Pleasurama, Royal Sands back on. Manston more from Cllr David Green. Trouble at blog a ramble.

 Trying to stay with the old pictures of Ramsgate Harbour theme, please let me know if I make any repetitions.

At last nights cabinet meeting “Cabinet authorise officers to seek to negotiate a new agreement with Cardy Construction Ltd for the Royal Sands Development in Ramsgate.” That’s a quote from the council’s communication team on Twitter see https://twitter.com/ThanetCouncil

The meeting’s on the tube

 The Friends of Ramsgate Seafront facebook group are now really the main place for discussions about Pleasurama, see https://www.facebook.com/groups/516220578418850/ there is also The Truth About Pleasurama blog see http://pleasurama.blogspot.co.uk/

My stance on Pleasurama long ago moved from the political implications, whether locals want the development, how awful the development will look when viewed from the cliff top, whether it will block out the view, eclipse the sunlight and so on. 

In recent years my stance has been based around the two questions. 1 If it ever gets built will it be safe for the people living in it? 2 If it ever gets built will maintaining the surrounding infrastructure to the level where people can live in it cripple the council?

 All the stuff about who owns which company and what one or another previous councillor should or shouldn’t have done five, ten or fifteen years ago pales into insignificance next to those two questions.

This doesn’t exactly resolve itself into, will the cliff fall on the development and will the sea wash the development away as it is unlikely that this would be allowed to happen, closer I guess is will the cost of ensuring it doesn’t happen over the life of the development be prohibitive.

This is particularly concerning if you are a TDC council taxpayer as TDC seem to have set themselves up to cover all of these costs. 

  Of interest to me at the moment is the part of the cliff façade up near the lift, the bit Cardy reported on in 2010 http://thanetonline.com/cliff/ basically saying that the only concrete support pillar the looked under didn’t have any foundations and later in 2012 the council seem to have said, at http://thanetonline.com/cliff/id14.htm that none of the support pillars for the portals have foundations, i.e. the whole of the concrete cliff façade there is hanging on the front of the chalk cliff face. It does look as though the top of the lift has moved about 5mm away from the cliff during this year.

 To my mind this moves this part of the cliff out of the don’t sit under the cliff bracket and into the keep well away bracket.

 On to Dave Green and the airport. Cllr David Green has been posting about the airport on facebook, some questions and summaries of the answers he has received:

“David Green

I return to the questions I asked:

1. What are the owner’s plans and how do they compare in terms of sustainable job creation as compared to any feasible airport model?

You don't have the answer to this, and couldn't be expected to have, nevertheless, our legal advice says that we have to show that we have given the owner opportunity to share their plans with us if a CPO is considered. I have asked officers to be sure we are engaging properly. How much time they should be given is debatable.

2. After 20 years of failure is there a sustainable airport model and what initial capital investment would it require?

Some of the information you give about the lack of imagination y the previous owners leading to poor performance is convincing. However the Council's advice is that considerable investment is needed along with a parkway station and government backing. You say £100M over 20 years. We have not yet seen anyone able to convincingly promise that.

3. What would the likely environmental impact of such a model be?

You don't have any answer to this and couldn't be expected to have without the business plan. However the Council will need a professional assessment of the impact of any plan to inform the CPO and Local Plan.

4. Given 1 to 3 above what would be the likelihood of success of a CPO?

Two points are crucial, the first is that we can show that loss of of the airport would severely damage Thanet's economic prospects. The second is that we have negotiated with the current owner.

5. Is there a potential operator that would truly indemnify the Council of all legal and financial risk of a CPO process whether it succeeds or fails?

Of your answers, this seems most promising judging from Riveroak's public statements. However we will soon have the answers to the Council's questionaire from all three respondents.”

So Dave if you read this, shouldn’t the council be holding some sort of online consultation about the airport cpo like the did about the night flights?  

 I have been having all sorts of problems with comments on this blog, the main one being the huge amount of commercial spam and the associated emails blocking up my email account.

My options are very limited I can either allow comments from anyone or only allow comments from people with some sort of internet id and after this I can apply moderation so I read the comments before allowing them.

I am taking on the information about the historic buildings in Ramsgate open with free entrance this weekend.

Ramsgate’s historic buildings are opening this weekend as part of Heritage Open Days (11-14 September). Our events celebrate and open eyes to the stories of architect AWN Pugin, banker and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore and Thanet’s oldest church St Laurence.

AWN Pugin, designer of the interior of the Houses of Parliament and of St.Stephen’s Tower (Big Ben) is one of our most illustrious past residents. He lived in Ramsgate for the last 10 years of his life, at the period when he ‘reconfigured’ the concept of the perfect family house. He built his home The Grange and church St Augustine’s next door, which were for him the most important of all that he built in his short but dramatic and impactful life (1812-1852).

The Grange is open Friday 12 to Monday 15 September (10am – 4pm) and Tuesday 16 September (10am – 1pm)  http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/our-landmarks/properties/grange-3253/      

St Augustine’s Church is open each day (11-14 September) from 10am – 4pm.

There’s also a ‘PUGIN WEEK’ with events including:

Concert with The Victoria Consort on Saturday 13 September (7.30pm)

Midday Sung Mass on Sunday 14 September, the 162^nd anniversary of Pugin’s death at the age of only 40. He is buried in the church.

http://augustinefriends.co.uk/  OR  http://pugin.com/pugchur.htm                

Sir Moses Montefiore arrived in Ramsgate 1831 when he purchased a country estate with 24 acres on the East Cliff of town; the property had previously been a country house of Queen Caroline when she was still Princess of Wales. He lived in Ramsgate until his death in 1885.

Ramsgate Montefiore Synagogue & Mausoleum is open on Sunday 14 September (10am – 3pm)

Sir Moses’ resting place and his family’s private synagogue are open courtesy of the Montefiore Endowment as part of the European Days of Jewish Culture & Heritage.

http://www.ramsgatemontefioreheritage.org.uk

St. Lawrence Church and its Tower is open on Saturday 13 September (10.00 am - 6.00pm). 

During the day there will be:

Tower Tours to view Ramsgate and beyond at 11.00 am, 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.

Tour of the Grade 1 listed church (12 noon) and open choir practise (3.30 pm)

http://www.achurchnearyou.com/st-laurence-in-thanet-st-laurence/

If you want a day or a weekend out, there’s lots to discover in the town, and special events which show the character of this friendly, busy seaside town. Over the same weekend, one of the most historic streets, which was the town’s shopping centre in the Victorian era, becomes a mass of stalls, entertainment and family fun with the Addington Street Fair on Sunday 14 September from 10am onwards.

For news of what’s on and how to find out more, visit www.ramsgatetown.org or www.visitthanet.co.uk and the town’s facebook page at Ramsgatetown.