Dreamland and the scenic Railway, The Bucket and Spade Run, Sketch of Westwood Cross from Sainsbury’s Café and ramble

I guess the main news of the day is that the restored Dreamland scenic railway won’t be ready for the grand opening.

The council's press release and notes at the bottom of the post as they are extensive.

The sketch of Westwood Cross should expand if clicked on and some of the detail may amuse some readers.

  

The main Thanet event this weekend will be The Bucket and Spade Run

Pictures of some previous bucket and spade runs at the links below

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2011/index.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2011/id3.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2011/id4.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2011/id5.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2011/id6.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/id3.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/id4.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/id5.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/id6.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/bs2010/id7.htm

Date: 05 June 2015 PR No: 3958 Status: For Immediate Release

NEWS RELEASE

Dreamland’s Scenic Railway Delayed

5 JUNE 2015:  Dreamland Margate, the UK’s original pleasure park will re-open its doors at 10am Friday 19 June 2015, marking phase one of the redevelopment of the park.
Although work to the timber-framed structure is near completion, the Scenic Railway will not open on 19 June due to continuing restoration to the trains.
All other rides and attractions due for phase one will be open as planned.
Existing ticket holders to Dreamland have been informed about the Scenic Railway and offered a free return visit to the Park at a date of their choosing. 
The timber-framed Scenic Railway first opened in the 1920’s. It is the UK’s oldest rollercoaster and the only Grade ll* listed rollercoaster in the world. Thanet District Council has contracted some of the UK’s leading specialists to oversee its restoration – their task is to protect the valuable heritage of the ride whilst bringing this up to the modern day.
Leader of Thanet District Council Cllr Chris Wells said: “Meticulous efforts are being made to create an authentic experience for visitors, in keeping with the original 1920’s design of the ride.
“Thanks to the dedication and hard work of contractors, the finishing touches are now being made to the timber framed structure and restoration of the trains is now well underway. We recognise that this is no easy task and appreciate delays can be unforeseeable with this type of project.
“I know it is disappointing the Scenic Railway will not be opening for rides on 19 June, we are confident that our commitment to the protection of its heritage will offer the best possible experience for visitors.”
CEO of Dreamland Eddie Kemsley, said:  “All other attractions due to open as part of phase one, are on track for 19 June. This launch represents a considerable achievement in bringing Dreamland to life once again and everyone in Margate and involved in the project should be very proud.  The opening night Hullabaloo party with special guest performances from Marina and the Diamonds and Chas and Dave is going to be fantastic and a great way to mark the start of Dreamland’s new future.  Tickets to the opening night are almost sold out.”
Phase one includes 17 restored rides, as well as the roller disco, pleasure gardens, restaurants, food stalls, arcades and amusements from the golden age of the British seaside.The second phase, scheduled for later in 2015 will include the Ballroom, outdoor event space, restaurant café, and dance studio. In 2016 the Hall By The Sea and the Buffet Building will be opened.
Dreamland’s phase one opening will create over 200 jobs to the local economy.
The reopening has been made possible by the work of the Dreamland Trust and investment from Thanet District Council, Sands Heritage LTD, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Department for Culture Media and Sport and many local benefactors.
Full information about Dreamland including its opening night can be found on its website www.dreamland.co.uk.

- END -

ABOUT DREAMLAND MARGATE 
The Dreamland site is owned by Thanet District Council. The council, working with The Dreamland Trust has secured a funding package of £18 million, which includes external funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Sea Change grant, to deliver the first phase of the project.
The council boldly compulsory purchased the Dreamland site because it had the vision to see that once again Dreamland could be a major economic driver for the area.  The council are managing the wider development of this massive multifaceted site of which the Dreamland Amusement Park is just one part.
Sands Heritage Ltd. have been appointed by the council as the operators of the Dreamland Amusement Park and will open its door on 19 June 2015.
The re-imagined Dreamland will be a world-class UK visitor attraction, providing entertainment for everyone through truly re-inventing the famous seaside amusement park experience.
Working in partnership with Sands Heritage Limited and Thanet District Council award winning multi-disciplinary designers HemingwayDesign led by Wayne Hemingway MBE, Gerardine Hemingway MBE and Jack Hemingway have been appointed to deliver the look, feel, smell, taste and sound of a re-imagined Dreamland. 
The new Dreamland will be a unique vintage-style amusement park with rides, classic side shows, eateries and evocative spaces set within a landscape capable of hosting national festivals, major events and visiting attractions.
The Dreamland project plays a significant role in community engagement, education, training, sustainable employment and boosting the local economy. It is also a major component in the continued regeneration of Margate, spearheaded by Turner Contemporary in 2011. 

