Saturday 1 June 2013

A Pinch and a Punch It’s the first of the Month, a ramble, perhaps.



For the other local bloggers my referral statistics to this blog are published at http://www.thanetonline.com/613/ this is the nearest I have to being an indicator of the relative popularity of the other local blogs.



It’s been a funny old week where Thanet district Council are concerned, the Transeuropa ferries debt being the overriding factor.  

With a normal situation of a busy council owned port, allowing one of the port customers to run up a huge debt should obviously result in serious actions.

The problem in this case is we are not talking about a busy port but a port running way under capacity with no other operators forthcoming. Whether there is a level of port fees at which Port Ramsgate would be a viable ferry route to continental Europe is probably the area where the key questions lay.  

My take here is that the port’s position is very much the same as that of our town centre shops, under capacity may mean that revaluation is the way to go, more likely though is looking at the role and usage of both the town centres and the port in a completely new way and probably one where leisure plays a major role.   

Should the council have pulled the financial carpet from under the ferry company? I have to say that I don’t really know the answer to that one.

Should the council review the whole usage of Ramsgate Harbour with the key consideration being running it at a profit? I guess the answer to this one is a yes.



The other big Ramsgate and Thanet Council issue to come up again is Pleasurama and it looks as though the slowly grinding council wheels are moving towards repossessing the site and trying to get some sort of usage out of it.

My take with this one is that at some point a proper assessment of what the site can be used for needs to be undertaken, key issues here being flood and storm issues and cliff maintenance issues. An aside to this it the viability of using the Marina Road inclined viaduct as the main access to a major development.

I will ramble on here, work permitting.  



Yesterday evening I stopped by at “The Royal Harbour Brasserie”  wot wos the Eagle Café on the end of Ramsgate’s east pier, this is Ramsgate’s foodie destination with a view, although to be honest Ramsgate is a bit far away to sketch with my aging eyesight.

I wasn’t going to publish my sketch from there, but looking at it in conjunction with the photo I took at the same time interested me to here goes.    


I would say that this crop from the picture taken with my mobile phone shows a similar degree of detail to that which I could see with the naked eye. At one point during the sketch I decided my Granville tower was too dumpy, rubbed it out and drew a taller thinner one, retrospectively the photo seems to say the initial dumpier one was the right one.      

22 comments:

  1. Kill 2 birds with one... let the developer build the apartments and take from them the affordable housing subsidy in one go (£770K approx) to balance the lost revenue from the port. Only speculation but TDC don't look at things in the long term nor do they look at it from the residents point of view. As Terry Painter said on BBC builders can start anytime just waiting for the "legals" to be sorted. If all TDC are waiting on is proof of the finances why is developer waiting for "legals"

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    Replies
    1. Barry my understanding is that nothing has changed in terms of the agreements with the developer, the development agreement, leases, planning permission and so on still stand and the position is exactly the same as it has been for several years.

      I think this means that there is nothing more or less to stop the developer from starting work again tomorrow if they want to. As there has been nothing preventing them from starting during the last year.

      Delete
    2. As there has been nothing stopping them since Jan 28 2004

      Delete
  2. Barry/James - When I spoke with Terrence Painter recently, he confirmed that the developer is ready to go. It is the council that need the legal comfort that the Hotel will be delivered to shell and core.

    Rather than the project being stopped. I think you will find that the scheme is now defo going to be delivered.

    Michael - I think you will find that the developer owns the 150 year leases for the site. And therefore the council may well be able to stop him building, but it will be 150 years before you will be able to influence a change of use for the site. I actually think the residential, retail and Hotel use for the site is an excellent use for the site. It will bring affluent visitors to the Town. Many of the owners will no doubt have boats in the Harbour. TDC will earn excellent rates from teh development. We should get n=behind the council and the developer to help them amke it happen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous,

      What do 'defo' & 'n=behind' mean?

      Delete
    2. The leases x3 are for 199 years

      Delete
  3. Looking at your sketch Michael. Could now sketch the same picture to include an artists impression on how that view would look with the completed Royal Sands development

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  4. I've seen an artist's impression of the development superimposed and it looks a dam site better than the old merry england building ever did, looking forward to seeing it built!

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  5. Builders will be on site before the summer is over. Watch this space....

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    Replies
    1. when will the summer start ITN

      Delete
    2. In the Know,
      I might take notice of you if you published your credentials, such as they may be.

      Delete
  6. Hi John - If I published my credentials, you would know why I know. And what do I have to gain from that. Much more fun to be anon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So that's what it is then - nothing but a bit of fun.

      Delete
    2. Dont get wound up. Lifes too short

      Delete
    3. Anon 7:17,

      You flatter yourself if you believe that I would take your posts seriously. Though I confess that they do amuse me a little. Especially in the case of your contradictory statements. In your 3:24pm post, you encourage us to support the developer and also to support TDC who are trying to get shot of the developer. Are you able to explain this contradiction?

      Delete
    4. Hi John - Contradiction? - Alan Poole has issued a very recent public statement which confirms quote "we are still in talks with SFP and I'm optimistic we can find a way forward with them"

      So I am not so sure the Council do want rid of them. Indeed In The Know appears to have confirmed otherwise within his previous posts.

      I think if Thanet had a public vote on the issue, the vast majority would be in favour of the Royal Sands scheme progressing. The jobs, the rates and revenue, and the positive impact on the Town would be immense.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. Anon @ 7:49 pm,

      Curiouser and curiouser.

      Personally, I have no intrinsic dislike of the proposed development. However, I do have a distaste for SFP who appear reckless as to whether the development is built in the foreseeable future. They already have a long lease and may even get the freehold both which are bankable. I have even more distaste for the pygmy politicians whose incompetence created this debacle.

      The Pleasurama site has great potential, and will continue to have it for another decade.

      Delete
  7. I Know who in the Know is...June 01, 2013 7:19 pm

    In the Know is an anagram of Twine Honk, maybe there lies a clue to the identity!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The No WinK

      Or could it be Trevor Shonk

      Delete
  8. Or just the usual empty speculation and talking up of fiascos like Pleasurama or EKO or Manston or Ferry.

    Not a brick will be laid at Pleasurama and the sooner it's completely cancelled by TDC and turfed over for the Summer the better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Michael - I would be delighted if you declined to publish this post but I am also happy for it to go public. Once again - your writing is spot on! Both the major issues addressed - BOOM!!! Bravo. I am doing work at the moment aimed at the meeting in public on 8th July re:Pleasurama. Talking to Barry James alot at the minute. I would love to buy you a coffee/beer sometime and pick your brain. Barry also told me Hamilton threw down a public challenge to me somewhere on your site. Would love to respond to that one :D all the best. Duncan

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.