Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Dr Richdiet Says...

OK. You know you want it. I know you want it. Here it is. The next nail-biting instalment of 'Dr Richdiet Says...'!

The story so far... Dr Helmet Richdiet, the man charged by Thanet District Council with administering the £1.5m Heritage Lottery Tarting-Up-Ramsgate-Front Fund has resigned in a fit of Teutonic pique. He's accused the project of being underfunded, and the Uranians of making too many promises. Basic skills and proper ways of working do not exist on the Ile. Now read on, before it completely burns a hole in my inbox...

All key projects are blocked.

West Cliff Terrace Mansions: Not any chance to start the restoration of one of the most beautiful buildings in England in collaboration with these property owners, who have played cat and mouse with TDC for decades. Enforcement did and does not exist in reality.
[Sentence removed for legal reasons.]

The only solution to save this building might be, that the National Trust or a similar organisation buys it, that it is restored according heritage standards and then may sold again. WCTM might become a pilot project for a professional restoration combined with modern equipment like a real central heating, a central aerial, a roof garden with view to France, and a rainwater soak-away, sealants in bathrooms and kitchens, sound insulation in the hollow floors and so on.

Devonshire House: One building, two property owners. New and existing property owners are not able to manage such a large and difficult project.

Nelson Crescent/Prospect Terrace: All property owners want to have all for free. Wealthy people are applying for grants to let replace some rotten sill-boards, because they have spent all their money inside.

Kent Terrace and Sion Hill: Insensitive Planning Permissions by TDC. Trouble with the neighbourhood is programmed. HLF and English Heritage will not be amused. The architects should read the booklet, which is written by the Prince of Wales 20 years ago.

Albion Place: It is not possible to close the bomb gaps. The residents do not want to loose their parking.

Granville House: Large amount of basic reinstatement works, which may be impossible to be financed and managed by the property owners. [Sentence removed for legal reasons.]

Royal Harbour, Arches in Military Rd and Royal Esplanade: Somebody has forgotten to prepare a professional sealant in 1993. To make it may cost £ millions now. The cleaning of the brickwork face is wasting money without having sealed all leaks properly before.
[Sentence removed for legal reasons.] TDC, KCC and English Heritage are blocking each other. In the meantime one of the badly corroded antique German steel beams of the prime generation of mild steel may break. That may cause more damages to the structure than to remove them immediately.

Hmm. Something is rotten in the state of Thanet, and it ain't just the buildings!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't blame him for leaving, can you? What a can of worms - he obviously wasn't prepared to cover up for other people's procrastinations and mistakes, and he wasn't afraid to tell the truth - Thanet needs a strong leader like him.

Anonymous said...

Ja, das is vot ve need.

Anonymous said...

Now if we could just get that nice Donald Macintyre to speand about three years undercover i am sure he could possibly have a nine week series on his hands of 'undercover' reports on the interesting and 'colorful' history (from 1955 onwards) of Thanet, the council, the builders, the developers, the land owners etc etc oh what merry larks!

Anonymous said...

Only nine weeks - it could become a thrice weekly soap

Anonymous said...

Back in the days when I was about ECR's age (IE back when I did not get hot under the collar about things ... that long ago) I remember a businessman who bought a cafe in Margate.

He had a history of owning night clubs in Belgium and London.

Not long after he started renovating his first Margate venture, he received a bill. For "Services" of a local property developer who was also a TDC councillor. £600. Quite a bit in 1980.

So around pops the new guy on the block and asks what the bill is about, from a complete stranger !!

He was told that if he wanted planning consents (plans to buy a seafront club, to renovate harbour property for a beauticians and gym etc) that he might find it best to pay the property devlopment company their initial fee.

He told the councillor to get stuffed.

Then began his long history of attempts to stir some passion in Thanet folk. I remember he was on a mission about the cost of floating pontoons at Ramsgate harbour. How much for some floating chippy wood ??

At that time there was a councillor wont, from time to time, to invite a full Kent Police investigation into his business dealings. Causing some humour in the area that Dracula had just been invited to investigate the blood bank again.

It appears that things got a tad more complex when new boy on the block turned out to have friends in high places of the Met variety.

Now how was it that cases of importing porn, possession of sub machine guns and forgery of qualifications and dollars came to light .....

Perhaps it would have been more circumspect not to have sent a speculative bill in the first place ??

Thanet ? No wonder the IRA found it ideal to use as a UK base. Locals "Ever on the touchline never on the pitch, know it all but do f-ck all".

Even the German, paid out of public funds, has given up.