Thursday, May 01, 2008

Flogging Your Assets

I see the Uranians have come up with no fewer than 16 pieces of, albeit slightly tarnished, Thanet silverware they want to flog off. Sites include Northdown House, part of Margate Post Office (as predicted by yours truly) and Ramsgate's crumbling West Cliff Hall (the defunct Motor Museum). Here's the list in full:

Site: Booth Place, Margate (Cliftonville West)
Proposal: Suggested by local people that this should be developed as a garden with parking and small residential development.

Site: Dalby Square, Margate (Cliftonville West)
Proposal: Retention of green space with some housing development with improved road layout.

Site: Northdown House and depot, Margate (Cliftonville East)
Proposal: Residential conversion of the house, with possible ground floor retention for appropriate community use. Land adjacent to the depot to be developed with cottages.

Site: 45 Hawley Square, Margate (Margate Central)
Proposal: Residential or commercial use.

Site: 22 Cecil Square, Margate (Margate Central)
Proposal: The Post Office will remain, with the upper floors converted for commercial or residential use and the lower ground floor available for appropriate commercial use.

Site: Land adjacent to Media Centre, Margate (Margate Central)
Proposal: Potential residential or mixed use development.

Site: Land at Barnes Avenue, Westbrook, Margate (Westbrook)
Proposal: Will not involve significant built development and any use will be mainly community related use of the land.

Site: Land at Knockholt Road, Cliftonville, Margate (Cliftonville East)
Proposal: Could be used for additional garden space for adjacent properties

Site: Albion House, Ramsgate (Eastcliff)
Proposal: The majority of ground floor and basement retained for community use, building brought in line with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, with the upper floors converted for residential use.

Site: Albion Place car park, Ramsgate (Eastcliff)
Proposal: New development re-instating the early 19th century terrace for possible residential use.

Site: Land at Dumpton Park Drive, Broadstairs (Viking)
Proposal: Possibility of building one property and extending the gardens for neighbouring properties.

Site: Garage 3, Colemans Yard, Ramsgate (Central Harbour)
Proposal: Possible residential conversion.

Site: Motor Museum, Ramsgate (Central Harbour)
Proposal: Possible commercial use.

Site: Closed toilets Boundary Road, Ramsgate (Eastcliff)
Proposal: Possible commercial use, maybe as a café.

Site: Land at Greenfield Road, Ramsgate (Northwood)
Proposal: Possible use for garden extensions.

Site: Vere Road Car and Coach Park, Broadstairs (Bradstowe)
Proposal: Improved coach and car parking, with some residential development

As ever there'll be the usual, half-arsed consultation. Kuh! They'll be scraping the sand off our glorious beaches and giving it to builders next! Er, no, sorry, I forgot, they already did that when they built Port Ramsgate!

Click here to investigate the latest pile from Uranus

20 comments:

Cirkux said...

Hehe, basically I'm saying - but in Swedish - that you're the man with the inside scope when it comes to Thanet. Since parts of my family stayed in the area in the seventies they have a strange curiosity when it comes to easternmost Kent.

Anonymous said...

why don't the council(voted and unvoted) be honest for once and sell off everthing we have left,take their cut and f*CK OFF and let somebody who cares about Thanet have a go instead.
Roll on the next election and we can get rid of this lot of useless T*ssers.
Can we not ask for a referendum or a vote of no confidence in the near future,there must be something in place for this situation.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Thanks Circux. I'd add you to my Millionaires' Row but sadly I'm not sure many of my readers are proficient in Swedish.

Anonymous said...

I will be going to the meeting on the 12th May and urge as many people to atted as possible Albion place carpark to be turned into houses!!!! a few years back a man died up my road (Abbot's Hill) due to the fire engine unable to get up the road due to illegally parked cars taking away this carpark is only going encourage and force more cars to park up this road with regard to the Motor museum shame the council didnt think ahead and turn that into the Ramsgate Library and let the land on which the burnt down one goto Clarendon school so they could of extended their premises.

Anonymous said...

There is a small problem with a covenant attached to Northdown House. If I know Bill Friend,he will not be happy with this and might well have the right to take it back off the Council if they do not intend to comply with the original covenant established by his Grandfather.

Anonymous said...

The words some residential use, how may other areas of Thanet can Tdc allow more building on, surely we are running out of space. Vere Road, Kcc currently are asking the public for views on the carpark whether it should be enhanced, Tdc want to build on it, seems a total shambles.Least the new homes would be secure with the newly installed prison fencing there. It is also a concern how the additional funds raised will be spent. It is time we the public, traders alike organised a rally to highlight our displeasure at this Councils actions.

