Council sell off six of the few remaining parking spaces for Ramsgate Main Sands

As you can see they are already being boarded off, presumably this is part of the council’s policy to promote tourism in Ramsgate this summer.

What with this and the whole Pleasurama site looking to be deserted and unused for the main summer season, it wouldn’t appear there is much more they could do to give Ramsgate a boost this year.

Click on the pictures and then click on them again to fully enlarge them.

1 Granville Marina restoration work starts again.

This is one of those only in Thanet sagas all the information below for those of you unfamiliar with it, the picture above is of the new development that they have just started on, I think, click on it to enlarge.

First the link to the Planning Inspectorates decision allowing the development that the council turned down:http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/fscdav/READONLY?OBJ=COO.2036.300.12.1781107&NAME=/Decision.pdf

This link takes you to the planning inspectors decision to award costs against the council.http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/fscdav/READONLY?OBJ=COO.2036.300.12.1781128&NAME=/Costs.pdfIt only goes to show what you can get away with when it comes to listed buildings.

The links below take you some of my previous posts about the matter.

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/02/goody-goes-bananas.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/02/goody-outlawed-httpwwwmichaelsbookshopc.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/congratulations-to-tdc-planning.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/06/restoration-ramsgate-style.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/1granville-marina-when-is-planning.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/plans-for-marina-restaurant.html

More pictures of the restoration work.

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

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/cafe/id2.htm

these pictures taken today http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/610/id16.htm

The Dictatorship of Thanet and the Ramsgate Tunnels

The more I live in Thanet, and just try to find out about ordinary things that are happening, the more I am reminded bizarre third world dictatorships.

This morning’s walk is an example of what I mean. One of Ramsgate’s greatest potential assets is its underground tunnel system, I publish a small book about it and it is my bestselling book, I take this to be a reflection of local peoples interest in the tunnels.

This morning the seafront tunnel entrance was open and there were a couple of white van types down there with torches.

Obviously I asked them what they were up to and they said they were clearing the rubbish out of the tunnel entrance. Did they know why? No. Can I find out? Possibly. Is it worth the effort? Probably not. I tried phoning the council but apparently the only person who would know what was going on was not available.

Extracting information from Thanet District Council is a laborious business, for the most part they don’t just tell you what is going on. As an example of what I mean, I wanted to get the development agreement for the Royal Sands Development in Ramsgate, a reasonable request as it has been a deserted building site for years now, I wanted to know the dates by which various parts of the development are supposed to happen. We are on the forth lot of contractors now and I want to keep an eye on the situation to make sure they are really serious, so the development agreement would be a useful document. I first asked TDC for it on 8th September. Now about 20 emails later I have requested the information commissioner’s office to look into why I haven’t been sent it. God alone knows what all of this costs and how much civil servants time is wasted, in any sort of sensible world it would just have any commercially sensitive information removed and be published with the plans on the council’s planning website. It is after all a key document about a major development in Thanet. By way of explanation normally there would be a planning agreement for this sort of development setting out what has to be done when, but as the development is on council owned land it is exempted from having one.

So when the council start playing about with one of our major assets in this case the tunnel system, I want to know what they are up to. Over the last few years they have run one of their worst possible worlds scenarios, on the one hand they have shut off all the ventilation to it, something that will probably ruin it for future generations, while on the other hand they have continuously failed to keep it properly secured.

Anyway if anyone knows what is going on perhaps they could comment.

Here is the link to this morning’s photos http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts119/id10.htm

I wonder what it would be like to have local government that really engaged with local people and genuinely tried to keep them informed about what was going on, normally we only find out about our heritage assets down on the eastern undercliff, like we did with theatre and restaurant down there, that is when the demolition starts.

Granville Marina Restaurant recommendation to compulsory purchase.

Thanet District Council officers have recommended that the planning committee approve the compulsory purchase of Granville Marina Restaurant.

Click here to read the recommendation to compulsory purchase, click here and here for pictures of the initial restoration work carried out by Goody Demolition.

It occurred to me that some of you would find the correspondence I had with one of TDCs heritage experts immediately after this incident, it does show in a little more detail what appears to have gone wrong click here to do so.

I should also add the I only picked this one up because it published the links to the documentation on http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/ today where I have recently put up quite a lot relating to other Thanet planning applications and some of you may wish to check on any in your part of Thanet.

Thanet District Council cabinet meet and delays for Ramsgate

As you can see my last post was pretty much a party political broadcast from the local Labour party, but at the moment it is the only account of the meeting on the internet so will have to suffice.

The two big Ramsgate issues remain unresolved, Pleasurama is to go to full council, with cabinet support for going ahead with it, I suppose no one wants to admit that the whole thing has been a disaster from the beginning.

The cabinet recommending going ahead with development that contravenes Environment Agency safety recommendations with no performance bond sounds about right.

The Maritime Museum remains unresolved which suggests more delays, some sort of decisive action wouldn’t go amiss so that Ramsgate can get on with being a leisure town.

My understanding is that Preston Steam Museum were to open during the first week of July, but had made it abundantly clear that they would only go ahead if the agreement had been finalised, this was supposed to have happened at last nights cabinet meeting.

There seems to have been some sort of error and no one had realised that “the asset disposal working party overview and scrutiny panel” have the power to veto the whole thing, so there is very little likelihood of the museum opening until well into august, which of course they are unlikely to do as it will be at the end of the season.

It doesn’t look like there will be much chance of the Maritime Museum opening or the Pleasurama site being cleared up, this is not so funny for people like me who are trying to trade in the town.

Back to why I published the Labour account of the meeting, before I go on I would be happy to publish an account from any of the Conservative group to balance things up if anyone wants to send me one and of course when they appear I will put the draught minutes up on http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/

For me what this is about is TDCIT here and now in the 21st century it should be possible for the officer that wrote the minutes to publish them straight to the web on a page with proper feeds so we would all know what is going on. It should also be possible for the video that they are already making to be uploaded to Youtube or Kent TV.

I find it quite curious that TDC uses Youtube rather than Kent TV which is paid for out of our council tax, perhaps they no something we don’t.

It’s decision day for another thing on the eastern undercliff today the ongoing Marina Restaurant restoration project today one way or another the council have made a bit of a mess of the eastern undercliff.

Anyone involved in the planning decision may wish to click here and ponder the rules that have already been broken over this one.

At one time or another they have owned and had full control of all of this area and have managed to trash it. The Marina Swimming pool, various different stories of the mismanagement that caused it to close. The removal of the car parking facing the sea and the cliff to fit in with a developers plan that never happened. The demolition of Nero’s which was a Victorian theatre and one of the earliest cinemas all part of the charming Granville Marina. The Pleasurama saga that so far has removed the main leisure car park to make way for a road layout built without the flood risk assessment strongly recommended by the EA. The Granville Marina Restaurant saga again today.

Ramsgate Maritime Museum agreement, KIA, Pleasurama, Marina Restaurant

The last few documents linked to http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/ are of considerable significance, so I thought it important to draw people’s attention to them, here as well.

The Meeting of Jun 16 2009 7:00PM, Cabinet is an important one among other things it is to make the final decision that should allow the maritime museum to reopen, it is also to decide if the people behind the Pleasurama development can offer sufficient financial guarantees to be allowed to go ahead.

The Meeting of Jun 17 2009 7:00PM, Planning Committee Marina Restaurant planning reference F/TH/09/0052 click on the link for the planning site http://www.ukplanning.com/thanet greatly improved plans have been submitted which it looks as though the committee will approve.

The Meeting of May 19 2009 7:00PM, Airport Working Party an important document summarising some of the problems with the airport and options for dealing with them.