Thursday, May 07, 2009

Ramsgate Flies The Flag (Again)

Hurrah! Ramsgate Main Sands has once again hoisted a Blue Flag in this year's prestigious and eponymous awards!

However, poor old Margate has lost it's blue duster, as has Westbrook and Stone Bay. This is almost certainly due to the number of superannuated, incontinent crones weeing in the water in those parts. And, of course, the water in Viking Bay in Boredstares, which has only ever managed one Blue Flag (in 2006), is barely better than toxic waste.

Here on the more sophisticated south side, we have the UK's only south facing sandy beach, the finest restaurants and bars outside of London, and a marina that makes Cannes look shabby. What with that, the Blue Flag, and the Met Office predicting a long hot summer, I fully expect the cash registers to be tinkling with tourist tenners for the next four months!

Overall drop in UK Blue Flag beaches
ENCAMS the Blue Flag people

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have got this wrong again, the only tourists will be carrying euros not tenners, but where can they stay in Ramsgate without the new seafront hotel thats now 4 years late?

Anonymous said...

The Royal Harbour Hotel
The San Clu Comfort Inn
The Prospect Holiday Inn Express
The Kent International Hotel
The Oak Hotel
The Pegwell Bay Hotel
The Glendevon Guest House (highest rated place to stay in Ramsgate on TripAdvisor.com)

There's loads of places.

Anonymous said...

Let's face it, TDC has done nothing for Ramsgate over the years.......and Ramsgate has benefitted. The only failures are where TDC has tried to get involved e.g. the seafront development which has been promised for so many years but is always a day away.
The sooner we can dispense with the involvement of TDC the sooner Ramsgate can take its righful place as the jewel of the South-East.
Broadstairs is just a hamlet with a smelly beach and nothing much to see or do. Margate is the place you go to eat eel, chips and candy-floss. (I hope the Turner Centre has a good supply of wipes to clean the sticky finger-marks off the paintings). With the upgraded train line I'm anticipating BIG price rises in the Ramsgate property market.

Anonymous said...

Now if we could only get the airport to disappear!

Anonymous said...

The smell at Viking bay is what beaches smell of seaweed, sun cream etc.
The Ramsgate beach is nearly always empty as nobody in their right mind would sit there unless they have an unhealthy interest in 747 undercarriages .

As regards the cafe culture there are a couple of struggling eateries waiting for the urbanisation of Ramsgate(Too late for Queen Street Kitchen) that might just hang on.

When I go to Ramsgate you are more aware of the teaming pound shops than the metropolitan bliss you are describing Dick. Have you got the Mansion on the market? as your bigging up is worthy of Tiny Tel himself.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Er, none of the above actually 8:37.

It's just that Broadstairs bores me shitless.

Richard Eastcliff said...

And it hasn't got a Blue Flag haha!

Anonymous said...

will the turner centre have sharps boxes in it's bogs?

Anonymous said...

"Now if we could only get the airport to disappear!"

Not long to wait. It's shrivelling by the day.

However, there is a problem. When it fails we should expect the morons who promoted it to try to blame the protesters for its failure. Having spent years claiming that there are relatively few protesters, they'll try to make out that it went down the tubes because we didn't get behind it.

We should be ready to point out that it was a non-starter from the outset and that the real failure is, and has been, the failure of the pro-airport brigade to face economic facts.

Anonymous said...

Boredstairs - the place to go for a good knife out.

Anonymous said...

The Isle of Broadstairs. A sleepy little hollow which you can't get to by car most of the time due to the stupidity of its own Councillors!!!!

Anonymous said...

Broadstairs, the pigeonsh*t capital of the South-East.

Anonymous said...

The best shop in Broadstairs is....errr

Anonymous said...

Come stay in Broadstairs. We have rooms available at the....errr

Anonymous said...

Come immerse yourself in the spontaneity and gaiety of Broadstairs Folk Week. See the pub gigs that had to be booked 6 months in advance. Pay through the nose to listen to something that isn't folk music in a big tent. Buy some over-priced cr*p. Alternatively, you could go to Sidmouth.

Anonymous said...

Broadstairs:

No Blue Flag
No fine dining (even Margate has the Indian Princess)
No buildings of architectural note
No harbour
No marina
No port
No good pubs
No history
No soul

Ramsgate rocks!

Anonymous said...

You spend all your time moaning about rubbish outside your house, planes above it, and the locals who have the cheek to live there who are not on your intellectual wavelength .

Somebody places a fairly mild rebuke about Ramsgate siting all the things you spend all your time complaining about, and you unleash a load of bile about Broadstairs and how wonderful Ramsgate is, I think you really need to get a grip.

