Broadstairs Tree Massacre and other stuff in the news

Some of you have probably seen the tree massacre posts on the Thanet Press Release Blog and wondered what this is all about see http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/demo-to-be-held-against-tree-massacre.html and http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/go-ahead-given-for-tree-massacre.html

Obviously I don’t live in Broadstairs so I don’t think the council are obliged to tell me what’s going on there, so I tried looking at the council’s planning website http://www.ukplanning.com/thanet this is a very bizarre website so I can’t link to the various applications on it, the way to get to the applications is to click on the letter P in the street name part of the page and then click on PIERREMONT AVENUE the are 5 park applications dated in 2005 described as current and 2 2008 ones described as decided.

I don’t make these things up, they presumably emanate from some sort of Parkinson’s Law in a world gone mad.

I tried very hard to work out from the various documents there what trees they intend to massacre, unfortunately the definition of the document detailing this was to low for me to tell.

What I can’t tell also, is if this is development that Broadstairs people want or not.

The local blogs and today’s Your Thanet are a bit thin on local news at the moment, or perhaps it’s just my interpretation.

I tried asking the council’s press department about what’s going on with the Royal Sands Pleasurama Development, but they kept saying they would tell me tomorrow, which never came, so I have finally and in desperation put in an official request to the council, something that will be time consuming for them.

The trouble is with this sort of request is they have to answer them in ten council days, this translates into a fortnight in real time, needless to say they wait until the last day to respond in the spirit of open government. This means that you have to ask all your questions at once, instead of engaging in some sort of dialogue. Here is what I asked, I hope I didn’t leave anything out:


"Please treat this as an official customer feedback request.

This is essentially a general enquiry about the Royal Sands Development on the old Pleasurama site in Ramsgate.

1 Please send me any addition information about this development that I haven’t requested below, because I am unaware of its existence.

It would appear that some work has occurred on the site during the last month, but obviously this work doesn’t relate to the development agreement schedules and conditions of the various leases contained in it.

2 Does this mean that the leases are now invalid and the development agreement is to be determined?

3 Or does it mean that there has been an updated agreement with new schedules?

If the development is going ahead, either to a new schedule or is being allowed under some other flexible arrangement:

4 Can you please supply me with a revised building schedule?

5 Can you please tell me which of the approved plans the development is to be built to and if these plans are published on the council’s planning website?

6 Can you please send me details of the public information sessions that were promised once work started on the site?

7 Can you please send me any updated information on the cliff safety issue? Details and dates of the promised cliff top weight limit, correspondence between the council, the HSE, the developer, cliff survey and maintenance schedule, any cliff survey reports, any agreements for cliff maintenance between the council and the developer.

8 Can you please send me details of any flood, storm or emergency escapes incorporated in the development as a result of the EA recommendations 8th Feb 2008.

9 If the artists impressions, details of roof material and other building materials for the building to be built, are different to those described on the councils planning website, due to the various different plans and in consequence plans being used that no longer relate to the ancillary details, can you please send me the details of these changes?

10 If the plans that are to be used no longer relate to all of the planning and design statement, can you please send me revisions to the planning and design statement?
Please confirm your receipt of this request?

Best regards Michael"

Another thing I have been trying to find out about is what has happened about The Restaurant at the End of the Pier, this went up for tender some time ago and I asked if anyone had taken it.

It is the sort of thing people in Ramsgate want to know about, but the council just telling me, well that seems to easy, it certainly seems pretty crazy to have to turn a question like that into a series of cast iron requests.