Ramsgate Maritime Museum is now open

If you are wondering what to do on this rather dismal bank holiday, the maritime museum is now open and well worth a visit, entrance is free.

Looking out for banana skins with this one, I think there may be some problems relating to the amount of time heritage vessels can remain on the heritage pontoon, I think the council have restricted this to two weeks, which may mean that some of the ones run by volunteers may find this time frame difficult.

On the same track I gather The New Britannic that was being restored there has been effectively evicted by the council and at Richborough at the moment, which is a very difficult place to continue the restoration.

There is also considerable restriction on the number of events that the museum can hold this year, although this is combined with the limitation of what they could hold given the time frame.

I think the trust’s decision to open immediately without lots of improvements to the museum is the right one, they also seem to very keen to involve local people, I think if you want to volunteer now is your chance.

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop512/id3.htm

Both the mayor of Ramsgate and the soon to elected new mayor of Margate were there.

None of the Conservative councillors in sight and the messages I am getting from the Conservative group seem to be saying that they are still against the lease being signed, strange mutterings about pacts with the devil, the crazy talk of lost parking revenue of £40,000 per year, when the revenue for all the spaces in the car park for the six weekends it is to be used for event couldn’t reach a tenth of this figure.

It makes one wonder if the years of delay were actually due to misplacing the decimal point, what I can’t get from the Conservative group is any sensible reason, in terms of a potential banana skin, so it looks like we have got our museum back at virtually no cost to the council taxpayer.   

More pictures and thoughts to follow on this one, not sure when as I am a bit tied up with the bank holiday weekend.

Some steam engineering marine engineering and model engineering books in the bookshop.

With my recent coverage of The Steam Tug Cervia, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Steam%20Tug%20Cervia%20in%20Ramsgate%20Harbour and the Dunkirk evacuation model tug display see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/05/dunkirk-evacuation-model-tug-display-at.html I have been reading up on steam and model engineering.

This means I have been reading some of the books about this in my bookshop, I have just photographed excerpts from some of them to amuse other people with this sort of interest see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/510b/id22.htm

Looking at the post so far it does look as though it’s about building a somewhat eccentric and in some cases rather expensive gentleman’s library, so here are some pictures of other arts and crafts books on the bookshop selves today http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/610/id4.htm none should be expensive, very few over £10 per book with an average price about £6.

I hope these will have a somewhat broader appeal, selling engineering and craft books as I do it occurs to me that this is for the most part an area where sexism still flourishes, with nearly all of the books about fabric related craft being bought by females and nearly al of those about wood or metalwork being bought by males.

Staying with a craft related theme I repaired the staircase between the shop and the flat above over the bank holiday weekend. This is something that I hadn’t done before and started by trying to find out how to do this using the internet, after some exasperation going from site to site trying to sell me a new staircase, once again I resorted to the books in the bookshop for the information.

Ramsgate Maritime Museum, full steam ahead?

I was most encouraged to see in yesterday’s Isle of Thanet Gazette an article that quoted a Thanet District Council spokesperson as saying, that the council are prepared to offer The Preston Steam Trust a 25 year lease on Ramsgate Clock House.

The article hasn’t yet appeared on the Gazette’s website so I am unable to link to it.

This is the building within the harbour area that has housed the maritime museum since it first opened, and because of its proximity to Smeaton’s Dry Dock, which I believe would also be likely to be leased to the museum under the same terms, is really the only practicable building to house the museum.

I have made some enquiries and gather that a 25 year lease would be sufficient to allow the museum to obtain the grant funding that it needs for the work it intends to do to the steam tug “Cervia”, the dry dock and museum.

The steam trust has the resources to offer a considerable amount of leisure activities for Ramsgate apart from the museum and the vessels I gather that it intends to hold a series of events in Ramsgate.

For those of you that are interested in what this could mean the following links take you to some pictures and videos of past events that they have held, adjacent to the other museum they run, at Preston near the village of Wingham in Kent.

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/06/preston-steam-rally-videos.html

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/psr2008/

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

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/prestonsteamrally2009/

For those of you interested in the last surviving ocean going steam tug “Cervia” click on the link for some pictures video below, these were taken before the recent restoration work, I promise to get down there and take some updated ones soon.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/cervia/


For those of you who prefer something more professional, than the disorganised web publishing of a deranged shop assistant, here is the link to The Preston Steam Trust website http://www.thesteammuseum.org/

For those of you who haven’t ever visited Ramsgate Maritime Museum click on the link for some pictures of inside it.

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts11/id4.htm

For those of you interested in the early history of Ramsgate harbour and Smeaton’s dry dock click on the link to read Smeaton’s report.

http://www.thanetonline.com/AnHistoricalreportonRamsgateHarbour/

Sunday ramble Turner Contemporary Pleasurama Euroferries and more.

It would seem from the statistics published on the site where the Turner Contemporary’s site's videos are hosted that hardly anyone uses the gallery’s website or is interested in the art projects that they are engaged in.

Last week I embedded their two latest videos one about the teenage bedroom exhibit and the other about the silly walk in this blog, at the time neither were embedded in the galley’s website or linked to it, as one would expect when I embedded the videos the viewing statistics increased from pretty much zero so that between them both videos got about 60 viewings.

