Sunday 29 June 2014

Margate today

 I hope the pictures tell most of the story
















49 comments:

  1. Is the story "There was lots of nice stuff going on in Margate that was funded by the council but not many people appreciating it"?

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    1. Maybe they all went to the annual Preston Steam Rally instead? That looked very busy when I briefly visited on my bike today, as was one of my favourite pubs The Dog & Duck at Pluck's Gutter.

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  2. Michael thats a great picture of Margates very own Flatiron Building

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  3. Sorry again off topic
    Looks as though all they will have left soon is the runway ( thanks for spotting this one MO)
    http://www.ppauctions.com/auction.php?id=121

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    1. s Om I will do a Manston update post, it must be about time.

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    2. Thanks Michael its hard to find info out their all being very tight lipped.

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    3. Maybe Maureen doesn't have any more info...

      Back on topic to "Margate Today": Today there's (yet another) high court appeal in London regarding Arlington Tesco. I was hoping to do my Christmas shopping there... in 2011! Guess I was over-optimistic (gone are the days when something like Margate Winter Gardens could go from planning stage to grand opening within a year).

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    1. Could it be an abbreviation for MO[nomaniac]?

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    2. Really John ? Your not going to grow up then, so sad

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    3. Perp, I assume that you looked up the word. Most apt, I thought.

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    4. Looks as though your campaign to save Manston and have planes flying over your house Isn't going that well John? Maybe time to move to Slough, I'm sure your fine debating skills will be invaluable to the third runway campaign

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    5. Perp, once again you demonstrate that you know so little and know it so fluently.

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  5. Statement from Roger Gale re: auction. "We are assured most items are old or surplus and would be replaced anyway."

    http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/Manston-airport-asset-auction/story-21316827-detail/story.html …

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    1. Peter,

      This is definitely the case bearing in mind that the airport will have a thorough refurbishment once flying recommences.

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    2. You lot will believe anything if it comes from roger gale.
      I don't proclaim to know it all but at least I can see when the game is up, the fat lady has sung, it's all over now, and so on.
      do you really think once all the things mentioned it the action catalogue are sold you will still have an airport to save?
      Talk about heads in the sand SMA should call themselves ostriches

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    3. That's right, perp, you do not know it all. You couldn't find two St Bernards if they were in the same telephone box as you.

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  6. Most of the rides at Dreamland were either sold or destroyed, yet it's reopening again after closing for nearly a decade... stay positive, and it will happen! : )

    Meanwhile, I see that Louise Oldfield has won the right to appeal against Arlington Tesco yet again. How much are these delays costing the taxpayer, as well as loss of business and employment for locals etc?

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  7. Dreamland was a good thing for Margate and for Thanet it bought a lot of money to the isle, where as Manston has bought a lot of cost to the tax payer and misery to Ramsgate
    Anyway the cost of running Dreamland compared to the cost of running Manston and the equipment needed to run both are miles apart but as I say you lot can believe in what you like

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    1. Perp, So those who disagree with you are dismissed as "you lot".

      You are conflating Dreamland and Manston.

      You couldn't tell which way the lift was going if you had two guesses

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  8. Having bunged up a Manston post today, and read the auction catalogue, the glossy pdf one, I honestly don’t think that Sir Roger Gale has done much for his credibility saying that; “Much of what is on sale is past its best and any new operator would be looking to replace and refresh equipment more suited to the tasks generated by the new business that Manston will attract.”

    Well here is the link to the catalogue and it doesn’t look like clapped out junk.

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  9. Who sold the rides at Dreamland, Pleasurama and the Rotunda then told the respective Councils that people had stopped coming and "can I build houses?"
    I see a pattern here with Manston

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  10. Michael,

    From your view from behind your bookshop counter how could you possibly comment on the condition of the items for sale. Be honest, you do not know. From my experience of installing and maintaining airfield radars and radio I know for a fact that equipment can quickly grow obsolescent. I suggest it will be much the same for the other lots.

    You do realise that by your persistent antagonism towards Laura Sandys and Roger Gale you are revealing that Manston is a political matter, as far as you are concerned. I daresy you will grow more daring in the next 9 months.

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    1. John as I guess a great many locals know before I became a shop assistant I worked as an engineer at several organisations including Rovex and Associated Leisure locally and have an engineering background in electronics, electromechanics, hydraulics, pneumatics and general engineering.

      Please appreciate that this was on this experienced that I based my appraisal and not on my experience as a shop assistant.

      I didn’t realise you had an engineering background, however I think as that is the case if you open the pdf coloured catalogue and zoom it a bit you will see what I mean.

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    2. Michael, While we're at it don't try to pull that local stunt on me. As you say a great many locals know about you. I'm local too and I know about you.

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    3. Well John I don’t really know what convoluted road you are going down here, Rovex at Westwood had a staff of about 700 and I spent a while there repairing a large verity of machinery. Now when I look at the catalogue I can see from the pictures that the equipment ranging form around 1990 to last year in age has the look of being well maintained by a good maintenance crew.

      I also know that the replacement costs and the problems associated with replacing it would be considerable, so I stand by my comment that Sir Roger Gale isn’t doing his credibly much good by saying effectively that it’s a load of old junk that needed replacing.

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    4. So Michael, when was the last time you took a wander around the airport, looking at all their equipment up close... as Sir Roger Gale has done? Leave it to the experts to decide.

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    5. Peter this isn’t about any one particular item but the overall look of the equipment of a fairly well run organisation, which I believe Manston Airport was. Anyway I thought you were fairly supportive of the airport, are you now saying that you think that they were running it say with poorly maintained fire fighting equipment?

