Sunday, February 15, 2009

Rivers Of Latte

Isle of Thanet Gazunder Leader Comment

Rich people from up there in London are beginning to talk about the isle as 'the new Monaco' or 'the new Marbella', following high profile features on national TV and in national newspapers.

Many are packing their YSL suiters, jumping in their Bentleys, and making their homes in Ramsgate and Broadstairs (what about Margate? - Ed.)

But how long will they stay, once they really get to know the island? Where will they get a decent latte? Where will they send little Nathaniel and Saskia to school? Where will they get their Porsche Cayennes serviced? And do they really want their carpaccio garnished with the fumes from a low flying 747?

There is still a long way to go before Thanet becomes Notting-Hill-on-Sea. But if our leaders and business people fail to rise to the challenge, we may, before too long, witness the sorry sight of burnt out Ferraris at Westwood Cross, and rioting ABC1s torching the local chippy.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic post ECR. You are the president elect of the new Ramsgate.

From a new Ramsgate resident and media tosser.

Anonymous said...

According to the BBC news last week a line of coke is now cheaper than a coffee, at a pound a pop .

With a large local pharmacutical company looking like it might be on the skids, could we become a centre of excellence for processing Bolivian Marching Powder? . The Escobars could bring their knackered Jumbos in at Manston stuffed to the gunwhales and Coke Mc Sandwich could be born.
That really would attract the Notting Hill brigade

Head, SMEG said...

How wonderfully put.

Ramsgate and Thanet are on the cusp of a return to greatness. An ideal position only 70 miles from London, improving train links, excellent roads, new bars an restaurants, art and retail.

If only the airport ceased it's quest for stansted-size business.

Don Wood said...

nice to see all the crowds out in Ramsgate this afternoon celebrating nthe Manston extended hours no doubt

Anonymous said...

I am meeting increasing numbers of people who are incredulous about what the Council has done. They find it difficult to believe that the Council has authorized Jumbo jets to fly in and out over their homes from 0600 in the morning to 1130 at night. Many of them don't believe me because the coverage in the local press has been so appallingly biased and has not reported properly what the Council has done. Many are angry because they still have letters in which their MP promised them that the Section 106 Agreement provided them with adequate protection against night flights. Yet, now they find that the Council has not adhered to the terms of the agreement. It has not engaged in the consultation required before introducing night-flights. They are angry and confused as to why their MP has supported subversion of the very legal agreement that he told them would protect them.

Anonymous said...

Erm, have you not seen the road plans for Cliffsend? Or Pegwell? Or the new train station in Lord of the Manor?

Wake up dudes...this was planned years ago and is a fait accomplis.

And don't think the rest of Thanet gets off lightly either - everything happens Westwood Cross and west thereof.

The best you can hope for is restrictions on flights but after last week that ain't looking to promising is it?

Peter C said...

Personally I think the Westbrook / Garlinge / Westgate areas are going to be THE up-and-coming places in Thanet over the next few years...three more great reasons to support Manston Airport expansion! : )

Richard Eastcliff said...

Garlinge? That's some kind of fungal disease isn't it?

And Westgate has more shops selling incontinence pants than Eastbourne.

As for Westbrook, everyone there's so old it's no wonder the mini golf course is called 'Strokes'!

Anonymous said...

Personally speaking I think that Margate will be the new Marbella. The harbour will soon be like Puerto Banoos.

Anonymous said...

It's not over yet. They were not legally enitled to do what they did without consultation. We will be mounting a legal challenge. There will be no night flights.

Anonymous said...

"We will be mounting a legal challenge. There will be no night flights."

Well i read it that they wanted the capacity to be able to use the extended times. Not that they actually wanted to cram the extra time with planes, just be allowed to if needed.

Anonymous said...

Having just upped sticks from the sex and drugs riddden streets of London I concur with your comments. Though the amount of canine faeces on the streets of the new Monte Carlo is shocking. Puts one right off your skinny soya frappacino.

Hackney Harry

Anonymous said...

Pete, anywhere you ain't is the place to be

Anonymous said...

Rather like leading a bull into a field of cows and saying 'they're only there if you need them' anon 10:28

Peter C said...

