Gunboats and dispatch riders at Ramsgate Harbour, a bit more watercolour sketching in The Belgian Café.

First the gunboat pictures last night and this morning.

 Then the dispatch rider and 1940s B.S.A. M20, a couple of lovely looking ladies.

Then it was on to The Belgian Cafe for breakfast and a bit more work on my watercolour sketch.

 Bit of rubbing out with sponge here as the lady in question only had the very top of her head painted and today had put her hair up.

 Tricky business painting people from life, for one thing, unlike buildings the move about. This is not like painting the girl in A Bar at the Folies-Bergère where I assume she posed over the champagne and oranges for ages, so a likeness if I'm lucky.

 Finally this rather strange picture, as I had to take my daughters shopping in Canterbury this afternoon, I have an allergy to shopping so painted a picture and ate cake.

Mostly Margate, Dreamland, Turner Contemporary, some photos

I took the day off today and went to Margate, started with "Portfolio" exhibition at Turner contemporary, the photos in this post are only representative I will put a link to the rest at the end of the post.

On to revisit the main exhibition. The Waterhouse is till my fave in this.

Sat in the shade of the wall over a cuppa and sketched a rather tall Droit House for a bit.

Then on to Dreamland, much improved with the new wristband and token arrangements, I think from the ratio of people walking around, people waiting for rides and people riding they have this just about right.

Back in the day when I worked for Chipperfields fair this was regulated by adjusting the prices of the rides, Jimmy Chipperfield was a professional showman and Dreamland had that sort of look about it today.

 Margate Sands were reasonaby busy too

Back to the gallery where I did a bit more to the watercolour of Old Kent Market

For the rest of the photos, all the ones on my phone today, click on the link https://goo.gl/photos/NdQudNEBpENMgjoh8  

Manston comment on the TDC website done

I fought with the TDC planning website and eventually won

Mr Michael Child,

You have been sent this email because you or somebody else has submitted a comment on a Planning Application to your local authority using your email address. A summary of your comments is provided below.

Comments were submitted at 3:36 PM on 08 Jul 2016 from Mr Michael Child.

Application Summary
Address:	Manston Airport Manston Road Manston RAMSGATE Kent
Proposal:	Comprehensive redevelopment of the site involving the demolition of existing buildings and structures and removal of hard standing and associated infrastructure, and provision of mixed use development. Application submitted in hybrid form (part-outline and part-detailed). The outline element comprises an outline planning application (with all matters except Access reserved for future determination) for the provision of buildings/floorspace for the following uses; Employment (Use Classes B1a-c/B2/B8), Residential (Use Classes C3/C2), Retail (Use Classes A1-A5), Education and other non-residential institutions (Use Class D1), Sport and Recreation (Use Class D2), Hotel (Use Class C1), Open space/landscaping (including outdoor sport/recreation facilities), Car Parking, Infrastructure (including roads and utilities), Site preparation and other associated works. The full/detailed element of the application comprises; change of use of retained existing buildings, Development of Phase 1 comprising four industrial units (Use Class B1c/B2/B8) with ancillary car parking and associated infrastructure, Access.
Case Officer:	Iain Livingstone
Click for further information

Customer Details
Name:	Mr Michael Child
Email:	michaelchild@aol.com
Address:	72 King Street, RAMSGATE, Kent CT11 8NY

Comments Details
Commenter Type:	Member of the Public
Stance:	Customer made comments in support of the Planning Application
Reasons for comment:	- Other - give details
Comments:	Please note that I have had considerable difficulties with the council's planning application site, detailed first. 1 There is no date by which comments have to be received, of the various dates that have been published in social media, today's date 8th July 2016 seemed the most common, although it doesn't appear on the important dates page https://planning.thanet.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=dates&keyVal=O5Z2F2QE00300 in the end I had to phone the council - which took about a quarter of an hour of waiting - and got confirmation that comments have to be in by midnight tonight. 2 The documents, 404 at the time of writing are not numbered, making it very nearly impossible to work out which ones you have opened and read. 3 The site times out or just becomes unavailable unexpectedly. I am supporting this application based entirely on its own merit, making the assumption that the council has failed to find an airport operator to partner it in a cpo and therefore has no other viable future for the Manston site. The only other possibility on the table appears to be the DCO, at the pre application stage, being made to the DFT by the American real-estate broker already rejected by the council and therefore likely to be rejected by the DFT for similar reasons. The published (uk gov planning website) remit being:- The upgrade and reopening of Manston Airport primarily as a cargo airport, with some passenger services, with a capacity of at least 12,000 air cargo movements per year. My understanding is that in the unlikely event that the DCO were to proceed approval of this application would have little or no effect on the DCO. While I have consistently supported a regional airport at Manston I consider that an airfreight hub would detrimental to Thanet, both economically and environmentally. Looking at many of the other comments here there seems to be a perception that this is a decision between an airport and no airport. In reality within the remit of Thanet's local planning this appears to be a decision between the site owners plans and continuing with a disused site while waiting for unlikely alternatives outside of the council's gift. Here in Thanet, where often past potential investors have been poorly assessed by the council, leaving various undeveloped sites, Pleasurama being an example, any developer's track record is of primary importance. In this case the applicant has good local track record and already own Sandwich Discovery Park, providing employment for around 2,000 local people. In terms of the main aspects of the application that are my reasons for supporting it, they are:- 85,000 square meters of manufacturing space aiming to provide 2,000 skilled jobs. 2,500 houses (this needs to be taken within the government remit that TDC has to find land for just under 16,000 homes). Land and funding for two primary schools and funding for secondary school pupils. East Kent Sports. I also note that there is also scope within the application for application for community facilities such as a GP surgery, community centre and local shops.