TICKET PRICES & OPENING HOURS:
19th June Opening Day:
10am – 5pm

THE OPENING NIGHT HULLABALOO Friday 19 June 2015 19:00 -
Amusement park closes at 11pm
£24.95 Entry per adult
STANDARD OPENING HOURS:
10am – 5pm
Summer Weekends (26 June – 26 Sep)
10am – 8pm

EVENTS                                                        Times vary  
PRICES:
Under 3’s Go Free
Disabled Carers Go Free
Advance Adult    £14.95
Child    £12.95
On the Day
Adult £17.95
Child £14.95
Local On The Day Discount 
* Adult £13.95
Child £11.95
Tickets are available online at www.dreamland.co.uk/tickets

HULLABALOO LIST OF PERFORMERS:

Marina and the Diamonds
Chas n Dave
The Big Six
The Miniscule of Sound
Too Many T’s
The Shellac Collective

END TO ALL

Dreamland, public enquiry to run on and The Los Angeles Times coverage.

I have just received notification that the Dreamland public enquiry is due to run on, this is what the council has to say:

 “The report from day five of the Dreamland CPO Public Inquiry is now available on the council's website: http://www.thanet.gov.uk/environment---planning/planning/ldf-and-local-plan/dreamland/public-inquiry.aspx

 We are aware that there have been questions from members of the public about the remaining dates for the Inquiry and we have updated the information on this page with the latest details that we have on this. As soon as we have any further confirmed dates, we will put the information on this page.”
 

 Also an interesting article on Dreamland in The Los Angeles Times, see http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-dreamland-margate-england-01201217,0,30872,full.story

 The pictures are from http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/dreamland_cinema_1935.htm and although the printing quality owes much to the advanced potato print they are fairly interesting.   

 More about this if I get time.

Friday the thirteenth, an auspicious day for Thanet District Council? Another councillor resigns the whip and other rambles about our little isle.

 The situation at the moment seems to be that we have now got 5 independent councillors as Ian Driver has resigned from the Thanet Labour group, I have to admit that this quite surprised me.

My reasoning being, having done this, how would a socialist in Thanet ever get elected as a councillor again without the support of the local Labour group? Perhaps I am missing something here but to me it seems that in Thanet there isn’t much political ground left of Labour or right of Conservative. I don’t think that standing as an independent candidate in the ground outside has much mileage.

 Do I think that these councillors that resign the whip should stand for re-election? Well frankly no I don’t think that party politics of the conventional sort is appropriate at district council level and I always vote for the individual and not the party.

At the moment I suppose what I want my councillors to be doing regardless of their political party is to try and get the best for the local area and to try to achieve something in the direction of what local people want in terms of the direction the council is moving in.

 Most of the local people I speak to are against the live animal exports and see to see Ian Driver more as a force in this area than a force for the political extreme left.

I guess this week most of us want to see our councillors supporting the council’s bid to get Dreamland and turn it into a visitor attraction and I am told that the lack of numbers at the public enquiry is being seen used by legal team who want to develop the site as mostly housing, as an indicator of lack of interest in the heritage leisure park.

 Obviously an important factor here is does this defection mean that the local Conservative group have a realistic chance of winning a confidence vote in the council and regaining Conservative control.

A busy Friday in the bookshop for me today, so I haven’t managed to get out and get a Gazette, obviously the leaked information about EKO Eurokent is of great interest to me, so here is the link to that story http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Councils-property-firm-lost-pound-300-000/story-14412242-detail/story.html

 I guess that some of you are wondering what EKO is all about, clicking on this link may help a bit http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Eurokent as it takes you to the posts I put up when trying to find out from a somewhat reluctant council.

