Sunday, January 27, 2008

Writing On The Road For Pleasurama Development

Peering over our crumbling East Cliff earlier I spied these mysterious yellow and red hieroglyphs on the car park below.

I can only assume that the Maidstone Martians have landed, and that these are preparations for the re-working of the road and car park for the benefit of the Pleasurama development, aka Royal Sands, aka Titanic. And I see they've cultivated an entire new crop of hideous Heras fencing in the process. Just what the Doctor ordered!

11 comments:

Michael Child said...

Richard I have received new information that now there will be a road running through the back of the development making the roundabout and the removal of the car park unnecessary. However as the dreadful project moves forward it sort of also goes back, I gather that the removal of the seafront car parks and the destruction of the cafĂ© culture have been ordered by Maidstone or Madstone this is dovetailed to the destruction of the libraries and museums to coincide with the growth of interest in local history. I got a bit annoyed today and commented on Simon’s and David’s blogs too, no one really knows what to say, here I am wicked capitalist asking why I am first up against the wall. I finally realise that what I do is not welcome here and yes I am a bit annoyed.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Eh? Why is what you do 'not welcome here'? And what's all this 'wicked capitalist' stuff? I've always been a great admirer of your dedicated quest for the truth Michael. Please explain!

Michael Child said...

Richard if you have been down the town recently you may have noticed that the shops are going, generally this is not so nice for the shopkeepers. Bankruptcy a bailiff appears and take away your Krug car TV stereo etc. so being a capitalist b**tard I thought to ask the other funny handshake blokes wot day gona do. Its all gone a bit silent at the moment, pause for fort? I notice some even commenting on your site and I thought displacement therapy, or a twiddling of the fums.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Um, there must still be a bit of static on the line there Michael. You're not exactly coming through loud and clear. Are you saying the bailiffs are coming round? I do hope not!

Anonymous said...

Michael
I have popped in to see you on a couple of occasions and you have always been a level-headed sort of chap,what's wrong?because your comments do not really make any sense.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Yes, I do hope all is well down there on our trendy King Street. I'll pop down tomorrow and say a cheery hello.

Michael Child said...

Richard and co don’t worry about the bookshop which is OK as what we have lost in terms of shop business we make up for with postal sales. No what is worrying me is the number of shops that have closed in the town recently, it’s having a knock on effect meaning more closures. Have you seen Queen Street recently and what is making me really annoyed is that the councils policy of double yellow lining the town centre and maintaining half empty council residents car parks is largely responsible.

I am of the opinion that this heavy handed use of yellow paint has been a deliberate ruse to boost Westwood Cross at the expense of Ramsgate. Just in my own small area virtually every side street has lost its parking and yet there is much less traffic now.

As soon as you get away from the town centre almost all the street side parking is still there, even right next to schools where it makes it difficult to see to cross the road.

Anyway I am leaning on the council to try and get them to reinstate the parking in the town and on the seafront, to reconsider putting our new swimming pool on the seafront on the old pool site and anything else I can think of to give the town an economic boost, that doesn’t cost much.

Anonymous said...

Michael, what you are describing is what has been happening in Margate; our towns are in decline and we have various TDC regimes to thank for this following the ill-conceived idea to put Westwood Cross in as a new town centre. The pattern of accelerated decline has been remorseless and is echoed in other areas where an 'out of town' new centre hits the established towns and their economies; the big boys move out the old town centres; the footfall declines and other businesses start to collapse; the footfall declines even further and the closure of small businesses accelerates and we end up with a tatty ghost town. Christmas in Margate was a shadow of its past; empty car spaces in Cecil Sq on the last Saturday afternoon before Christmas said it all.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Oh, I see what you're saying now. And yes, there really does need to be a radical rethink over in Cecil Street. The chances that we'll get that though are slim and none. And Slim just left town along with everyone else!

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should check who the shareholders are at the Heras fencing company?? Who has a vested interest in keeping Heras fencing up for over a 1000 days?? Now we can't even use the cliff top promenade betwen the lift and Gerry's kiosk - for how long - another 1000 days??

Anonymous said...

As a struggling trader in Margate, TDC and KCC need to relax parking retrictions immediately. One feels that the Councils are inflexible, and only interested in generating income at the expense furthering the decline of our town centres. TDC's bugetary proposal is to put up the parking charges. Please do we need all the yellow lines etc!! Some councils now earn more from parking, fines etc than council tax. This will never be the case in Thanet. The council's are killing our town centres in the pursuit of their own greed which is shortsighted. Their income will reduce when the final light goes out on our High Streets and there are no rates to collect from traders,reduced parking fees, parking fines etc.