Monday 20 June 2011

Eurokent Business Park public consultations this week


This is where and when the consultations are.

Broadstairs
Tuesday 21 June 2pm – 8pm
Holy Trinity Church Hall
Church Road, off Nelson Place,
CT10 1HQ Margate

Margate
Thursday 23 June 2pm – 8pm
Margate Media Centre
11-13 King Street,
CT9 1DA

Ramsgate
Friday 24 June 9am – 5pm
Street Market
Ramsgate Town Centre,
CT11 9AG 

Westwood Cross
Saturday 25 June 10am – 2pm
Main entrance
Westwood Cross Shopping Centre
Margate Road,
CT10 2BF

Where is Eurokent Business Park?

I have just had to explain this to two people who ought to know, so in words, if you come out of the car park at Westwood Cross Shopping centre and turn left, you find a load or roundabouts in fields that are not connected to roads and you have it.

There is a map on their website but unfortunately as it doesn’t name anywhere, it could be anywhere, so I have copied it above with the names of some well known places on it.

My understanding of this one is that Thanet District Council and Kent County Council invested in this land with the intention that it should be used for industry to provide employment in Thanet.

I think the idea now is to build houses on it.

Part of the masterplan for this site seems a bit strange to me, it seems to include a High Street without shops, see http://www.eurokent.org/pages/high%20street.html this may be loosely based on Margate although I am not really sure.

The same group seems to have something to do with the Manston Business park site see http://www.eurokent.org/manston%20park.html none of the links on their news page seem to work http://www.eurokent.org/news.html all in all this seems to be another site with lots of roundabouts mostly not leading to much.  


I have to admit to not knowing much about this one so I will try consult at Ramsgate market on Friday, these people seem to be very keen on massive road layouts that don’t seem to lead anywhere much.

Of course I can’t just ask the council’s press department what this is all about, although I suppose they may not know see http://www.eurokent.org/company.html It certainly seems a bit strange to spend all this money on roads that don’t seem to have anything much in the way of purpose, when so many of the busy Thanet roads are full of potholes.


I have just remembered that Bertie had things to say about Eurokent, click on the link to do a Google search of his blog for Eurokent http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=eurokent+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fthanetstrife.blogspot.com%2F&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=
I will add to this as I get time. 

21 comments:

  1. If you look at the links on the EKO website you'll see that one of the organisations involved The London Planning PArtnership seems to specialise in getting round 106 agreements. One their projects 8in London on their website is described thus:

    Hammers Lane and Flower Lane

    LPP have secured planning permission on three linked sites in the London Borough of Barnet for 80 residential units, 2,000 sq m of office floorspace and a purpose built community hall. The linking of the three sites together within a single planning strategy enabled LPP to negotiate the provision of affordable housing at well below the level sought by the Council and in obtaining favourable Section 106 contributions.

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  2. Good project for you to get your teeth into! You can ask KCC's press office about the EKO LPP venture in which each council has a 50% share. Both councils have spent a small fortune on this with KCC spending over £5 millions in 2006 to buy Manston Business Park from the receiver. Set up costs for the joint venture of £500,000 and ongoing costs seem to be about £350,000 p.a. But the LPP has no assets other than land and both councils have to chip in.
    KCC has also spent over £5 millions on the roads.
    So as job creation scheme it seems to be a failure and to avoid throwing more money at it, the only way out for us to get our money back is to sell it for housing.
    google "manston business park kcc" and you will find the may 2010 kcc report.

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  3. Westwood Cross a development with no roads - Eurokent Business Park - roads with no development??

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  4. I did hear a rumour - and I must stress that it IS a rumour - that a London council (possibly Lewisham?) have an interest in the land and are looking to build a new housing development and then move a large number of their "undesireable's" down this way.

    No idea if it's true but I hope it isn't

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  5. RossM,

    I used to live near Lewisham. If this not a rumour then heaven help us.

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  6. While I am totally opposed to building houses on this site, its name after all is Eurokent Business Park.
    I should like to point out that THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THE RUMOUR ABOUT BRINGING THE GREAT UNWASHED DOWN FROM LONDON.

    These rumours were also circulating about the rebuild of The Centre in Newington, THERE IS NO TRUTH IN THOSE EITHER.

    People who are opposed to any devevelopment anywhere will start these ugly rumours in an attempt to gain public support for the cause.
    There are plans to build houses on the Margate side of Haine Road and to the best of my knowledge despite rumours to the contary THERE ARE NO PLANS TO HOUSE BRIXTONS UNWANTED THERE EITHER.

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  7. Cllr Mike Harrison,

    Thank you for your alacrity in setting the record straight.

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  8. Mike, my understanding is that the plans which have been implemented over the last few years are to house the worse tenants in social housing in the town centres, I think the idea is to make it impossible to trade in them so that people buy things in out of town shopping centres and from the internet.

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  9. Age old problem showing it's ugly face here.... lack of information, non transparency of decisions, fuzzy paper trail, deception till it's too late...... This has TDC written all over it, it is their trademark in how to deal with things.
    Think Turner Centre, Think traffic lights at Marine Parade that crippled the town and what tourist industry we had, Think assett disposal and the lack of information until they had gained an unbeatable advantage.
    You don't have to be a NIMBY in Thanet to understand that things happen for no logical reason whatsoever because someone somewhere is pulling the strings, just imagine what a fantastic place Thanet could be if we had a local council actively working for us and not selling every little last piece of land off to the highest bidder.
    A business park needs businesses onit to make money and create employment, this is the logical course..... wait and see what we get.

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  10. Fair play to Cllr Harrison for clearing that up. I did say that it was only a rumour I had heard - must admit I'm pretty relieved !

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  11. I went to the Broadstairs presentation yesterday - they told me only 30 odd people had been in all day. There were six of them including the executive director of the project, David Evans of KCC,and EKO (whose daily rate must be substantial) so it was a costly exercise. With our money....
    Christine

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  12. And, of course, if it had not been done there would have been uproar because it hadn't! democracy is not cheap!

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  13. Ken I have made a complaint to the council that they engaged in this expensive consultation without publicising it, which as you see meant hardly anyone attended because they didn’t know about it.

    The council haven’t even acknowledged the complaint, perhaps because their email server isn’t working, I don’t know, any chance you could ask them?

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  14. Thank you Mike for your clear denial of these rumours.
    Can we take it then that the Tesco Bag Episode is back?

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  15. Oh dear Ken, democracy at work. Spend loads of money on a consultation and then don't tell anyone. And if anyone dares to comment, insult them.

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  16. EKO doesnt come cheap either it must be costing TDC and KCC a small fortune keeping the LLP staffed and with £10 millions tied up in land. So how many jobs have been created at Manston Business Park and EuroKent and what has happened to the China Gateway?

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  17. Time to find another Tescos Bag methinks

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  18. Does anyone have the results of the 2008 consultations? On the EKO website it says that 10 events took place but there are no reports on what the consulations actually came up with. I was part of one focus group that was organised by EKO for local Friends of the Earth but that never made part of the report - we all concluded farmland was more valuable than industry or houses. I filmed it if anyone's interested.
    Christine

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  19. I just phoned EKO and I was put through to the London firm Local Dialogue! I asked about the reports from the previous consultations and was told by Benedict McAleenan that they "may not be publicly available"! I wonder why they should undertake expensive consultations and not make the results easily available.
    Christine

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  20. Definitely time for another Tesco Bag, and also find out who benefits from this.

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