I haven't seen any bad-tempered drunks shouting at the sky up here in the sunny north though.

Anonymous said...

Jumbo jets from 06:00 to 23:30, not even one an hour. Get real people, half hour at the end of the day, one hour at the start and only if needed. A Stansted size operation calls for a Stansted size airport and there isn't physically that room. Flights won't even be one an hour. 7:20 pm talks of bias in the local press but exercises the same making it sound it will be continual from 6 to 11. You bell.

Anonymous said...

I saw what happened there.

Mixed argument.

The extended hours for flight times are only granted IF THEY ARE NEEDED ?

So where exactly is the expansion of Manston and a "Future for our kids" and "Work for our unemployed" in that then ?

There will be work if you Thanet people are needed ?

There will be work created in the extended Thanet economy if it is needed ?

Meanwhile the property price argument resides on the fact that there is a randomly used air strip with flights from dawn to dusk to suit their convenience but no burgeoning economy centred on the airport at all.

Well that is property prices dropping then. Come on down the rich Londoners and generate work for Thanetians as domestic cleaners and latte brewers on national minimum wage.

Pfizer rumours started again then ? More job losses planned ? I think we should be told.

Anonymous said...

I think people have got to understand that the real argument, against Manston expansion is that by the history so far, is that it has become a dog in the manger.

For purposes of argument what would happen if Manston was told NO .... break up the runway. You can have residential and/or commercial development.

That would give a basis of certainty. Instead of the thin end of the wedge of promises coupled to a disincentive to others contemplating the folly of investing in Thanet.

You have seen CGP jobs promises ridiculed on blogs. You have seen CGP and Pleasurama plans exposed and virtually ridiculed on blogs.

You saw the certainty of Thanet hypothesis on Dr Moore's Thors Hammer thread. The smirks at mention of the "Westwood Triangle" .... Thor, Sericol and Anthrax burials at Haine under the Westwood Cross development.

Now you have seen the smirkers calmly kicked into touch. The result of FOI requests. Sericol and Thor remediations kept secret from the public.

And TDC seem not to be answering FOI request re the former Haine Isolation hospital and burials.

You have now seen the result of FOI requests about Pfizer pipe and vessel weld standards. Environment Agency has a team investigating (and not responding to FOI etc etc)

Whilst Thanet was whinging about its museums who calmly checked with the Charity Commission, informed them of the £267,000 Butler legacy EKMT had not declared and also informed the Charity Commission inquiry team about the EKMT/Steam Museum Trust mediation process.

Who did all that ?

A chap who made sure he had sold his Thanet properties at the height of the market !

Anonymous said...

I still don't understand why the extra flights if they materialise can't happen during the normal hours of the day when there are few flights at present anyway.

Anonymous said...

I cannot see how the stated number of jobs can be created if and when the aiport might have some planes coming in if and when the freight carrier decides it needs to use Manston.

There are flights at the moment and the request was for a few more later in the day/earlier in the morning.The staff are presumably there when needed and I assume, can be called in for later flights. They don't get paid for sitting around all day waiting for a plane to arrive so are they on some retainer and come when required?

How can 300 indirect jobs be created from a few extra flights unless the freight operator plans to have planes coming in all day? Indirect jobs will be HGVs taking the goods away and they won't be local unless one of the firms specialising in HGVs gets the deal.

Anonymous said...

Haven't seen any middle-aged, soft-porn-disguised-as-art photographers in the south

Peter C said...

You're always asleep on a bench whenever I go there.

Anonymous said...

@ Curious...
I still don't understand why the extra flights if they materialise can't happen during the normal hours of the day when there are few flights at present anyway.


I think that is probably all down to global scheduling - most airports are a tiny bit busier than ours, so it depends on slots available at the other end of the flight.

Nige

Anonymous said...

Peter, the irrelevant postings of an ageing, seedy-photo-taking berk. What nonsense are you writing now?

Get back to homes under the hammer, loser.

Anonymous said...

Curious, the reason long haul flights don't happen during the middle of the day as often as during early morning or late at night is down to time zones around the world.