On the way to meet my chums for a gargle or two (yes, it's true, I do have friends on the north of the Ile), I noticed that something called The Flower Lab is due to open in what the Uranians insist on calling the 'creative quarter':
Nothing too creative about experimenting on poor, defenceless nasturtiums, but good luck to them anyway. Then I noticed one of the creative flagships of the creative quarter has creatively closed:
This is the place that those nice people at GOSE (Government of the South East) spent a substantial amount of money (or European Objective 2 Funding as they prefer to call it) on not so long ago. Now it's up for sale for a cool £415,000.GOSE, you'll recall, is also the body that recently tipped the nod to 1300 new houses at Westworld Cross. I don't recall voting for them, but it's nevertheless reassuring to know that all the tax I give them is being put to such, um, profitable use.
Outfitters Gallery on the GOSE website
Outfitters Gallery on the Lovetts website
And if you fancy running an Italian restaurant, Soprano in Cliftonville is up for sale too!
9 comments:
good job the arsonists decided to have a day out at greenwich,
richard
They came, they saw, they took the hand-outs and ran.
I'm afraid so, anonymous. And Derick, yes, it seems they've been reverse day-tripping from Margate to the smoke. Oops.
Ah, so thats what they meant by Margate 'exodus'?
This has been yet another sad waste of taxpayers dosh and whilst it does not seem as bad as £6,000,000 wasted on the TC, it confirms my thoughts that 'artistic' rejuvenation is a grass roots up activity not a state funded down 'make the plebs artistic'.
Am I right in thinking this is all a little reminiscent? A hotel in Cliftonville , a few years ago, got very generous grants, and then promptly sold up. Have I got this right: the 'owners' of the 'Outfitters' got a lot of dosh, £100,000 to provide an arty place for kids courtesy of EU funds (taxpayers money) and refurbished to excellent spec a run down property ONLY LAST YEAR -2006? Now they have closed it and are selling for the wonderful price of £415,000? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FUNDING OUTRAGE?
I have tried to find the address of 'Outfitters' so that I could see what it last changed hands for, as nethouseprices.com nicely provides info. Do you know the address in the parade?
An apalling situation that now requires a Serious Fraud Office enquiry into this GOSE/Insider trading affront to the public and taxpayers of Margate and Kent. Who do we ask to get that underway?
Unless, of course all the money plus profit is paid back to the town.
Hold up, me hearties! I wouldn't want to give the impression that there was a serious fraud going on!
One would hope that GOSE would have included a time limit on the funding, which would ensure that any profit made from a sale before a certain period had elapsed, say five years, would be clawed back. Maybe the time limit is up, maybe it isn't and the owners will have to refund GOSE to some extent.
Would anybody out there have the full SP? A councillor perhaps?
Post a Comment