Hartsdown Park and Margate Football ClubA quick look at the other local blogs reveals one local news story from Simon Moores on Thanet Life see http://birchington.blogspot.com/2011/01/game-of-two-halves.html this is about the planning application for Hartsdown Park and Margate Football Club, not something I know much about.
I thought the application that was causing so much trouble was F/TH/10/0115 approved 15 Jun 2010 and that what really annoyed people was that the application signs only appeared on the gates of the football ground an not anywhere near the bit of the park effected.
I wouldn’t expect this planning permission to expire for several years.
The detail above shows just how drastically these plans cut up the park.
My understanding from a historical point of view, is that the original owners of this land were the Hatfeild family who were a family of very high repute and mixed in the highest of circles.
Word is that they were hosts to no fewer than three prime ministers there at Hartsdown House, including Winston Churchill who stayed there for two months.
I am not really sure that the council can just do what they like with this land, as I thought part of the agreement signed by the Hatfeild family when the land (800 acres) was left in perpetuity to the people of Margate, was a vast array of covenants which cannot be rescinded.
Word is that these even forbid even vehicles entering the park, let alone digging it up and putting a football pitch and hotel in the park.
I hope the council isn’t off on one of its missions to pour vast amounts of council tax into the pockets of lawyers, because they have failed to consult local people properly.
I am afraid the Margate isn’t really my remit so if anyone understands what this is all about please leave an explanatory comment.
There is also an article in this weeks gazette about the issue see http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/where/thanet/Redevelopment-park-gets-ahead/article-3069571-detail/article.html perhaps this is a tale of two planning permissions.
Don and the Big BreakfastDon on Promote Thanet has some articles about healthy eating and alternative medicine including one on the 3lb fruit breakfast, I think this may be something to do with natural gas, see http://promotethanet.blogspot.com/2011/01/five-day-confusion.html
I took a few pictures of Ramsgate Harbour area when I went for my walk this morning, fraid I have been a bit lax on the picture taking front recently, they tend to get a bit boring as I don’t often get time in the morning to go to other parts of Thanet, here are the links to the pictures.http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/notebook8111/id3.htm
http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/notebook8111/id4.htm
I will ramble on if I get a chance
We went to Broadstairs this afternoon, I bought some books in the Broadstairs Bookshop (the small one in Albion Street near the bottom of The High Street) some for me some for my wife and some for children and some for stock, bit of a busman’s holiday I know but we also got a walk and an ice cream in Morelli's.I tried to take some pictures, first the camera battery went flat so I tried taking still on my camcorder they come out rather small and fuzzy see http://www.thanetonline.com/laptop111/index.htm the few I took with my normal camera are at the bottom of the page. Then the camcorder decided it didn’t want to take any more so I tried my phone see http://www.thanetonline.com/laptop111/id3.htm even worse.
Then when I went to publish them the michaelsbookshop.com website was misbehaving so I published them to thanetonline.com not a good technology day, fortunately the ice cream was excellent.
During the course of discussions with one of the councillors about other matters last week, pointed out that the current administration is held in pretty low esteem at the moment. It’s always a bit hard to gauge these things and I suppose one would expect this at the end of a second term, a lot of what I hear is from customers in the shop and their feelings usually stem from some experience dealing with the council, rather than the overall state of Thanet. The main recent change of attitude I have been hearing is from local journalists and I think this is mostly due to the way the leadership consultation was managed. I think up until that the councillors were at least paying lip service to representing local people’s views, since it happened I have discussed it with several councillors and council officers frankly they seem lost for words. They try to swing the conversation round to the result i.e. the benefits of the different type of leadership but when pinned down to the way the decision was made, I am yet to hear a coherent explanation from any of them. What did surprise me though is that the councillor who I pointed out the low esteem the current administration is held in seemed to genuinely think that the opposite is in fact the case.