Tomorrow Friday 8th July 2016 is the last day to comment on the Stone Hill Park plans for the Manston airport site.

The future of the Manston Airport site is one of the most significant decisions for the future of Thanet as a whole and there are various possibilities as to what may happen to the site, the most likely seems to be the current owners developing the site, which is what this outline application is for.

The first factor in any large development plans is do the developers have any track record and are they likely to carry out roughly what they are asking for planning consent to do.

In this case the owners are also the owners of Discovery Park as Sandwich, which has become the main centre of quality employment in this area, they took over the running of discovery park when the previous owner decided to pull out and have achieved pretty much what they said they would there.

Their plans for Manston are for a mixed use site, quality housing and high speck light industrial unites.

They include, 85,000 square meters of manufacturing space aiming to provide 2,000 skilled jobs, 2500 houses (this needs to be taken within the government remit that TDC has to find land for just under 16,000 homes), land and funding for two primary schools and funding for secondary school pupils, an East Kent Sports Village, wave garden, there is also scope within the application for application for community facilities such as a GP surgery, community centre and local shops.

The bottom line being that a company with a good local track record who already own a local development providing employment for around 2,000 people want to build another development doing something similar. You may wish to look at their plans and comment on them.

Links

Stone Hill Park website http://www.stonehillpark.co.uk/

The application on Thanet Council’s website https://planning.thanet.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=O5Z2F2QE00300

You can comment online, on the council’s website (before midnight tomorrow), if you can get it to work, if you can’t you can email your comments to the council, your email must be sent by midnight tomorrow and must include your name and address, contact phone number also recommended, here is the planning department’s email address planning.services@thanet.gov.uk

The council’s planning website is a tenuous and unreliable piece of technology, inclined to time out and say the page is unavailable so I would recommend trying to look at other comments there and then typing your own comment out in MS Word or some other word processing program before you start your personal battle with their website.

I did email the council essentially asking them if there was much point in bothering to comment, here is my eamil:-

Re my phone call about comments on using the new planning website; I am writing to request the information that wasn’t immediately at hand to the officer I spoke to, at his request.

With respect to public comments, (these were not previously published in the way they are on the new planning site) meaning that the way they are handled is pertinent to using responding to applications.

1 Comments appear either to have the respondents name and address redacted to the street name, or to have no respondents name or address. Does this mean where comments have no respondents name or address that neither were supplied to the council, and if so are these valid comments?

2 Are the comments weighted to the respondents location, and if so by what method? To expand on this would UK taxpayers opinions be of more significance that those of foreign nationals and TDC council taxpayers and local residents be of the most significance?

3 Does the council have some method of ensuring that multiple comments are not made by one respondent under different aliases? For instance, without one, the applicant could make multiple comments supporting their application and so influence the planning committee.   

As discussed on the phone it is my intention to comment of some live applications, using your new website, and as these have relatively short time windows during which I can comment, your prompt reply would be much appreciated.

And here is the council’s reply:-

"Dear Mr Child

Thank you for your email. We appreciate that the Manston Airport Application is large and that the website might timeout when viewing all the documents. We are working with providers to improve this, and the application is also available to view in hardcopy in the Gateway.

All comments that come through our public access are passed to the planning officer responsible for the application. We do not accept comments without the customer name and address information being provided. The system automatically redacts all of the personal information from the comments available to view online, due to data protection legislation, which means that this information does not show on the website.

The Council is legally obliged to take into account the comments from members of the public and other interested parties when deciding all planning applications. Furthermore, the Council encourages local residents to have their say in planning matters. However, it is important to remember that the Council is responsible for making the final decision on the application and for deciding how much “weight” comments have on its final decision.

Regards

Mandie McKenzie

Principal Technical Officer

Thanet District Council"       

Tomorrow Friday 8th July 2016 is the last day to comment on the Stone Hill Park plans for the Manston airport site.

The future of the Manston Airport site is one of the most significant decisions for the future of Thanet as a whole and there are various possibilities as to what may happen to the site, the most likely seems to be the current owners developing the site, which is what this outline application is for.

The first factor in any large development plans is do the developers have any track record and are they likely to carry out roughly what they are asking for planning consent to do.

