KCC Elections, Dreamland Cinema and The IOTG, Eddie Gilbert and King Street and a ramble.

Apologies I got a bit confused or frustrated trying to get the election results, with the KCC election website malfunctioning and KCC only seeming to want to tweet the results for places outside of Thanet.

Anyway I will start with the Isle of Thanet Gazette reporting that Dreamland Cinema has been sold.

According to both The Land Registry and TDC it hasn’t and it is subject to the compulsorily purchase, so will be part of the package that TDC is buying from The Margate Regeneration Company.

On to the election, just what message the electorate are sending and to who, both nationally and here in Thanet, is going to be discussed for ages. Kent remains in Conservative control, but hopefully we will have more chance of getting some of the Thanet issues addressed now, new brooms and all that.

The parking yellow peril madness along Ramsgate seafront’s road to nowhere would be a good start, followed by the Marina Esplanade viaduct being suitable for PSV access to The Royal Sands, even realigning the pavements to take account of the pedestrianisation 20 years ago here in Ramsgate. All issues I have tried to raise with county councillors in the past – time to have another go.

The closure of Eddie Gilbert’s is another blow to King Street in Ramsgate, although there is a rumour that another fishmonger is going to take the shop over, I am not holding my breath on that one.

When it comes to eating out I guess with me it is the view I pay for as much as the food, I know I like to sketch while my children eat up and so on, but I do wonder how much other people are influenced by this aspect.  

 

  Blockbuster closing recently hasn't helped the street.

up my end opposite my bookshop the largest shop seems to have been the subject of some sort of land banking exercise, the furniture shop went bust and it sold at action for about £75k to a carpet shop that went bust, it failed to sell at auction for the reserve of £170k, sold after the sale for £160k and now after years of emptiness is on the market for around £300k  

Back to the elections, the Kent results being results: Conservatives 45 seats, Ukip 17, Labour 13, LibDems 7, GreenParty 1, Other 1. As far as Thanet goes, Will Scobie is the only KCC councillor that I have any experience of, and I guess this must apply to a lot of other locals. As he got voted in, when other responsive councillors like Liz Green and Chris Wells didn’t, I guess there is a message here about age and the possibility, albeit terrifying to some that the Thanet youf may actually – in some cases vote. 45 Conservatives and 39 others suggests a reasonable working majority, having no local councillors that are part of that majority may present some problems.  

There is a rumour going around that both the TDC office and the police station in Ramsgate’s York Street are going to close, this is only a rumour as a shopkeeper I don’t think it will make much difference to the empty shop problem, let’s just hope there are no plans to put the council offices in Ramsgate Library, anyone who has tried to use Margate library, as a library, in recent years will know what I mean. Perhaps they will put the police station in there too, it would help to enforce “silence” and probably reduce book theft.  

  

I will ramble on this time.