If you recall, last month the Office for National Statistics came out with a report demonstrating that Ramsgate was now officially more deprived than Margate, thus proving what I've suspected for years, namely that all the public dosh is being spent on chi-chifying the Arsonists' Playground, to the detriment of us here on the sunny south side.
One of my lovely readers was so incensed that he wrote to KCC boss Paul Carter (aka Ruddy-Faced Man), demanding an explanation. Here's R-FM's response:
Dear ---------------,
Thank you for your email, regarding levels of deprivation in Ramsgate and Margate.
I read the report that you refer to from the Office of (It's 'for' - Ed.) National Statistics with interest. The report is an analysis of the 2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation, therefore, the data on which it is based is now several years old. Nevertheless, I am very much aware of the levels of disadvantage that persist in Ramsgate and in many of our other coastal towns and tackling this is a crucial priority.
So what are we doing about it?
Firstly, we are working hard to attract new jobs and new investment into Thanet. We have secured £35 million in interest-free loan support to businesses looking to grow and expand in East Kent – with over £17 million already allocated and starting to create jobs.
Secondly, we are improving the transport network to make Thanet better connected. We have invested over £180 million in the East Kent Access road network, providing a better link to Ramsgate and Discovery Park. This year, we secured an additional £5 million to improve line speeds between Ashford and Ramsgate to cut journey times – with work starting next year.
Thirdly, we’re investing in local communities, with our No Use Empty programme already restoring over 2,000 empty properties to use. Many of which will be in Margate and Thanet.
Of course, we need to do more, and continued emphasis on coastal regeneration is vital in Ramsgate, Margate and the rest of Thanet. But there is great potential in East Kent, despite its challenges and we are unlocking real growth opportunities – and new suggestions are always welcome.
I hope you find this response helpful.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Carter
Leader of Kent County Council
To paraphrase the late, great Sir Winnie: Never in the public sector have so many mealy-mouthed platitudes meant so little. It's as if R-FM has just taken the Thanet section out of his ruddy big red book and sprinkled a few Ramsgates in there for seasoning.
Meanwhile, KCC have today said they're applying to build a ruddy big new hotel on a Thanet seafront! Hurrah! At long last, something is being done about that hideous Pleasurama eyesore! Er, no, wait a minute, it's going to be on the old Rendezvous site round the back of the Turnip in - you guessed it - Margate!
37 comments:
The Turnip Hotel is very bad nonsense. Glory project again.
The £5M rail links actually came form the £40M East kent fund...which is therefore reduced to £35M.
And only £17M of it spent after 2-3 years.
The road links were for Pfizer which of course left Kent.
As with Infratil KCC have had their trousers pulled down.
I like it when they say the Turnip cost £17M - forgetting the building in the sea costs of £40M.
The point about Ramsgate's tax being spent in Margate is a good one? Who agreed to that? And why have our Ramsgate councillors not spoken up and prevented it?
I live in Ramsgate and my council tax is for Ramsgate. That's the point of it.
Can we have a refund please.
"Thirdly, we’re investing in local communities, with our No Use Empty programme already restoring over 2,000 empty properties to use. Many of which will be in Margate and Thanet" