Pleasurama development Ramsgate again

As followers of this blog will know I emailed all of the councillors last week and had some responses see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-thanet-district-councillors-have.html I was a bit disappointed how few councillors bothered to respond, even so I managed to gather quite a lot of useful information.

One of the new things to emerge was that there is a prospective buyer for the hotel, Wentworth Investments, however on investigation they appear to be a non-trading dormant company.

Another thing that is of concern is SFPs failure to obtain a performance bond from their bank, from what I can see looking at the correspondence the councillors were totally misinformed about the cost of the bond.

The councillors appear to be under the impression that the bond would cost the developer about half a million pounds and were this the case the developers argument that this money would be saved for the development is a good one.

However the reality is very different to obtain a £5,000,000 performance bond the developer would normally have to deposit £500,000 pounds with his bank or specialist insurance company, this would be returned on satisfactory completion of the development, the cost of the bond would be about £10,000.

It doesn’t take a lot of working out to see if the cost of insuring against the developer going bankrupt was really 10% of the amount insured the banks would stand to make a considerable profit if in the case of all insured developments in 9% of cases the developer went bankrupt, this is plainly absurd.

This brings us to the question, why would SFP tell the council that the cost of the bond was 50 times greater than it really is?

The only likely reason I can see that the developer can’t get a bond is that no bank or insurance company is willing to take the risk that they won’t go bankrupt before the development is completed.

So now we have SFP Venture Partners Limited an offshore company, SFP Ventures UK Limited a dormant company and Wentworth Investments Limited another dormant company.

None of them have websites, SFP in its different guises a developer that never appear to have developed anything and Wentworth Investments that want to buy the hotel from them but never appear to have run an hotel.

Preston Steam Rally Videos

I will add them as they upload it’s a very slow process

Pictures of Preston steam rally 2009

Click here to look at the pictures then use the links at the top for more pages of pictures, I will delete the worst ones when I get round to it and sorry about the bits in the camera I must replace it or something.

In this case publishing is an automated affair and I have left the computer to get on with it they should all be online by about 8.30

Pleasurama development Ramsgate Thanet District Councillors views reviewed.

If you read the comments on my post a couple of days “What Thanet District Councillors have to say about the Pleasurama development in Ramsgate” you will see that Dr Alistair Bruce has similar reservations to mine about the two areas where he has specialist knowledge and Michael Jarvis about the bond.

So there you have it the councillor who is a qualified environmental and geological expert doesn’t like the dangers posed by the environmental and geological aspects of the project.

The councillor with extensive business knowledge of the Commercial and Financial industry, who having worked for over 20 years in the City of London graduated from London South Bank University with a honours degree in Business Studies, isn’t happy about the financial and business aspects of the project.

The responses from the cabinet members leave a little to be desired, Cllr-Shirley Tomlinson cabinet member for environmental services seems quite happy to ignore the views of the only environmental specialist involved. Cllr Roger Latchford Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Economic Development appears to think the development is a good idea but doesn’t say why. Cllr Simon Moores who as far as cabinet goes is the new kid on the block seems to be quite happy about the way things are.

The Labour group seem to have considerable reservations about the project Cllr Alan Poole is unhappy about many aspects of the project as is Cllr Iris Johnston and Cllr Mark Nottingham.

I am hoping to get replies from some of the other councillors in the fullness of time and wish to extend my thanks to those who already have, I don’t often send out emails to councillors with the intention of publishing replies where the recipient agrees and understand that councillors have to be careful of all of the regulations surrounding them.

For me the one of the biggest problems with this huge project is the lack of public consultation in Ramsgate on this issue, we know we are not getting the gull winged development that was supposed to be set well below the cliff top, which is what it says in the planning applications planning and design statement.

The assumption is that the architect made a mistake about the height of the cliff or that the developer really did intend the thing to stand above the cliff top blotting out the horizon, but as there has been no public consultation I don’t really know.

I would like to know what the effect of the new design would have on the view from the cliff top, but all of the artistic impressions of the building viewed from the cliff top are for the previous design.

