The Royal Sands Development Ramsgate, The Hilton Hotel, Accor Hotels, The Isle of Thanet Gazette and Thanet District Council.

Today’s Isle of Thanet Gazetteh as a front page article called, Crunch time over the £25m Royal Sands development in Ramsgate, Here is the link to it http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Crunch-time-25m-Royal-Sands-development-Ramsgate/story-17586373-detail/story.html and spread about it on pages 6 and 7 called, Chairman bars deal debate, which I can’t find for free online. And some related letters on the letters page, which I don’t think is free online either.

If you want to read the whole paper you can either, like me, go out and get a paper version, or you can pay for the online version, here is the link to do this http://eeditions.nmgl.co.uk/kent

Like all newspaper coverage it suffers a bit from the reporters having limited space, time and lots of other things to report, but overall the coverage is I think the best they have done on this issue.

The picture above was taken on 23^rd November 2011 just before all activity on the site stopped.

I will take the article that is published online, that everyone can read first and talk about the issues this raises, which is mostly about figures that don’t seem to add up to me.

The main reason for these articles is the announcement that the speculator/developer has come up with the funding and the hotel operator, and is due have a secret meeting with Sue McGonigal (the council’s chief executive and head of finance) and Alan Poole (the council’s cabinet member and deputy leader).

The idea being to finalise the sale of the site to the developer for £3.3m.

I guess there are concerns here. One is that combining the role of chief executive and head of finance means that there may be a desire to take the money that outweighs the benefits to the local community. Another is that £3.3m could be very handy for the present cabinet to help balance the books.

It is a bit uncertain how many hotel operators have run away from this project, there is a big difference between expressing an interest, which is what I think Whitbread did in 2002, and committing funding to the project which is what Wetmore, if they ever existed did in 2009.

I guess the big question to ask any company with a reputation that gets involve in this project is. Do you know the idea is to build it on an EA designated high risk flood zone without a flood risk assessment and have you read the EA’s letter about this?

I would guess a newspaper headline like “Hilton hotel to built it on high risk flood zone without a flood risk assessment.” Isn’t going to necessarily be that good for their business.

Particularly if it comes after a big storm where the hotel has been damaged by the sea.

Back to the figures that don’t add up, the article says £5m has already been spent on the site, it also says that the developers contribution to the road layout and cliff was only around £600,000, which leaves the question what was the other £4.4m spent on.

Up to now, I had assumed the five million had mostly been spent on the new road layout, but now it looks as though this white elephant, particularly the huge roundabouts that appear to have little or no discernable purpose, were paid for by us taxpayers.

Speculating on where the money could have gone, I think the planning stage could have cost as much as £200,000, the surface drainage pipe around £700,000 and the antics of the three men and the digger on site last year £100,000, this leaves £3.4m.

Perhaps if the £1m deposited with the council was included, but that still leaves £2.4m.

I would guess if either The Hilton Group or The Accor group is genuinely involved it would mean new plans as I guess they would want some say in the design of the hotel, obviously this would lead to a new planning application and associated statuary flood risk assessment.

I have just asked Cllr Driver if he has had any replies to his emails about the documents relating to the financing of the development, when the developer asked for concessions last time and he sent me his latest letter to the chief executive of the council for publication, here it is.

Sent: Friday, 14 December 2012, 14:12
Subject: Urgent Pleasurama

Dear Ms McGonigal

The front page article of today's Thanet Gazette sates that yourself and Cllr Poole will be meeting with SFP on Tuesday of next week. I assume that this meeting is the beginning of the due diligence process. I would be grateful if you could confirm that this is the case.

I would also be grateful if you could let me know what plans are in place for me to see the full  due diligence documentation, have access to officer advice and the opportunity to raise any questions with you about the documents.

I am particularly busy at work at the moment so it would be very helpful to have an idea of potential dates as soon as possible. I would also be grateful if you could  let me have copies of the due diligence documentation in advance of any meeting as I would like to have the time to carefully study and check the information which SFP will be submitting to the Council. I am happy to collect such documents from the Council Offices.

I am assuming that SFP will have informed all of its prospective backers including the hotel company that the development is situated in a designated flood risk area.  Perhaps you could clarify this matter with them.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Ian Driver

Chair OSP

PS I am still awaiting a reply to my e-mail of the week before last about the checks carried out on documents in the 2009 Cabinet report re Pleasurama

Update Cllr Driver has had a partial reply to his email, which he has sent me for publication.

From: Sue McGonigal
Sent: 14 December 2012 18:01
To: cllr-Ian Driver
Cc: cllr-Alan Poole
Subject: RE: Urgent Pleasurama
 

Dear Cllr Driver,

The meeting next week is to continue the negotiations around the final version of the revised development agreement. It is possible that some information that will be used to support the due diligence will be presented.

As soon as we are in a position where we have an agreed revised draft agreement, we will then begin to formally collate all of the due diligence documentation.  Once we are at that stage we will convene a meeting to share the due diligence documents in full.  I would imagine that this will be very early in the New Year.

I will ask for clarification around the point you make regarding notification of flood plain risk.

Regards,

Sue

A further email from Cllr Driver for publication

From: cllr-Ian Driver

Sent: 15 December 2012 12:56

To

Subject: Accor Hotels and SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd

Dear Ms Thouvard,

I read with interest an article in this week's edition of the Isle of Thanet Gazette which states that Accor Hotels has agreed to finance a company called SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd to develop  a hotel at the Royal Sands Ramsgate, Kent, UK. I understand from the article that Accor Hotels have provided SFP Ventures UK Ltd with a letter which confirms that it will be supporting this company.

I am a Thanet District Councillor for the Ramsgate area and Chairman of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel. I am writing to enquire if this article is correct and seek you confirmation that Accor Hotels are indeed supporting SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd in the development of the hotel at Ramsgate.

If Accor Hotels have agreed to support SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd, I assume that in the course of negotiations with you, they have  advised Accor Hotels that the UK Government's Environment Agency have designated the area in which the hotel is to be built as facing  a high probability of flooding. The Environment Agency has also recommended that the SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd conduct a Flood Risk Assessment of their proposed development in order to ensure the safety of residents. I do not believe that SFP Ventures have conducted  such a flood risk assessment.

As an elected Councillor one of my major concerns is the safety of local residents and visitors to Ramsgate. I am therefore writing to you to express my concern that Accor Hotels may be supporting  a company  (SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd) which does not appear to be following best practice in relation to the safety of people who may live and work in their development.

I attach a copy of the Environment Agency letter and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Ian Driver

Chairman Overview and Scrutiny Panel

I will carry on with this post as I get time, perhaps some ideas will appear in the comments.