Like the Dreamland site this is about putting more housing where perhaps housing isn’t appropriate, only in this case the property developer seems to be our local councils and the land seems to be prime agricultural land and our children’s playing fields.    

I spent a fair bit of yesterday evening looking at the equality issues that John Worrow is now to champion, see http://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_we_do/2583.asp and am coming to the conclusion that there are still some very real issues here.

I suppose the problem for me is that being a white heterosexual male I don’t often come up against anything remotely like discrimination, I was one disabled but that was a long time ago when discrimination hadn’t really entered into the world of awareness.

Being in wheelchair meant being a cripple, if the disabled word had come along it was a new one, homosexuality was still theoretically illegal and the word gay meant carefree and happy.   

In the world of secondhand bookselling where almost everyone involved is fairly eccentric, I don’t think there is very much discrimination, certainly books have been a major factor in changing attitudes towards discrimination.

Although there are areas where there are surprising gaps, for instance you may wish to try and name three famous American feminist novelists, this isn’t as easy as you first would suppose. 

So now we come to what really bugs me about Ian Driver and that is total lack of any attempt to communicate why he has resigned the Labour whip to us lot the Thanet voters.

He has a blog http://redthanet.blogspot.com/ a twitter account https://twitter.com/#!/ianddriver so why not tell us, the local people what he is up to and why?


Mike Harrison is saying that this is a flowerpot issue see http://newingtonblogspot.blogspot.com/2012/01/expected-resignation-happens-again.html there are other indicators online see http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/back/Wnext6/Slp.html

I think and of course we won’t really know until he tells us that What Ian is against is the floral display budget about £20,000 and the events budget about £165,000, it think what he is saying is that there should be no council funded events and no council funded flowerpots next year, as this costs the council £185,000. This has to be put into the perspective of the council’s overall budget of about £22,500,000 which means that roughly for every thousand pounds the council spend about £1 is spent on events and flowers.

We now of course come to what happens at next Thursdays council meeting to approve the budget, see http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=2612&Ver=4

Where for instance do the Conservatives stand, do they vote against the budget, because it is a Labour one on principle? I suppose the answer to that would be yes.

The rest of the independents, where do they stand, I would guess that they had considerable influence in the formation of this budget.

There is also of course where Ian stands, obtaining from the vote because he doesn’t want the flower pots is one thing, but obtaining on a vote of confidence, if this then means he lets the Conservatives get in could be something to live down for him.

So now we come to the really tricky bit and that is what are the solutions open to trying to deal with the serious problems that Thanet has.

Here in Ramsgate many of the problems that we have relate to council owned properties, Pleasurama, casino, museum, Albion House, Westcliff Hall and so on, so I suppose many of us here are waiting to see if the Labour group stay in power for any length of time whether any of these problems will get solved.

There is a perception in the town that many of these problems were related to spite towards a town that has mostly Labour councillors and I guess the Conservative stance that the business with the community centre in Broadstairs was an act of spite by the new Labour administration towards a town where the majority of councillors are Conservative lends more weight to this perception.

It does look as though Ian may have quite a lot on his plate at the moment as I think there were some interesting ramifications at last nights live animal export protest at Port Ramsgate, I think this facebook thingy will open even if you are not a member of it http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Live-Exports-From-The-Port-of-Ramsgate/205331499512961 let me know if it doesn’t and I will fiddle with it.

I will ramble on here as the day progresses

Dreamland Petition in Ramsgate Today

I went down into the middle of Ramsgate to sign the Dreamland petition today and recommend anyone else who has time to do this.

See Will Scobie’s blog if you don’t know what this is all about http://williamscobie.blogspot.com/

It only really remains for me to say something patronising and condescending about young people in politics and I am done here, I sure I will think of something in a mo.  

ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF POPULAR DREAMLAND BOOK PUBLISHED

AN expanded and updated edition of a popular book recounting the history of Margate’s Dreamland amusement park is now back on booksellers’ shelves.

Dreamland Remembered, by Whitstable journalist Nick Evans, has been published in time to mark the 90th anniversary of John Henry Iles purchasing the site in November 1919. JH Iles took over the existing Hall By The Sea, a seafront dance hall and pleasure garden, originally opened in the 1860s by circus showman ‘Lord’ George Sanger, initially renaming it Dreamland Hall before opening the famous amusement park to the public on July 3 1920.

