How much longer can elastic be pulled before it snaps?

We don’t know where KCC leader Paul Carter buys his elastic but we’re keen to know as it is pretty sturdy stuff. For the last few years, he has taken to illustrating just how difficult KCC’s budget decisions are by saying the elastic is being stretched to breaking point. As if by magic, the elastic never quite breaks.

But we are wondering just how much longer it can be pulled in all directions before it splits asunder. This year’s budget calculations coming up leave little room for manouevre – even given the tensile strength of Mr Carter’s supply.

A crack team of writers must have been assembled by the Liberal Democrat South East MEP Catherine Bearder for her riposte to Theresa May’s speech in Florence. “The waffle fell far short of those served in Belgium,” she was quoted as saying in a press release. Perhaps you had to be there.

The bureaucatic layers in the NHS are sometimes as impenetrable as geographical rock strata. But eight Clinical Commissioning Groups in the county have simplified things by signing a contract with an organisation called NEL CSU to supply “a range of commissioning services”.

These include handling Freedom of Information requests on their behalf. Presumably, this works by NEL CSU getting a request and finding the information requested by, er, asking the relevant CCG.

Good luck to Kent’s PCSOs who have been handed some new powers by the chief constable. Among them will be the power to give penalty tickets to drivers who park in restricted areas outside schools, usually defined by zig-zag lines. Given the frazzled rush of the school run, let’s hope they will be trained in crowd control.

The veteran North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale had some harsh words for those who had criticised the fact that the council was leasing the harbour arm at Margate Pier for a peppercorn rent.

The critics were “ill-informed” he said. “The suggestion that this lease was awarded for a peppercorn rent at the expense of the ratepayer is a nonsense.”

Among those who were critical was his neighbouring MP Craig Mackinlay. He was less than complimentary about the contract saying that it was not a good deal for tax payers. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulOnPolitics