Having a dull moment just now, I am having another go at oil
painting and as the sun has moved around the view of St Georges from our kitchen
means the sun is shining to close to straight at me to paint.
Anyway I had a bit of a delve of the What Do They Know
website and found a freedom of information request that interested me.
The request asked how much the council got for selling the
dredger and how much it had cost to dredge the port and harbour afterwards.
here is the gist of the answer:
The price achieved for the sale of the dredger 'Ramsgate' in 2008 was £66,000.
Summary - Dredging costs 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Royal Harbour 70,972.17 198,922.00 113,624.00 66,722.34 159,650.82
Port 529,159.00 249,975.30 92,151.75 396,070.50 41,422.39
TOTAL 600,131.17 448,897.30 205,775.75 462,792.84 201,073.21
The latest bathymetric surveys can be viewed on the Port of Ramsgate website at
The rest of the info is at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dredging_of_the_royal_harbour_ra#comment-49070
as I am not sure how the post will appear on the net I am publishing it now and then will write some more
Anyone got any better idea?
I guess the problem with this one is it doesn’t tell us what
the total dredging costs were before they sold the dredger, although as I would
assume it had around three people running it and a bit of maintenance it would
have cost in the region of £60,000 per year and I guess there would have been
the occasional need to hire a big suction dredger every few years to give the
port a good extra going over.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWho cares?!?!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you care about 6.02?
ReplyDeleteThe old Ramsgate dredger used to dredge up the Stour for the oil tankers that served power gem it also dredged at Whitstable when needed thus defraying its running costs another item that should be added to the costs of dredging is the bouy laying and maintenance that our own dredger did that is now done by Trinity House vessels and they do not come cheap,
ReplyDeleteThe old Ramsgate has had a extensive refit and is still earning its keep and with the same old Gardner engine so the hull must have been in good shape for the present owners to have spent a great deal of money to update her.
Stargazer.
Michael do you knoW why TDC want to dispose of the harbour is it just to get cash in or to put repair costs onto future purchaser? or just to dispose of the income generated
ReplyDeleteDon I think at various times the council have quite fancied a private company running the harbour, the underlying problem is pretty roughly that while the marina makes a fair old profit the port makes a fair old loss.
DeleteLike the airport the port faces the catchment problem that most of the spokes to the wheel of this hub are sea and it is very difficult to get fish to buy travel tickets. Added to this however is that unlike Dover the Goodwin Sands sit between Ramsgate and the closest part of the coast of France so in reality a ship crossing takes about twice as long and uses twice as much fuel.
With the airport I think this could have worked by expanding the heritage part and looking for a much smaller commercial airport and in that case I think it was grandiose intentions to become a major hub airport that caused it to close mr thatn anything else.
With the port I don’t think there is any ferry solution while Dover is under capacity, the only real solutions being to expand the marina into the port, difficult because it wasn’t deigned in a way that its use is versatile, or look to water based leisure.
An extension of the marina into the port is a no brainer for Ramsgate and TDC no matter how much it costs. With larger berths. The car/lorry park should be a 21st century amusement park with large London eye type rides. This would in the long run make far more money for the local community and for TDC.
DeleteWhy not bother about where you live and leave the grown up stuff to the adults. Isn't where you live a no go area?
ReplyDeleteI have sometimes wondered if a ferry across the Thames would be possible. Maybe the tides make that difficult, has it been done before?
ReplyDeletePeter I don't think you would need Port Ramsgate for this if it was a hovercraft, have you looked at the report on the trial done for Stagecoach on the hovercraft ferry option, see http://www.sestran.gov.uk/files/BACKGROUND%20REPORT%200054-DV01356-DVR-02%20Hovercraft%20Trial%20Data%20Collation.pdf
DeleteMichael , I think the firgures are slightly disingenuous as they do not show the monies received from European funding or the monies received from Wind farm developers. I am sure TDC paid out the stated sums for dredging but they received several hundred thousand £'s back into the account.
ReplyDeleteaccording to recent figures provided in the Gazette by Rick Everitt (gazette letters page 27th June 2014) the harbour will have a surplus of £471K this financial year.
ReplyDeleteA good amount of money to change the port into an extension of the harbour.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know if the harbour is full and is there a waiting list?
I'm glad to hear you have moved from Cliftonville Peter as that needs some help
ReplyDeleteOhhh very posh
ReplyDeleteWe all know how you feel about Ramsgate Peter, I'm happy to hear your in such a wonderful place as Margate well done I bet your really proud of what you have achieved in life sitting there in your million £ + house looking down on all of us poor people living in this crap place wishing we were you. I'm so sad
ReplyDeleteIts funny how Westbrook has Margate train station in? looka like Margate to me but you think what you like
ReplyDeletePeter what on earth are you talking about here? Apart from Westwood Cross supermarkets Ramsgate town centre is really the last remaining shopping centre where you can do a main food shop for the week.
ReplyDeleteThree butchers, two greengrocers, two bakers one fishmonger, the other key ingredient being Waitrose.
Looked up your crime figures they are not as low as mine and not the lowest in Thanet. But again you think what you want to think
ReplyDeleteAnd St Lawrence is officially the largest and main church of Ramsgate. its parish records go back much further than other churches in Ramsgate. check any parish map up to the 20th century and you will see it is the main church, it was only when the small fishing village of Ramsgate expanded that Ramsgate subsumed St Lawrence,
ReplyDeletethis thread seems almost like discussions people living in Battersea calling the area South Chelsea coz it sounds posher