The book traces the story from its beginnings, through the ups and downs of the 20th century, to the present day with hopes high of securing multi-million pound grant funding to help create the country’s first heritage theme park.

High points in the Dreamland story include the immediate success of the famed Scenic Railway, building of the cinema and ballroom complex in the 1930s, the importance of beanfeast outings as well later changes in ownership, method of operation and the park’s decline in recent years.

Nick Evans said: “I first published my book in 2003 and I’m delighted it has since become regarded as the definitive history of Dreamland. With all that has happened since and what is being planned for its future, I felt this was the right time to bring the book up to date.


“This new edition boasts a lot more historical detail than the earlier versions as well as featuring dozens of new photographs, some of which are in colour.

“At the beginning of 2008, I was fortunate enough to be given access to Margate Museum’s collection of photographs and many are included in this 90th anniversary edition. Of course, the museum has, sadly, since closed so I’m very glad I made the effort at the time.

“Many more photographs and much of the information come from my own extensive collection of Dreamland material, saved by my late father Bill Evans in 1981.

“A freelance journalist like me, he was Dreamland’s press officer for much of the 1970s and was given original posters, photos and brochures by the outgoing management as they made way for new owners, the Bembom Brothers. He gave some of these items to Margate Museum and it was ironic to see his handwriting on a few of the photos as I worked on them last year.”

More recent information and pictures from the late 1990s have come from a collection held by another former park publicist, journalist (and now distinguished editor of the Whitstable Times) John Nurden.

Dreamland Remembered contains 240 photographs, around half of which are shown in print for the first time, spread over 128 pages. Of these, 30 pages are in colour.The book costs £15.99 and is available at local bookshops around Thanet and east Kent.

Ed. I have copies of this book in stock in my bookshop here in Ramsgate.

Michaels Bookshop
72 King Street
Ramsgate
Kent
CT11 8NY
U. K.Telephone (01843) 589500

MPs income the great gravy train, Turner and other Sunday ramblings

The average MP costs us about £4,000 per week, this figure is based on the current annual salary for an MP is £64,766 and an average £120,000 per annum in expenses, with 645 MPs this a tidy sum.

I also gather they can claim for items costing up to £250 without having to show a receipt.

I would say that the average man in the street struggling to survive the recession is none too pleased about this state of affairs but frankly it’s only the tip of the iceberg when compared to civil servants pay and expenses.

I was chatting to a KCC IT officer yesterday who evidently found yesterdays post rather amusing, something he said that I found interesting is that there is an attitude within KCC of Turner Contemporary at any price. He said there seems to be no limit to the funds available for this project and that a lot of KCC officers that have to keep within budgets were getting heartily sick of the project.

This is a simple case of government spending our money inappropriately, the whole system is upside down and the state of Margate is a reflection of poor governance at local and national levels.

The problem with Turner Contemporary is that government says a pretty much bottomless pot of money is available to regenerate Margate provided that this money is spent on the arts.

Of course the money should have been spent on revitalising Dreamland to a state of the art modern theme park and a new indoor swimming pool near to the beach, but once again back to the way government money is spent, grants are only available for a historic amusement site and much of the prime leisure site in the town will be lost to residential development.

It’s a similar problem with Ramsgate and the Pleasurama site once a seaside town loses its main leisure sites to mostly residential development and associated car parking there is no going back.

The resource that we have to offer that other towns haven’t is our natural coastline and the only way that we can compete with other seaside towns is by having better leisure facilities very close to our main leisure beaches, it’s not rocket science.

We have the meeting at the airport to receive the report on night flying in a couple of days, the problem with the airport is that it has bumbled along for years with different operators trying to be competitive by operating far less stringent environmental controls than would be acceptable elsewhere and this looks like a move to continue down the same path.

I have given up with trying to get TDC to publish the Ramsgate parish council elections list of candidates on a HTML website with proper tags for search engines and have done it myself see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id104.htm do feel free to link to it. If TDC ever get round to doing a proper job of publishing it I wonder if they will copy my source code.