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    6. Michael,

      You state that you "spent a while repairing a large variety of machinery" Well I spent 12 years at it, state of the art airfield electronics, installation and maintenance; mostly in charge and always personally responsible. If one of my chaps had reported to me that the equipment was fully serviceable because he had seen a picture of it I would have told him to get off his backside, go and look and test it.

      Michael, do you really expect me to believe that you can vouch for the serviceability of equipment from a photo in a catalogue. I do not believe it and to be fair neither do you. I shall leave you to your Walter Mitty moment.

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    7. Yep John I am saying, it’s the equipment from a recently functioning and well run airport, some of it is listed as brand new and unused. I can see details like the weld repair to the generator housing that has been painted over and know what happens with a lazy or over stretched maintenance crew.

      The alternative which you seem to be proposing is that when a fire started the fire engines wouldn’t start and their pumps didn’t work so they just let it burn, that when they went they went to cut the grass the tractor wouldn’t start or when a cargo plane turner up the forklifts wouldn’t work so the couldn’t unload it.

      The electronics engineer is familiar with this fault as I am sure you are, it’s known as short between the headphones, better get you your AVO out I would expect you to have a preferred value between the ears of about 5.6M Ω whereas I am probably down to about 1Ω, ta pocketa ta pocketa oh no.....

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    8. Michael,

      And you can tell all this from a photo. Wow, I'm impressed. Just imagine the billions you could have saved NASA with your picture of the moon.

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    9. I don't know why you have fallen into his argument Michael you must know by now that all he does is wind people up, and never comes out with anything worth reading. One sad man all alone that obviously doesn't know anything about anything
      JOHN IF I WANTED TO SHOUT IN TEXT THEN IT WOULD LOOK LIKE THIS NOT LIKE THIS !!!!!!!!!!

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    10. Om there is a logical extension to this one which goes along the lines of the workers that lost there jobs shouldn’t have had my sympathy because I hadn’t examined the personally, kicked the tyres of the vehicles checked the blood pressure (my guess is fairly high) of the ex employees.

      I reckon I will carry on trying to inject some sense into the various Manston arguments.

      The aspect that really worries me here is that there comes a point where winding up a multimillionaire that now owns a big chunk of Thanet may rebound on us.

      We need quality jobs and quality housing and given the environmental limitations of the site getting either there is likely to be more expensive than some other sites.

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    11. As far as the equipment is concerned, Sir Roger saying that its all old and crap, you don't have to be an engineer to see that some of the stuff is very valuable and in good condition like the generators/fire engines and so on.
      When it comes to the houses that will be built, the land and its position bode well for being high end housing with as little social housing as possible. If the people of Thanet campaigned for this sort of housing instead of wasting their efforts trying to get it reopened, when that obviously is never going to happen.
      As far as jobs are concerned what Thanet needs is money, if all the towns had many holiday makers spending their savings there would be far more opportunity for new businesses to start. No one considers tourism to be a good way of bringing wealth to an area but if you look at popular tourist destinations around the UK then you will see how much it can bring. The argument that they will all be low paid just does not ring true. Many of the high paid and professional jobs around the UK are in London but the average amount of wealth in London is around £90,000 where in Kent it is over £210,000 the reason for this is affordable housing, So if people think that their children are missing out their not, pound for pound their still better off in Thanet. A reasonably low paid job in Thanet with a mortgage is still better than a higher paid job in London unless your in one of the top jobs which are few and far between. On the whole many of the people in London struggle in later life with no real funds behind them as the cost of living + not being able to buy a house leaves them penny less and reliant on the state

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    12. Ann Gloag will build what her planners tell her to build the planners will Take some direction from TDCs planning department. They are directed by UK Government. There stance at the moment is "build build build" With no sympathy for councils who try and stop developers from doing so. If TDCs planning department encourage her to build large detached houses on big plots on the biases that Thanet has enough affordable housing then it will be a bonus to Thanet.
      As for her getting her noise out of joint, I'm sure she has seen it before, a haggis making factory springs to mind.

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  11. Michael, There is much about me that you do not know. I had looked at the catalogue long before you stuck it up on your blog. Without a physical inspection there is no way that you can pronounce on the serviciability of the equipment being offfered for sale. No doubt you will be telling me next that you can judge a meal without actually tasting it.

    OK it lists the ILS. Assuming you know what this is, what can you tell me about its condition? Similary with the PARs and Tower comms?
    OK,

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  12. John I bet you have one of these genetic backgrounds where if one of you ancestors was riding a horse and it stopped and died your ancestor would get off and flog it until they died of dehydration or exhaustion.
    Please think of your ticker

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    1. Perp,

      Perp,

      Is that until the horse died, my ancestor died or they both died?

      There is so much spite in you. You would stab your best friend in the back just so you could write something vile on his tombstone.

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    2. Your problem is John that you don't understand anything !!!!!

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    3. Perp, I understand you. Anything preying on your mind would die of starvation.

      And stop shouting (!!!!)




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    4. you 2 remind me of Monty Python is this the 10 minute or full 1/2 hour argument?

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    6. Glad you didn't include me in that statement Barry. Never did like that Monty Python crap, I was always more of a Benny Hill and Dick Emery fan.

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  13. If the discussion/argument takes the discussion on then maybe but all the current posts do is fill up empty space.

    Thanet's past is littered with promises spoken without regard to the truth. Just as accepting the word of Shaun Keegan without ever checking his identity. (He hasn't appeared on the UK Electoral Roll since 2002) how stupid was that.

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    1. Its only a matter of time until you retort to the trolls that live on this site.
      I'm quite happy to have an intelligent debate ( well as intelligent as I can muster) .

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  14. A quick glance at the catalogue shows that the fire engines are at least 15 or so years old (L and W reg for two of them) A lot of the other vehicles appear to be pre 2000 vintage though there are plenty of items of newer vintage.

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Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.