In this case the owners are also the owners of Discovery Park as Sandwich, which has become the main centre of quality employment in this area, they took over the running of discovery park when the previous owner decided to pull out and have achieved pretty much what they said they would there.

Their plans for Manston are for a mixed use site, quality housing and high speck light industrial unites.

They include, 85,000 square meters of manufacturing space aiming to provide 2,000 skilled jobs, 2500 houses (this needs to be taken within the government remit that TDC has to find land for just under 16,000 homes), land and funding for two primary schools and funding for secondary school pupils, an East Kent Sports Village, wave garden, there is also scope within the application for application for community facilities such as a GP surgery, community centre and local shops.

The bottom line being that a company with a good local track record who already own a local development providing employment for around 2,000 people want to build another development doing something similar. You may wish to look at their plans and comment on them.

Links

Stone Hill Park website http://www.stonehillpark.co.uk/

The application on Thanet Council’s website https://planning.thanet.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=O5Z2F2QE00300

You can comment online, on the council’s website (before midnight tomorrow), if you can get it to work, if you can’t you can email your comments to the council, your email must be sent by midnight tomorrow and must include your name and address, contact phone number also recommended, here is the planning department’s email address planning.services@thanet.gov.uk

The council’s planning website is a tenuous and unreliable piece of technology, included to time out and say the page is unavailable so I would recommend trying to look at other comments there and then typing your own comment out in MS Word or some other word processing program before you start your personal battle with their website.

I did email the council essentially asking them if there was much point in bothering to comment, here is my eamil:-

Re my phone call about comments on using the new planning website; I am writing to request the information that wasn’t immediately at hand to the officer I spoke to, at his request.

With respect to public comments, (these were not previously published in the way they are on the new planning site) meaning that the way they are handled is pertinent to using responding to applications.

1 Comments appear either to have the respondents name and address redacted to the street name, or to have no respondents name or address. Does this mean where comments have no respondents name or address that neither were supplied to the council, and if so are these valid comments?

2 Are the comments weighted to the respondents location, and if so by what method? To expand on this would UK taxpayers opinions be of more significance that those of foreign nationals and TDC council taxpayers and local residents be of the most significance?

3 Does the council have some method of ensuring that multiple comments are not made by one respondent under different aliases? For instance, without one, the applicant could make multiple comments supporting their application and so influence the planning committee.   

As discussed on the phone it is my intention to comment of some live applications, using your new website, and as these have relatively short time windows during which I can comment, your prompt reply would be much appreciated.

And here is the council’s reply:-

"Dear Mr Child

Thank you for your email. We appreciate that the Manston Airport Application is large and that the website might timeout when viewing all the documents. We are working with providers to improve this, and the application is also available to view in hardcopy in the Gateway.

All comments that come through our public access are passed to the planning officer responsible for the application. We do not accept comments without the customer name and address information being provided. The system automatically redacts all of the personal information from the comments available to view online, due to data protection legislation, which means that this information does not show on the website.

The Council is legally obliged to take into account the comments from members of the public and other interested parties when deciding all planning applications. Furthermore, the Council encourages local residents to have their say in planning matters. However, it is important to remember that the Council is responsible for making the final decision on the application and for deciding how much “weight” comments have on its final decision.

Regards

Mandie McKenzie

Principal Technical Officer

Thanet District Council"       

Watercolour Painting of La Trappiste from Chocolate Café in Canterbury, an encounter with a stag beetle.

Here is the painting of La Trappiste from Chocolate Café in Canterbury, I know it’s a bit strange, one of my attempts at a distinctive painting style, perhaps. But very much a case of looking at the reference photo and trying to work out what I should have done differently. Looking down on people at an angle is a bit of a tricky one, so any suggestions gratefully appreciated, don’t be shy on the criticism front.

I should point out that I don’t paint from photos, so only really look at any reference photos after I get home from where I have been paining, so the criticism is mostly a task for me now. I wonder if I should have put in more detail around the edges of the paining outside of the focal area and stuff like that.

On to the stag beetle, this is the male, pincers purely decorative, he is totally harmless, I had never seen one before hence the photo, the penny is for scale as he is the biggest beetle in the uk.  

A very pleasant day all round, buying books for my bookshop and for me, including a visit to the marvellous Chaucer Bookshop, one of Kent’s finest.

Watercolour Painting of Canterbury Cathedral Cloister progress

This is the painting I started about a month ago, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/watercolour-sketch-from-canterbury.html anyway I took the bus to Canterbury today and did a bit more to it. I can’t stress the importance of a blow up cushion from The Pound Shop enough for this sort of painting, the cloisters are made of stone which isn’t comfortable to sit on for very long.   

So here is the Canterbury Cathedral watercolour 

And a few progress pictures 

Sharon Hendy at York Street Gallery in Ramsgate,

The current exhibition is by Ramsgate Artist Sharon Hendy

Exhibition -  29 June - 6 July

Exhibitions change weekly on Wednesdays.