My children stayed with relations last night which meant
that we decided to do something we seldom do, which is to eat out in Ramsgate.
On the whole an evening meal is likely to set one back at
least £15 per head with drinks and while the occasional £30 or so is reasonable
for an adult couple the inevitable £60 plus if you always have two school age
children in tow is beyond us shop assistants.
As we arrived at The Churchill Tavern in Ramsgate the air
ambulance landed and later we learned that a motorcyclist had died in a traffic
accident, see http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/Motorcyclist-dies-Ramsgate-accident/story-22783780-detail/story.html
My main problem here is to get across the point that if the
council set about deliberately contracting Ramsgate Shopping Centre by buying
up any empty shops in otherwise fully let shopping padres and turning the
ground floor shops into social housing, then soon the middle of Ramsgate will
have turned into a housing estate.
I think in the current climate where all of the other
council’s are trying to regenerate town centres there is the possibility of
national media interest, but first the problem of uniting local people in
opposing this action.
As I've pointed out on my blog several times, there are pots of money around for projects to help LGBT integrate better (and by integrate I don't mean blending in with everyone else in every conceivable way!).
ReplyDeleteThe prominent empty building nearly opposite your shop Michael, which is what your post is partly about, does, I believe, lend itself to a multitude of uses. A hostel for male victims of domestic abuse would even things up a bit, with a cafe and cultural resource outlet on the ground floor to provide some work experience.
Solo we are talking about the ground floor of King Street where the takeaways are licensed to 4am, so unless you feel that there are some of the abused who should be singled out for specialist sleep deprivation, living next to the pavement there is a non starter.
DeleteBut primarily the largest shop closest to the only viable car park in a fully let shopping parade should be a shop, residential hostels should be in residential areas.
As far as cafés go I honestly think you would have a bit of a job attracting people away from the café culture by the harbour.
how do your family sleep at night Michael? (I was referring to the upper floors for emergency accommodation only).
DeleteBut yes, far better to have a proper shop there selling goods or services, unless no-one wants to locate there?
We use the front of the building for living rooms and the back for bedrooms SG, but then we have a very large flat and frontage onto Turner Street as well as King Street.
DeleteThis isn’t an issue of no one wanting to locate there as the shop hasn’t been available on the rental market since it was first let as The Carpet Sale Centre, as far as I can see since that closed it has been very effectively land banked.
Anyway if you want it to be a shop again, join the Facebook group and put in an objection to the planning application.
Ramsgate and many towns outside of London are going though the same thing as London did 20-30 years ago where the shops in the high streets are losing business to retail parks. I often remember going down a high streets in London with white washed windows and a to let sign outside. Now if I look at the same high streets they are thriving and very busy, mainly with cafes restaurants and pubs but also with shops selling obscure goods not the multinationals that want to go to retail parks. Also when the retail park either has no premises left or a business owner wants to rent a shop in town there must be places for them to rent.
DeleteIt may take a few years but sooner or later shop premises will be in high demand and if they have been changed into houses then, as you say Michael Ramsgate will suffer because the size of the town to the size of the shopping area should be maintained
And what is the view of your councillors, Everitt, Green and Moore? Have you asked them, have you lobbied them?
DeleteOm in Ramsgate there is something different happening that seems to revolve around food shopping, 3 butchers, 2 bakers, 2 greengrocers and a fishmonger all within easy reach of a car park that women, who do the majority of the shopping use. There is nothing like this in any of the other East Kent towns that I know of.
DeleteSEMBOB this is a planning issue and so it doesn’t need to be one of my ward councillors, it does however need to be someone who does actually do non supermarket food shopping in Ramsgate, so I have approached Liz Green to speak at the planning meeting on my behalf.
If you are interested in this issue and would like to support it and know of another TDC councillor that does their food shopping in the Ramsgate food shops perhaps you could approach them.
My own feelings are that it is a relatively small proportion of the population who shop this way now so this may not be easy and frankly if all of you food comes from the supermarket I would just object to the planning application, if you want to and leave it at that.
EMBOB With the exception of David Green, the councillors you have named are not Ramsgate councillors. Mr. Moore represents Westgate and Mr. Everitt represents Cliffsend. If our democracy worked as it should, our first, and most important, step would be to get Ramsgate Town Council on board. They would then lobby TDC on our behalf. There would need to be compelling reasons for TDC to go against the expressed wishes of RTC.
DeleteIs this not Eastcliff Ward then Anon @ 8:57 am? Post code CT11 8NX or CT11 8PJ. A search of TDC website to find "Your Councillor" using those postcodes produces the names I gave, all Labour. Councillor Pat Moore who is Ms Miss or Mrs, I'm not sure which, councillors Rick Everitt and David Green. Councillor Simon Moores, with an s is indeed a councillor for Westgate. The councillors for Cliffsend and Pegwell are Jo Gideon and John Kirby, all Conservative.
DeleteThere is always confusion over ward councillors as opposed to TDC Councillors some wear 2 hats. Some of them work hard on RTC business some we seldom see except when its take your picture time. Last RTC meeting I attended there was exactly one member of the public there after the No Night Flights lobby had gone.
Deletejust joined
ReplyDelete