Happy Easter to one and all.I was interested to see an article in The Times about property in Broadstairs http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article6060988.ece the article seems to have been derived from local estate agents and says that Ramsgate has a new casino complex under construction.
I wonder is it possible that there is something the local estate agents aren’t telling us, news is a funny thing however I often get the feeling that quite a lot of it is made up, and some things like whatever happened on the St Peters Margate road yesterday just don’t seem to appear.
From a local history point of view where a great deal of information is derived from newspaper archives this can present some problems, I can imagine a Ramsgate historian trying to answer questions about this nonexistent casino in 100 years time.
I believe negotiations are still ongoing in getting Preston Steam Museum http://www.thesteammuseum.org/ to take over Ramsgate maritime museum the problem here being the time that it’s taking, the councils slow grinding bureaucratic machine isn’t suitable for getting anything done in a timely manner.
They have been at it now for 6 months and now it’s Easter the museum is closed and the Cervia still sitting on her moorings.
It isn’t going to help much if it takes so long to get an agreement that we don’t get any program of events this summer or the Cervia sinks on her moorings.
I have been pressing the council fairly hard this week over the Pleasurama development firstly to get the site cleared for the summer and to ensure that we don’t go down another 5 years of unworkable plans and inaction.
With the money laundering regulations that have come in since the plans were first approved 5 years ago it seems fairly uncertain that the council can legally deal with a developer where the funds are derived via a British Virgin Islands company, the council are now looking into this and promise a reply about it next week.
I also believe that both the council and developer are coming round to the idea that the public transport access is unworkable, I think a problem here is that the whole western undercliff area from the pavilion to the car park where the marina pool used to be really needs to be restored and developed in an integrated way.
The mock up pictures of the development on the architects website still show the original gull winged building that relates to the first set of plans I can't link to the page on their website as it’s some strange flash production click on the link http://www.prc-group.com/index.php?id=0 then portfolio, sector, mixed use and then click on the picture of the development.
Mind you it’s still on the Robert Leonard group website http://www.robert-leonard.com/ they were the first contractor to pull out several years ago, there is a certain unreality about the developments presence on the web as though various companies have come along to make some money out of it, realised how bad the project is and departed.
I notice nothing appears on Knight Developments website http://www.knightdevelopmentsltd.co.uk/INDEX.asp they were the second contractor that were to have built it, they decamped after their sister company Knight Roadworks http://www.jlknightroadworks.co.uk/index.html built the road layout without the flood risk assessment strongly recommended by the environment agency.
Mind you this could all be a bit embarrassing for the parent company Knight Environmental http://www.knightenvironmental.co.uk/index.htm I quote from their website.
“Knight Environmental Limited has recognised the need for this with many of our customers and have developed the in-house expertise for undertaking flood risk assessments using Environment Agency accepted methodology outlined in the 'flood estimation handbook' (FEH). Knight Environmental Limited is able to assist our customers at the earliest stages of the planning process thus minimising delays, the number of specialist sub-contractors and streamlining the environmental inputs for our customers.”
Well know it’s with Cardy Construction http://www.cardyconstruction.co.uk/ nothing on their website either, one would have thought one would have thought a project of this size would have warranted a mention.
I believe it was a young lad on his bycycle-pulling out of the track that runs from millmead onto the main road,and hit by a car..he died..may he rest in peace..
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