So we have a cliff top view with a listed Regency Crescent of international architectural significance behind us Smeaton’s Royal Harbour and The Royal Victoria Pavilion in front and nothing to show us how this view will be effected, only in Thanet.

Without the public consultation trying to get some informed comment out of our elected representatives seems to be the only option.

The contractor told me some time ago that the developer SFP had put the project on hold until the end of the summer, presumably to ride out the recession so I was quite surprised when the council announced that construction work would start ten days after the council’s decision.

Then it occurred to me that as I believe the development agreement states that the council would be obliged to buy the hotel that forms part of the development, if there are no other takers and as the hotel is to be built first, without the performance bond SFP couldn’t really lose out by going as far as building the hotel. Even is it is dangerous uninsurable and blighted it would seem the council may have to buy it.

FIRE & PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

From Clive Heart

After applying consistent pressure on Kent Highways I am today informed that a pedestrian walkway will now finally be formed around the hoarding covering the recent fire damage in Northdown Road.

What Thanet District Councillors have to say about the Pleasurama development in Ramsgate.

There is no doubt that Pleasurama is the largest development in any of the Thanet towns at a quarter of a kilometre in length it dwarfs the Turner Contemporary into insignificance.

In view of the forthcoming full council meeting to decide its fate I emailed each of the councillors individually (apart from Bob Grove whose email address doesn’t appear on the council’s website, I emailed customer services and asked them to pass the email on to him) asking for their views on the matter, particularly in relationship to the environment agency technical experts letter.

You can click here to read the email I sent them I made it clear that their replies were for publication and as they come in I will put the up as comments with my replies to them.

To avoid any derisory comment about their and my literacy I should remind people that these are emails where typos and text abbreviations are quite acceptable.

I should also remind people that those councillors that bother to reply should be seen with much greater esteem than those who don’t.

I will post all the comments received by email under my own name to prevent any irregularities.

Commercial Group Properties vanish from Stock Exchange

The China Gateway development is one of the most important projects in Thanet, it doesn’t much matter if you are for or against it or like me have serious reservations about the way it is laid out on the drinking water supply, most interested Thanet residents probably want to keep an eye on it’s progress.

I periodically check its share price on The London Stock Exchange website, about ten days ago it just vanished form there, I am not sure what this signifies if anything.

I also noticed this announcement that doesn’t appear on the companies website.

“Substantial Shareholding

The Company were informed on 18 June 2009 that as at 28 May 2009 funds under the discretionary management of Laxey Partners Limited on behalf of Credit Suisse Client Nominees UK Ltd and Vidacos Nominees Limited hold 4,817,343 ordinary shares in the Company representing a holding of 22.94% of the Company's issued share capital and voting rights.”

Nothing unusual in the announcement, what is unusual is it not appearing here http://www.commercialgroupproperties.co.uk/ if you look at the share site performance graph on their homepage you can see everything stops about ten days ago and if you click on the graph it is supposed to take you to where they appear on the Stock Exchange website.

Thanks to Derrick I have also discovered their new website which is interesting click on the link to go there http://www.chinagatewayinfo.com

'RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN'

Ed Just got this from Clive Heart, it’s pretty amazing click on the picture to enlarge:

Concerns have been raised about the environmental impact of a 'mountain' of chalk being dumped on Margate seafront.

Leader of the Opposition at TDC, Cllr. Clive Hart said "I have contacted the Head of Development Services at TDC regarding the enormous amount of chalk being piled and compacted against the cliffs on the former Rendezvous car park site in Margate.

I have serious concerns about the detrimental effect this could have on the natural cliff face and possibly even a local wildlife habitat.

This dumping of chalk is effectively seafront landscaping on a gigantic scale and I know of no permission being granted for that.

I sincerely hope it is a temporary situation, but even so, the effect of such huge amounts of chalk being piled and then compacted against the natural cliff face could cause serious and even permanent damage".

This latest environmental issue follows on from protected trees cut down and flower beds being removed just a little further along the main Margate/Cliftonville seafront access road.