I live in Ramsgate and take away all the media stuff about the rail link house prices etc, it is still full of crap shops and grim people and a lot of unfullfilled potential .

Thats hardly Broadstairs fault,you are better when going for real targets like the council and the airport rather than a sleepy harmless town that is a little too middle class for a middle class boy like you

Richard Eastcliff said...

Er, right 11:51.

Clearly you haven't quite grasped the studied irony here. You're not American by any chance?

Or, more likely, from Margate!

Anonymous said...

leave margate alone, you have the Indian Princess, Ingoldsby, Qing, The Old Town Gallery, the Harbour Arm, Tudor House, Shell grotto, Walpole Bay Hotel, Anthony Wait Gallery, Pie Factory Studios, Turner, the Sub Station, No.6...the list is endless...I live in Ramsgate, love it, but wake up, Margate is not the poor relation anymore. ( Please feel free to knock Broadstairs though...boring!)

Richard Eastcliff said...

I'll reserve the right to knock anywhere I want, thank you very much!

And the only reason Margate has all that now is because the duffers in Cecil Square have systematically stripped Ramsgate bare of all its cultural and leisure facilities over the last five years.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 10.14 I gave up going to Broadstairs Folk Week years ago when I got fed up paying good money for concerts and not being able to hear anything due to the constant talking all through by those who purport to love the music but never seem to listen to it. Having a beer tent close by the entrance wasn't a brilliant idea as all you could hear was the boozed-up real ale fanatics. I could go on but I do know why many locals go on holiday that particular week. I just try to stay away from the town and go elsewhere. The folkies take themselves far too seriously, anyway.

Anonymous said...

The locals who moan about folk week are a pain in the arse,

Sure parking is a problem but it is not that bad ,and the revenue that it generates keeps lots of shops, pubs, and restaurants open for locals to use for the rest of the year.

It is also very well run and inclusive with lots of activites for all ages and gives you an idea of what Thanet could be like with a bit more creative thinking.

Anonymous said...

"The locals who moan about folk week are a pain in the arse,"

May I paraphrase? "Only those who agree with me have a right to say anything" - are you a Councillor?

Anonymous said...

5.20 you do not have to agree with me and I am not a local councillor.

Most local councillors do not even like folk week as it involves messy activities like people enjoying themselves.

My point is that most of the traffic on this blog is negative whinging, and that having something that gives tha local economy a needed shot in the arm should be good.

There are plenty of free gigs and events at the bandstand and other venues so 12.37 should really get a life and tolerate a well run successful thing happening in Thanet, hey it might start a trend

Anonymous said...

I attend numerous folk weeks across the country and Broadstairs sucks. It IS well organised....too well organised. You don't get the musicians wandering around, setting up where they please and impromptu performances and collaborations occurring. If I bring my guitar and tin whistle with me, there's nowhere to play and no-one to play with. The choice of headline acts is bizarre and the stuff at the bandstand is often of very poor quality. It's all very well, patting yourself on the back and saying how great it is. But, when it begins to die you'll want to know where it all went wrong.
In order to avoid the charge of being a negative whinger I'd make two suggestions. Get John Egan involved in booking acts and let buskers set up as and where they please.

Richard Eastcliff said...

Excellent idea!

Er, but this is Broadstairs you're talking about. Allowing buskers to 'set up as and where they please' might well frighten the grannies!

Anonymous said...

Clearly and wisely you have chosen not to spawn, so you do not get Broadstairs.
Each time a coffin dodger shrugs off the mortal coil, their house is bought by a young family because its nice to live here and the schools are good.
If you leave a shit hole area of London you do not to want to end up in a shithole area of Thanet, Ramsgate and Margate for example.

The few dubious pleasures of the other towns can be enjoyed on an excursion allowing us Broadies to return safely to our unvandaised homes ,where our cars are still safely parked outside with the radio and windows still intact.

You might get this if you managed to plant some of your demon seed, but with your weakness for real ale I suspect without the help of water wings or a float they will not get very far upstream.

Broadstairs gene pool is on the up unlike R&M where it seems that evolution is not a one way ticket

Anonymous said...

I cannot understand how Walpole Bay got a blue flag this year when the public toilets are permanently closed, resulting in the walls of the Thanet Bowls Club becoming reeking pissoirs.Did TDC open them for 2 hours when the inspectors came down?
I love the beach but surely conveniences are a major requirement.
Also the lift there looks permanently out of action too. It hasn't worked this year at all.
Given this, I do not stand much store by any other location getting the "coveted" award, so you are all squabbling about nowt.

Marky Warcky said...

Blast you miwwionair Ramsgatians, Westbrook has some thing called a 'Coast award' now what the hell is that.... We're already ON the coast... dam dam dam