Anonymous said...

Well, like it or not the council are seeking to sell assets in order to raise more funds the same as if you had a large garden and a small mountain of debt that you didn't want to consolidate with a 25 year secured loan! In order to maintain budgets they're obliged to look at disposable assets. I get annoyed at the spongers who have no intention of getting work and claim the dole and moan about public services to which they are not contributing.

Anonymous said...

Land adjacent to Media Centre, Margate.

Interestingly this site gained planning permission as an extension to the media centre. So that's permission granted for an art's regeneration scheme which has become nothing of the sort.

No change there then.

Mr Dickens of Broadstairs said...

The car park in Vere road is heaving in the summer with cars and coaches making it smaller is idiotic. Ther has been along term plan to make the car park in albion street smaller so there will be virually no parking for a seaside resort. Maybe we should have park and fly scheme based at Manston and drop tourists into Viking Bay from the back of one of those dodgy russian cargo planes soon to be gracing our skies. I their haste to concrete over any unbuilt bits the council forgets that tourism is still one of the biggest draws to Thanet and is vital economically

Anonymous said...

According to the press Ezekiel said at the Broadstairs Forum that there's a coach park in Palm Bay, Cliftonville so Vere Road can go. So, let's think about this. Coach loads of schoolchildren, pensioners, foreign students etc. get dropped off in Broadstairs High Street then the coach goes to Cliftonville then drives back to collect passengers then sets off again. With the cost of fuel there's no way a coach company is going to add all those unnecessary miles so the trips will end at Cliftonville or Margate to the detriment of Broadstairs. Come on, Broadstairs traders, let's hear you complaining about something other than the car parking charges and Westwood Cross. Here's another scheme hatched up by TDC that'll destroy your business.

Lucy Mail said...

Nice to see that there's a chance that something will actually happen with these places, though.
Thanet council has sat on them long enough that surely they must be due to hatch by now.

Head, SMEG said...

anon 6:45pm. you are so right, and lucy is so wrong.

selling off assets for development is a good idea when property prices are booming, and borrowing is cheap.

Unlike now, when due to tight credit markets and prioperty market uncertainty, where building firms are slowing down on new developments, so they might buy now at a knockdown price, leave for x years while the market recovers.

"We" get minimal cash inflow to TDC, plus a decaying hole/building for a while.

incompetence, and short sightedness of the highest order

Anonymous said...

These assets are ours. There seems to be some perception that the stuff owned by the Council doesn't belong to us. We pay for it.
The coach park in Cliftonville is under used because coach drivers don't want to pay the fee so they park in nearby residential streets. (including mine) They will do the same in Vere Road.
If TDC need to raise funds, about which there is no doubt, how about losing the 100 grand a year-plus unelected officials for a start? They have no motivation to do what the public wants as they will still be there no matter what happens in an election.
Also, how many swimming pools are there going to be? The money from the flogging off of Manston Road allotments was to pay for the swimming pool now the money raised from this little scheme is paying for it.

Anonymous said...

So, when they've sold off this lot for a pittance because no-one wants it (housing market downturn etc) what do they do then?

Who will be a serious contender for the Vere Road car park for housing -(remember the Health Centre plan was turned down)? You need to be seriously fit to get back up from that car park so housing there....? Don't let's forget the hideous fence at the edge of the car park that will blight everyone's view. Another block of unsellable flats looking out over the fence with'glimpses of the sea'?

Lucy Mail said...

I doubt it's either incompetence or shortsightedness Stevie. I expect there'll be more money involved than we get to hear about. The Council can't publish all of their accounts now, can they?
No, I'd imagine that 'calculating and innovative' would be more appropriate.

How does 'so right' work, btw? Would that be 'righter than right' or what would it be?
I look very good in a 'so wrong', as it happens, so you may be so right about that.

Anonymous said...

Interesting pattern arising here for anyone with a long term memory.
The Regency Hotel is an example, held by the council for years until it fell into disrepair, sold off cheaply to make a massive profit for decades, now converted into flats.
Handy profits for someone, but never for the residents, some folk might consider that a hint of corruption.

Anonymous said...

you only need nvq level two to be a thanet councilor. i want to rub poo in some of thier faces.

Mr Dickens of Broadstairs said...

I have heard a rumour that certain council members suggested that selling off the mayors chains of office might be a good idea.
Sadly whilst undergoing refurbishment at Hiltons some of the more precious materials seemed to have morphed into milk bottle tops, chewing gum, and bits of lego making them slightly less desirable.

Anonymous said...

Of course! Let's sell off TDC!!

Head, SMEG said...

Lucy, whatever - right, so right, righter than right - you are just wrong.