During the course of discussions with one of the councillors about other matters last week, pointed out that the current administration is held in pretty low esteem at the moment. It’s always a bit hard to gauge these things and I suppose one would expect this at the end of a second term, a lot of what I hear is from customers in the shop and their feelings usually stem from some experience dealing with the council, rather than the overall state of Thanet. The main recent change of attitude I have been hearing is from local journalists and I think this is mostly due to the way the leadership consultation was managed. I think up until that the councillors were at least paying lip service to representing local people’s views, since it happened I have discussed it with several councillors and council officers frankly they seem lost for words. They try to swing the conversation round to the result i.e. the benefits of the different type of leadership but when pinned down to the way the decision was made, I am yet to hear a coherent explanation from any of them. What did surprise me though is that the councillor who I pointed out the low esteem the current administration is held in seemed to genuinely think that the opposite is in fact the case.
I will swop you fruit for bacon ....... yep I will bring it over this week keep that bacon warm.
ReplyDeleteMichael I dont know about the covenants but TDC caused Margate FC a lot of heartache and lost them a postion in league football the last time this all came about. I hope this goes ahead soon.
Here we have the problem.... The land is restricted legally for the benefit of ALL the people of Margate, yet the underhand dealings of both the council and the football club are once more trying to run roughshod over whats actually allowed.
ReplyDeleteThe original development of the 5a side pitches is now being investigated, if found to be illegal, will result in an immediate legal challenge.
The football club DO NOT OWN HARTSDOWN PARK, the people of Margate DO.
This park WILL be protected no matter what, so the club and the council had better get their heads around the fact that this is one shady deal that will not happen.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteAs the previous post has put quite clearly,there does appear to be some kind of wrong doing here. I have been watching this issue develop over the last couple of months, i must say that as a Margate resident I do not want this plan to go through.
The initial planning "yellow" notices were never put up as they should have been, there was little or no notification to the public that this was being proposed, so no one objected.
Now that the plans have been highlighted everyone is up in arms at the thought of this parkland being dug up and effectively destroyed for ehat is in effect no real purpose.
My biggest question over all of this is why do we even need another hotel? surely all the derelict run down establishments in Cliftonville prove that this is just not needed.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven and i wish whoever it is every luck in their effirts to stop this happening. Things like this have been going on for far too long and its about time that they were stopped, this council have a lot to answer for.
Anon 18:33 My biggest question over all of this is why do we even need another hotel? surely all the derelict run down establishments in Cliftonville prove that this is just not needed.
ReplyDeleteI think you answer your own question Anon YES WE DO NEED hotels Travel lodge at Westwood is always busy, and where will visitors to the Turner go to ?derelict run down establishments in Cliftonville I assume. People expect a certain standard at an afffordable price. The football club is used the five a side pitches are used and on land that was previously the nursery and not open to the public,the rest of the park has a few dog walkers and the only time it has any number of people in it is when locals walk across it to get to a match at the football club. Margate would benefit from a sucsessfull football club something that everyone seems to forget. I loved to hear Margate mentioned on the TV when we were in the confereence league . But TDC's treatment of MARGATE FC has been farcical.
Don,
ReplyDeleteI think your missing the point !
Firstly, TURNER CENTRE: cost in excess of £16M to you and me, just think what Margate would have looked like if that money had been spent on the seafront and High St.
If you are of the opinion that this white elephant of an Art Gallery is going to pull in anything but more huge financial costs for all of us, you are sadly in cuckoo land.Ask yourself the question, howe many times will YOU go to Turner Centre when it opens.....once to be nosey maybe and there is the point!
Second,Margate football club is no more than a washed out 5th rate group of part timers with dilusions of being wayne rooney, supported by not many on a regular basis.They are not and never will be a flagship employer for Thanet, they will never be able to put Thanet on the Map,in a nutshell it's quite a sad joke.
Instead and what you cannot obviously see, is the bigger picture, Margate football club is a bankrupt business barely holding it's head above water, the directors have found a way of making some money out of a bad deal, they will be long gone if the building goes ahead. leaving all of us to suffer the consequences. NOw does that sound FAIR and reasonable to you?
Don you’re on as far as the bacon goes but you can leave your fruit behind.
ReplyDeleteAs far as all of the other comment goes, I see this as very much a Margate issue and really don’t understand it enough to comment, I would however recommend that you discuss the issue with Cllr Simon Moores who is the member for planning and does respond to members of the public you can email him on cllr-simon.moores@thanet.gov.uk