Lumme! I see from the front page of this week's yourfannitinnit that the paper's top newshound Tom Betts has been sniffing around our marina!Although his nostrils won't have been as offended as mine were standing on Margate's Harbour Arm (pier in old money) the other day, he's dredged up a story about the Marina Association unanimously voting to oust our beloved council's harbour management team. According to the salty seamen, the place is now so badly run that it's 'embarrassing'.
One of the main gripes is, of course, the woeful lack of dredging. The association reckons that around two metres of silt has built up and that pontoons now sit on mud at low tide. Presumably the boats do too, lending an unusual slant to canapes and sundowners.
What with that and the loss of one of the marina's YHA Gold Anchors recently, you'd think that Acting Harbour Master and Thanet Council's Director of Regeneration, Brian White, would be on the case. But no. I'm told by my spies in the brass buttoned blazers and deck shoes that, far from getting out there with his bucket and spade, he's busy with yet another Maritime Services 'staff reorganisation'. Kuh!
Click here to read more in yourfannitinnit
Update: Talking of sackings, I've been told that former harbour master Dominic Evans, who was suspended by the council back in September, has this afternoon won his industrial tribunal case against unfair dismissal in Ashford. TDC have apparently caved in and offered him a settlement. Good news for him. Not so good news for us taxpayers who have to fork out for the useless council apparently sacking the chap unjustly in the first place.
13 comments:
In my mind TDC want rid of the harbour, maybe cos its could make some serious money and they are scared by anything successful........... just a thought ??????????
Sorry to dredge this back up but the dredger is back. Is it me or has the bucket got smaller?
I am now wondering if TDC had updated the old Ramsgate dredger costs would be down?
Someone is making a bucket load of cash out of us the tax payers.
Also OP Dynamo is nearly on us and no Flag on Albion House?
Could it be the Lantic Bay operating in the port?
She worked down the port last year.
As for the harbour and port, they need a dedicated management team to attract as much customers as they can.
First work is to dredge to port full stop!
What with the Harbour Lights Café, Maritime Museum, failing to put a waterproof membrane in when the work was done to strengthen the harbour arches, making things tough for long term tenants there too and now I hear they are trying to get rid of the historic vessels opposite the café culture by doubling their rents, perhaps some of us here in Ramsgate should form a trust to buy our harbour back from the council.
I heard they want about £20m for it Michael. I'll remortgage the cliff top mansion!
Makes you wonder what sort of income it would generate properly managed Richard.
Hmm. My guess is you'd make enough to service the loan and then some. However, the cost of repairs and maintenance would eat into any profit. You'd probably end up making a loss.
The key would be to attract more yachties and shipping lines, but to do that you'd have to invest.
The quickest way to make a buck would be to flog off any spare land to developers.
Er, now that I'm thinking aloud, I'm beginning to see it from TDC's POV!
Sack The Boats Owners Owner Said The Council.
First, I believe.
Wonderfull to hear that Dominic has won his appeal all be it at our expense.There would be some profit in the new port if realistic dues were charged and not at give away prices to keep a few freight ships here dredge a half a million cubic metres of mud away and we would have a port accessable 24/24 good for commercial and pleasure alike a programme costing a few million not likely to happen in the foreseable future
Can't we (the taxpayers) claim the money back against the useless twonk who sacked him unfairly?
Apparently the inner east pontoons are now in such a state that two chaps jumped off their boat and went straight through the rotten planking yesterday. How much is that claim going to cost us in addition to what is likely to have been a six figure award to Dominic Evans?
How much more bad publicity does TDC need before it ACTS!
If you mean the inner basin pontoons near the Oak etc. I doubt that anyone in the council remembers, but the pontoons do not belong to TDC! They were once part of the marina proper but condemned by the early 1990s by Commander Marsh. The majority were sold for low grade moorings on the Stour and elsewhere. A few really bad ones were given to the Maritime Museum for 'recyling' into useful timber or use in connection with events and visiting historic vessels. They were originally patched up installed by museum staff but subsequently improved by TDC.
So about 20 years ago, TDC was investing in improving and enhancing the marina, whilst assisting the museum to develop a range of events which contributed to its operating costs and greatly added to the attractiveness of the harbour. What went wrong?
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