Signs Of Change

Moving swiftly on from all that legal nastiness, reader Tom has sent me the following email:

Dickie old bean! I gather that you are not able to get out much at the moment, so I have driven around Ramsgate in my car and taken a few snaps for you so you can see all the changes that are happening in and around the town.

Well, how kind Tom! First up is the new hairdressers by the Boundary Road traffic lights:

There's even a TDC sweepie-uppy man sweepie-upping all the autumn leaves. If memory serves, this used to be Keith's Hair Academy, so plus ca change! Next is this:

The petrol station and convenience store on West Cliff Road, opposite Kwik Fit, appears to be no longer. What's the betting it'll be luxury flats? With all those petrol storage tanks down below, they should go like a bomb! (Geddit??!!??!?!??!!!!)

Further afield, Tom's Tom Tom took him down to the port:

That's the Thanet Offshore Wind site, the first of two lovely wind farms due to be based in the port, the other being the much bigger London Array. And it looks as if they're constructing a new depot or something. Tom adds that, despite a good gawp, he couldn't see any, er, Eurofannying about.

On the Sandwich Road, Tom says he counted at least ten stick signs with directions to the 'VolkerFitzpatrick Hochtief site office'. This is apparently situated near Richborough power station, and will be the HQ for the Phase 2 widening and re-routing of the A256.

Work is due to begin imminently, and will involve building an £87m dual carriageway from the Prospect roundabout alongside the Chas 'n' Dave Margate International Airport runway (14th longest in the UK) and the existing A253, then diving off from a new roundabout towards Richborough, under the railway at Cliffsend, and joining up with the already completed Phase 1 dual carriageway at Ebbsfleet. A new road into Ramsgate off the new road will bypass the existing road past Jentex, dive under the railway and Cliffsend, and come up by the Lord of the Manor roundabout. All clear? Good.

It should all be done and dusted by 2012, but what impact it'll have on getting on and off the island from the Millionaires' Playground so far remains a mystery.

Finally, it seems those pesky, fly-by-night No Night Flight blighters have been up to their usual tricks down at the Pleasurama/Royal Sands/Titanic development on Ramsgate front. And it was such a nice, new hoarding too!