I did go over to Broadstairs in the morning
and watched the dinghy sailing for a bit, the dinghies were all Lasers
yesterday morning, possibly some sort of class regatta or possibly coincidence.
I didn’t stay in Broadstairs for the
dancing queens record attempt, what was great fun in 2011, click on the link
for the photos and videos http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/dancing-queen-world-record-broadstairs.html
was spoilt for me last year by far too much organisation, meaning I couldn’t get
much decent in the can as you can see last year’s post http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/broadstairs-queens-and-dragons-few.html
Probably something to do with health and
safety, I guess people dancing needs to occur in a roped off area if for no
other reason than to protect them from themselves.
As I said when The Transeuropa Ferry went
bust the interesting thing will be how much they owe TDC well now it appears
this figure is £3.3m and as I said then. What the council need to do is look at
managing the port and harbour in a completely different way.
My own feelings are that leisure is the way
forward for the port part of the Ramsgate harbour setup, ideas that Port Ramsgate
or for that matter Manston Airport have futures as transport hubs need to be
balanced against their potential for other uses.
In this area leisure attractions that can
offer people a family day out, like Dover
Castle or Quex seem to be
becoming increasingly busy. I have been saying for some tine that the historic
aviation side of Manston needs better exploiting and that the water sports and
water related leisure potential of port Ramsgate need to be explored.
Here in Thanet, we just don’t have the
proximity to the M25 to compete with the main London airports or the proximity
to the coast of France to compete with Dover, what we do have is sandy beaches,
the best climate in the UK, some amazing architecture and some historical links
that have considerable potential for exploitation in the leisure field.
Or the cyclists they knock off their bikes!
ReplyDeleteDont know about the buses whining the are far to frequently and it amuses me to see them bunched up at times. Sound like Broadstairs was buzzing and the buses whining maybe they need to form a band.
ReplyDeleteYou should start to use them Peter as your taxes have paid for half the costs. 27 of these green energy buses cost Stagecoach £3 millions and the government Green Bus Fund would have put in another £3 millions. But somebody is using the loop buses, from the loop start in 2004 the number of annual passengers has doubled to 4.5 millions. It must be all those free bus pass passengers.
ReplyDeleteToday, I got a train to work. I'll probably get one home when I'm finished.
ReplyDeleteIt is curious the way that some complain about the free bus passes being subsidised out of taxes. They overlook the fact that the recipients of these bus passes have often been paying taxes for 50 years and more, and some still are. Which is much longer than any of the resentful moaners. Who should bear in mind that we all grow old, with luck.
ReplyDelete"What the council need to do is look at managing the port and harbour in a completely different way"
ReplyDeleteYep, sell both to companies or people that can run them competantly. The port's future is now highly dubious, given that even Dover is struggling. Manston however could have a bright future, if unshackled from TDC interfearing, the nimbys were put in their place and TDC supported it 100%. It COULD be made attractive enough IF allowed to develop and IF the restrcitions that hog tie it were relaxed.
It's always those who chose to move next to an existing airport that whine the loudest about an existing airport!
Think you have got in a bit of a tangle here John.
DeleteThe council don’t own the airport freehold the company that do is a New Zeeland company called Infratil, they own two UK airports, both of which have made considerable losses for the company over the last few years. Last year they wrote the value of their UK airport business down by about 33 million and they have been trying to sell Manston airport for about the same price per acre as agricultural land.
They have also withdrawn from their agreement with the environment agency to fund the work necessary to obtain an EP environmental permit.
The business of airport regulation is multi agency, with airports trying to obtain the minimum of regulation particularly where like Manston they are on the market. Where the council has some say in Manston’s regulation is over night flights.
Roughly speaking the ball park for night flights is between at one end the amount allowed for a major hub airport like Gatwick and Heathrow and no night flights at all.
In business we would consider that the council had bargaining power here, and I guess the way we would expect the council to bargain would be for local jobs, telling the airport “the more jobs you can create the more night flights we will let you have” realistically this could really only have been translated into an allowance of night flights that was proportionate the number of daytime flights.
Night flights in themselves don’t produce extra jobs, each flight produces a couple of hours overtime for half a dozen existing staff.
Our own dear councillors seem to have translated this strong bargaining position thus, Conservatives and now the chief honcho of Kent UKIP saying “we would give you the same amount of night flights as a major hub airport without there being relationship to economic growth” while Labour just said no night flights.
Of course when KLM started their flights based around the avoidance of UK taxation, but giving some economic benefit to Thanet, there is an early morning flight, that could be construed as a night flight, but we are ignoring this in Ramsgate, and praying that the economic benefit stays for a little while.
Excellent comment on the noise from the new loop buses John, I think not. Looks like you have got your blogs twisted.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael.
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures. As for the dinghies all being Lasers, it was the Crewsaver Millenium Series at Broadstairs Sailing Club that weekend so it is possible that the dinghies you saw could have been in relation to that.