenty of talk from government ministers about the need for localism. It is a phrase that is going to become increasingly part of the vocabulary in the next few years.

Kent's leaders are talking about creating a local economic partnership (a Cameron alternative to saying localism) consisting of Kent and Medway.

Elsewhere councils are looking at creating partnerships that equate to courses for horses.

One such involves the Thames Gateway councils.

Another is along the A21 from Hastings to Tonbridge. It includes councils with little or no interest in county boundaries.

Several councils are exploring the idea of being in partnership with other authorities facing sporting challenges, for example, but teaming up with different councils to provide, say, housing support services.

Medway, Swale and Gravesham already provide a combined building control department.

There's a Multi Area Agreement over transport and other services. Dartford is added to the Medway/Swale/Gravesham mix.

Some council leaders are looking elsewhere than to KCC for their futures.

Which might reflect why Medway would look extremely carefully before considering a tie-up with KCC. After all, one of the prime reasons for arguing that there should be a unitary authority free of KCC influence was because of the way that Kent dictated to the other authorities, and cash that should have been spent in the Medway Towns on tackling their many problems was milked away to rural areas.

There is a Big Seven that includes Medway, Kent, and Brighton and Hove.

They've successfully teamed up to control costs - something KCC powered through some years ago when it started Kent Top Temps, then diversified into buses, stationary, furniture and gardening.

But these days Kent County Council is only of interest to districts, boroughs and unitaries for what it can offer - not what it controls.

***

Tough times call for tough measures.

There was a time when a bean feast for councillors included caviar, champagne and chauffeur-driven cars.

Not now.

You'll be lucky to get a slice of cake and a squash these days.

I hear that tomorrow the new play area at Capstone Farm country park will be launched by Cllr Howard Doe with a .... cup of tea.

It's tough being a Cabinet member in a recession.

Having said that, I thought it was down to mayors to open things...

***

Seems one of my contacts was wrong.

Cllr Janice Bamber, the portfolio holder for Customer First, is no longer wanted by her ward members after they voted to oust her (and hubby Ken) from their ward seats on the Hoo Peninsula.

Rumour had it she, at least, had found an alternative seat as a candidate for Rainham Central. This time the source was wrong.

Brigita Amey, the Gillingham and Rainham Conservative Association chairman denied the story, saying they have not yet started the selection process for next year's local council election and have not received an expression of interest or any communication from Mrs. Bamber.

Happy to put the record straight, and apologies to readers for getting it wrong.