Chinese to introduce paddy fields in Thanet.

I have just been reading the flood assessment for the China Gateway the report on the surface water drainage trenches, this report was carried out for the developer and concludes that; Outflow is too low and the design is unsatisfactory.

After the recent flooding, when it was obvious that both the drainage at Westwood and Thanet Earth proved to be inadequate, I wonder should we be giving planning consent to developers without first ensuring that the development has adequate drainage.

Good drainage is particularly important here in Thanet where we have an underground drinking water reservoir and especially for the China Gateway that as you see from the map will be on top of this reservoir.

Looks like the Environment Agency missed this one too here is what they have to say.

“The Environment Agency has no objection to this proposal on flood risk grounds.The risk of flooding to the development itself is low and the proposed means of surface water disposal to infiltration trenches, with some storage attenuation, would not be expected to increase flood risk elsewhere.”

Thanet Planning Website Public Relations Disaster

On May 22nd I noticed that the Thanet planning website had gone interactive and that you could post comments and objections on it for all to see. It thought this was a great step forward in open government and involving the public in the planning process. It says on the website quite clearly that comments will be available for others to see and I posted by objection to the China Gateway application, however objection didn’t appear so I emailed UK planning who run the site for TDC below is their answer.

Dear Michael,

The reason your comment is not showing on the UKPlanning website is due to Thanet`s public access choices. Thanet District Council choose to restrict access to these comments at this case status on the public facing website.

Kind RegardsRyan Shearer UKPlanning Operations Supervisor

Margate History Art

There has been quite a lot of comment on the blogs about Margate and attempts to regenerate it based around it becoming a modern art centre. What I am talking about here is modern art, not traditional art, I would say as people go I am more inclined to go to art galleries than most.

Frankly though the popularity of modern art is fairly limited, I know this from the amount books about it I sell relative to other subjects, however art galleries tend to be heavily subsidised and therefore entrance is free.

Now in the bookshop there is much more interest in history than modern art, when you include local history, military and transport history it is far and away the largest and most successful subject in the bookshop.

There are 33 bookcases of history in the bookshop and 3 bookcases of art about a shelf of which is modern art, and I would say there is about 1,000 times the interest in things historical as in modern art.

Now I am wondering if closing Margate Museum and putting all the resources into modern art is such a good idea without first engaging in a minor experiment, which is to make Margate Museum free for a bit and compare the visitor numbers with the heavily subsidised gallery in what was Marks and Spencer.

Well click here for the Turner Contemporary website or click here for some more old pictures of Margate what do you reckon?

Reflections from the book trade

As life gets more expensive in general it is strange that secondhand book prices are falling and have been for a number of years, up to three years ago the average price of a second hand paperback novel had been stable at about £3 for some time, this has now fallen to about £2.50 and hardback non fiction’s average price has fallen from about £9 to about £7.

You have to appreciate that prices reflect supply and demand, and the difference between what we pay for books and what we price them at remains the same. In terms of business our turnover is up, it is supply that is increasing.

I am also only talking about good quality ordinary books, the others either go in the sale section, hardbacks 10p and paperbacks 5p and then of for recycling, or have a collectable value, by which I mean that they are more expensive than one would expect in the same way that a penny black stamp costs more than a penny.

Cinema Church Pub

Wetherspoon’s have a planning application in to turn the Kings Fellowship Church in King Street Ramsgate into a pub, I have only just noticed this one, although it was submitted in April.

I remember it as the King’s Cinema when I was a youth of yesteryear, it was then (late 60s) a bit of a fleapit, I am not really sure what type of church the Kings Fellowship is or was.

Click here for the TDC planning website the application number is F/TH/08/0405

Moaning Minnie

Many thanks to the Gazette this week for publishing a review of Steve and Alan Moore’s book, Moaning Minnie Thanet's Civil Defence Sirens, which I publish.

Click here for more about the book Sirens covered include the following: Dane Valley Road, Margate. South Eastern Road, Ramsgate. Coffin House Corner, Margate. Jolly Farmer PH, Manston. Southwood Road, Ramsgate. Cherry Orchard PH, Ramsgate. Northdown Road, Margate. North Foreland Golf Course, Broadstairs. Crow Hill, Broadstairs. High Street, Minster. Victoria Road, Margate. Manston Airfield, Manston. Sarre Mill, Sarre. Minnis Road, Birchington. Beacon Road, Broadstairs. Hartsdown Bridge, Margate. Northdown Road, Cliftonville. Downs Road, Ramsgate. Dumpton Station, Ramsgate. Osbourne Avenue.

Harbour Street Floods

During the other nights thunderstorm 20 mm of rainfall was recorded in half an hour, which is fairly considerable, but not terribly unusual.

In Harbour Street here in Ramsgate the street drains were completely unable to cope and several businesses were flooded, there is talk of some of the businesses engaging in litigation against council for compensation.

I have heard that this was because the pipes used were of too small a bore, I have also heard that some of the storm drains were concreted over, I am not at all clear about the accuracy of all this as we had our own problems with the storm so I didn’t get out and about the day after. Any more information would be appreciated either as a comment or by email.

I am sorry that the picture is of flooding in Canterbury, I really lack good Ramsgate flood pictures.

Flogging our Assets

There are only a few days left of the public consultation about the councils plans to sell off some of the publicly owned buildings in Thanet.

My concern is that some of these were leisure facilities and that the lack of leisure facilities is both damaging to tourism and social order.

Once again this business of making our towns nastier places directly benefits the out of town facilities at Westwood Cross, I am always suspicious when government makes decisions that the very wealthy benefit to the detriment of ordinary people.

Click here for the councils press release which has contact details should you wish to comment on this as part of the public consultation process.