Since the subject matter isn’t that interesting I assumed that of the 400 or so people who read this blog in a day, a small percentage of them didn’t take my word for it and had a look for themselves.

As there has been virtually no comment here supporting the gallery’s activities I can only assume that those people were as disappointed with what the gallery is doing as I am.

Well now the gallery has embedded the video about the silly walk in its website and there is no noticeable change in its number of viewings, suggesting to me that very few people look at the gallery’s website or are interested in their current projects.

Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t dispute that walking and getting people to participate in local history are worthwhile projects, I do both and a great many of you buy my local history books and look at the pictures from my walks.

My problem is that these activities are treated as publicly fundable art, when in fact they are not and that these projects are supposed to be drawing visitors to Margate in sufficient quantities to help with the regeneration of the town, something that there doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support.

As I have pointed out the only statistics I can find on the internet suggest a total lack of interest by anyone whatsoever.

Next some thoughts on the Pleasurama development, as I have pointed out on numerous occasions the two main impediments to this development ever happening are, the lack of a flood risk assessment and its close proximity to an unsupported chalk cliff.

Added to this I have heard from a couple of different sources, one a comment on this blog and another a friend with an interest in civil engineering that the council has finally inspected the foundations to the cliff façade and that all is not well with them.

Now my understanding is that the apart from the £1m cash bond that the developer has deposited for the council’s protection in the event of anything going wrong financially, they have spent over £2.5m on the project so far and are still spending money on the project.

All of this would seem to be based on some sort of assertion that the cliff will be perfectly safe and maintainable in a safe condition – even with the restrictions imposed by the close proximity of the back of the development – for the expected life of the development and that there is no significant flood risk, despite the historical evidence and the EAs concerns.

As the council have already spent over £1m on the project and presumably the developers spend is based on assurances from the council that the problems that I have outlined don’t exists, I wonder where this leaves the council in terms of liability, if the problems that I, the EA and their consulting engineers outlined in the report on the cliff façade prove to be true.

It is my understanding that one of the main concerns that caused the council to allow the project to proceed without a performance bond was that the developer would try to recoup the amount they had already spent, by engaging in litigation against the council.

Now at the moment with a development agreement in place, that will almost undoubtedly have a time schedule in it setting out a time scale for the development with penalty clauses if the developer doesn’t comply, this would seem to be increasing the councils potential liability on a daily basis.

With an approximate overall cost of the development of over £22m the potential for their ongoing liability would seem to be considerable.

The really annoying thing here is that we have considerable need for regeneration of the site here in Ramsgate, a first class contractor in place a developer who obviously has real money and has been investing it in the development providing much needed work in the current economic climate, but an apparent lack of organisation and communication that beggars belief.

On to Euroferries the first available sailing on their online booking facility has now been change to one departing from Boulogne at 7.45 on 10th April, I don’t know if this is significant of anything.

We now come to the Royal Victoria Pavilion, my understanding is that the buildings condition is rapidly deteriorating, this combined with its inadequate flood protection will almost certainly lead to its eventual demolition, either by the sea or the council.

I understand that the council are engaged in litigation with the Rank Organisation over the repairing order, but in this instance Rome appears to be burning.

Now onto the Maritime Museum still closed and likely to remain so until the council grant the new operator security of tenure.

Another interesting aside to this is the position over the Tug Cervia, as far as I can understand the tugs mooring is part of the whole security of tenure problem.

The next stage that has been delayed several times is to get the tug onto the slipway, assess the condition of her hull with a view to deciding how to approach such repairs as are necessary.

There is however a potential problem here, which is that as there is no security of tenure in place the museum operators can’t do the work to the dry dock that is intended to be her new home and I suppose that she would only be allowed to return to where she is now at the whim of the council, not a happy situation.

There is a further problem that is while the dry dock work isn’t done that is also deteriorating, it now leaks badly at very high tides.

Once again there is potential with this situation for the council to find itself in a position where it has to find considerable funds, because the Clock House, tug’s hull and dry dock are all deteriorating while the council prevaricates.

As I said in my previous post the council is in need of firm and decisive leadership urgently, as not only does it appear to have lost its grip on the whole eastcliff part of Ramsgate but also appears to be taking considerable financial risks in so doing.

Albion House is another case in point where the council have allowed that condition of what is not only a royal residence but an important public building deteriorate to the point where it has ceased to be fit for purpose.

I may ramble on a bit as the day continues, will also make some corrections as I am working on a notebook with a very small screen and can’t see what I am doing that well.

Ramsgate Maritime Museum, what’s gone wrong?

Up until this morning I had assumed that the future of our maritime museum was secured, however just now things don’t look so good.

My vague enquiries recently suggested that the amount of people visiting the museum has been much more than was expected and that there were even hopes for the museum staying open for the winter.

The museum’s largest project is the restoration of the steam tug “Cervia” something I have been watching progress on a daily basis, for some time now the Cervia has been open to the public offering a unique chance to see a major steam restoration project in action.

