Friday, November 27, 2009

Margate 60,000,000 - 0 Ramsgate

Above is the banner headline for tonight's crunch meeting of the Ramsgate Society (7.30pm, The Media Centre, Cavendish Street) aimed at helping 'secure a future for Ramsgate'. Be there or be, er, unRamsgatonian!

They've sourced the £35m figure from the Margate Renewal Partnership website, but surely it's an underestimate? Add on the £17.5m for the Ike and Tina Turner Centre, another couple of mill for the de-dualling of Fart Hill and the snazzification of the old town, plus £3.7m just dished out to Dreamland, and by my reckoning it's closer to £60m.

And what do we get here in Ramsgate? A mill for a crumbling facelift for our crumbling East Cliff? There was meant to be £1.5m from the Lottery Heritage Fund, but nobody seems to know where that went. And where do all the harbour dues from our lovely marina and port go? Certainly not into dredging the flippin' thing, it seems. Apart from that, it's all closed toilets, asset sales, and knackered old jumbos 24/7! Not that the RamsgateSoc are even going to tackle the question of night flights over 900+ listed buildings, I hear.

Don't get me wrong. Margate is in desperate need of a transfusion before it dies, like the Mayor's cat, of anaemia. But although Ramsgate isn't doing so bad on its own, with new shops opening up almost on a daily basis, I'm not sure that any of us here on the sunny south side will be prepared to donate armfuls for very much longer!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

sad thing in Margate is that you still can't see where all the dosh has gone? The figure is a joke, perhaps TDC managed to purloin it and it has gone on the tart's carpet in Cecil Square?

Peter C said...

We deserve it!

Graham said...

I would be more impressed if some of the money was set aside for the dynamiting of Arlington House...in fact I might travel back just to see that pile of 60's crap come tumbling down...

Don Wood said...

Be fair Graham Arlington House is Margate's landmark icon

Graham said...

Landmark icon you say?
Um, er, ok...

Readit said...

Dont believe everything you hear!
RamSoc did address the airport question and from an angle no-one else is talking about. Why is TDC pushing 6 million passengers by 2026 when Infratil are only asking for 4.7 million by 2033 (and 2.2 million by 2018)? Who has shares in Infratil ?

Anonymous said...

Rammers has all those millionaires n'est ce pas? Why would you need money?

Anonymous said...

Can they spare peter a few quid from the £35 mill kitty to so he can feck off and not come back?

Anonymous said...

10.14 are you calling the chief executive of thanet district council a tart ????

Anonymous said...

I think TDC should be thoroughly ashamed of using the Queen's head on their website. The whole communications department should be sacked.