I am off to by a TV some furniture and food to eat on my business expenses so I imagine that the Inland Revenue will prosecute me and I may be out of circulation for a while.

Dreamland in Engineering and Technology magazine

Many thanks to reader Keith who sent me the link to this article click here to read it.

The pictures above are of the inside of Dreamland Cinema when it first opened.

Broken Dreams

I have had a response from the council to my suggestion for Dreamland click here to read my post about it.

Apparently the leader deputy leader chief exec asked Mr Godden and Waterbridge to discuss the matter but they were rejected out of hand.

Due to an administrative error Sandy Ezekiel’s text message about it wasn’t passed on by TDC until today.

“Dear Michael We met with the owners of the site to arrange for temp fair
They turned us down flat This was just B 4 xmas
We are talking with an operator and kcc to see if it is poss to bringa touring F/ground to Margate We will have an idea as to the viability early next week
If any positive news will contact u Best regards Sandy”

I am hoping that the local press will take this one up with the developer.

Margate a possible solution this year

One can’t get away from the fact that much of Margate’s prosperity is dependant on the Dreamland site and the quality of the tourist attractions there. While there is hope that some sort of arts led regeneration will eventually lead somewhere positive I don’t think anyone would argue against a short-term solution.

As far as I can see with the present economic downturn it is highly unlikely that the Dreamland site will be put to any use during the next year and once again I am writing to senior councillors and council officers asking them to negotiate with the sites owners for temporary use this coming summer season as a fun fair.

I would think that the council ought to be able to negotiate the short-term loan of the site, it should then be possible for the council to offer ride operators reduced site rentals in lieu of free tickets to promote the venture.

With the economic downturn and the value of the pound it looks as though a great many people will be holidaying in the UK this year, here in Thanet we ought to be trying to take advantage of this situation by looking for advantages that can be gained from the recession.

The King is Dead Long Live the King

22nd January 1936 the proclamation proclaiming King Edward 8 from top or old town hall, well that’s what it says on the back and I see no reason to disbelieve it.

I get the feeling looking at our local leaders in the picture that they were selected for being most able rather than most malleable, what do you think?

Looking at these people I suspect a developer wishing to asset strip Dreamland and Pleasurama for personal profit, or one wishing to build a sewage farm run by the
Chinese on top of our drinking water reservoir, would have met with some resistance.

It really is ridiculous you know, I live in one of the most beautiful towns in the world and here I am not discussing the improvements for this summer season with the council, but asking questions like:

How many people do the estimate will die of poisoning if a foreign lorry driver doesn’t realise that the drains in a lorry car park on an industrial estate leads not to the public sewer but to our drinking water supply?

How will the 1,500 people in the Pleasurama development escape if it collapses in the next tidal surge storm with the cliff behind and the storm in front?

How many fatalities would they estimate if several loaded busses brake at once in an emergency, on top of the frail old arches of the Marina Esplanade incline?

Ariel pictures of the remains of Dreamlands rollercoaster

Some shots of the devastation from the air click here to see the rest.

Picture courtesy of Simon Moores

Dreamland the only solution I can see

The crux of the problem here though is to find a solution to the problem that property developers and big chain retailers stand to gain enormous sums of money from the destruction of our towns.

Had Dreamland Pleasurama our shops the protection afforded to any field of cabbages i.e. whatever the owner would like to build on it, it stays a field of cabbages or some other crop, there would be no problem.

As it is our towns, the human environment, are turning to architecturally attractive housing estates, with all the social problems of housing estates.

At the moment the value of residential accommodation is much greater than that of the same space being used for shops and leisure facilities and car parking, the only solution is government legislation protecting the non residential parts of our towns.

I urge you all to write to your MPs asking for legislation to protect what we have left, at the moment if a local authority turns down plans to turn any of our facilities into more residential accommodation, the developer can go on appealing until the local authority runs out of money to defend the appeals.

However the legislation needs to be strong enough and so heavily weighted towards the maintenance of such facilities that still exist as to overcome the problem where corruption exists at a local level.

The dreamland site as an amusement park and car park, is probably worth about £1,000,000 with 400 apartments on it at £200,000 each this figure rises to £80,000,000 it’s a game of Monopoly and we are all losing.