This coming Monday was to have been the day that the Cervia should have been pulled up onto the slipway to have the urgently needed work on her hull plating done but nothing appears to have happened.

There is a coaster on the slipway with work going on that looks like it wont be finished by the end of Monday and none of the pontoons have been moved that would let the Cervia get out from her mooring.

Click on the link for the pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts10/id9.htm

The publicity surrounding the reopening of the museum said that this was all to be a joint project between Preston Steam Trust and Thanet District Council and since the Cervia and the museum have been swarming with people from the steam trust and volunteers for months now and the council don’t seem to have had much to say about the museum I find my alarm bells are ringing.

I have always had my suspicions that the council isn’t to keen on Ramsgate having a museum or any other tourist attractions for that matter, most likely they have got the clock house earmarked for some bizarre project.

Please place suggestions as to what you think our own dear council would like the building for, I shall start the ball rolling with an outlandish one of my own, after a very pleasant and somewhat liquid lunch, here goes:

Meregate town council having been told of a new round of government cuts leaked by national government officers decided to sell their most saleable asset Remisgate, Remisgate being a rather large asset the officers decided to split it up into bite sized chunks.

They started by selling off what they thought was Remisgate’s main leisure site for a huge development with plans that contravened environment agency safety advice, working on the principle that this would give Meregate’s leisure industry a great boost.

This however they soon realised was just small fry and they had really missed the towns main leisure site Remisgate port and harbour and they devised a plan to get vacant position of all the buildings they leased out in the harbour and to get rid of all the staff to make the whole complex more desirable to a potential new owner.

Restoration of the Steam Tug Cervia to start imminently

Preston Steam Trust has announced that the restoration project will start in the next two weeks in Ramsgate Harbour.

Click here for the history of the Cervia she once worked as the ferry tug at Port Ramsgate.

Sunday Ramble

Having just come from the Euroferries posting on The Big Blog see http://ademdjemil.co.uk/blog/?p=1359 it does look as though Bonanza Express is being prepared for service, you can keep track of her at http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=224768000 if you click on the “Last Position Received” you can plot her on the map, once she gets underway.

You can also keep an eye on the shipping at Ramsgate http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100 which is rather fun.

We also have the prospect of Preston Steam Museum http://www.thesteammuseum.org/ with their considerable resources revitalising the maritime museum and restoring the long neglected steam tug Cervia.

Anyone who has been to Preston Steam Rally will know that when they talk of organising a program of events they really mean business click on the links for pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/psr2008/ and http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/prestonsteamrally/more_steam_engines_for_sale.htm

The really attractive thing that we have to offer tourists in East Kent is our wealth of heritage, Ramsgate with its harbour, architecture parks and gardens is particularly well placed to benefit from this.

I will probably add to this ramble if I get a bit more time today.

I have published a few pictures from my copy of the Kentish Traveller, that I am preparing for reprint click on the link to look at them http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/blogpicts2/id81.htm

The Cervia and the East Kent Maritime Trust

In 1985 the steam tug Cervia was leant to the East Kent Maritime Trust, a legal agreement was drawn up to the effect that they would be responsible for fully restoring and subsequently looking after her.

In 1986 they were granted a Manpower Services Commission project to restore her and restoration work started, unfortunately Manpower Services ceased to be.

In 1996 Cervia’s steam engine was restored to full working order, things were looking good at that time and we visited her on numerous occasions, something my children enjoyed a lot.

Then about 10 years ago something went wrong and the trust seem to lose interest in the Cervia, which is now in a bad state due to neglect and the dry dock, which leaks badly during spring tides.

In 2005 the EKMT commissioned a report on the way forward for two major heritage assets in its care - namely Smeaton's Dry Dock and the steam tug "Cervia". The report's conclusions were that an achievable joint restoration project should be put together with a possibility of securing funding from a number of sources including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, other E.U. grants and private sources. This would be of benefit not only to the ship and the dock but also serve to revitalise the Ramsgate Maritime Museum and increase its visitor numbers.

They seem to be much better at commissioning reports that they don’t act on than doing anything to preserve our maritime heritage.

The owner of the Cervia tried to get the trustees of the trust meet with him on numerous occasions, in order to come up with a plan for dealing with the problem, they however declined.

So now in desperation the owner is taking the trustees to court, the court case is on the 3rd December and will be a very costly matter for all involved.

The owner of the Cervia is prepared to drop the legal action if the trustees will meet with him and sort out a viable plan of action for the Cervia, as the cost of restoring the Cervia would probably be in the order of £2,000,000 and according to the legal advice I have sought the trustees, past and present could be liable to pay this, it would seem to be a sensible course of action.

If only a small proportion of the money that will be wasted on legal fees is spent on getting the Cervia onto the slipway and assessed this would surely be much better.

As an example of how bad things have got click here for some recent pictures the trust have disconnected the electrical supply for the bilge pump, so there it is probable that the Cervia will sink were she is, adding considerably to the costs.

Having written to the trustees myself last week, suggesting that there could be a more sensible way out of this, I was quite surprised not to get any response either and can understand the owner’s frustration.

The leaking dry dock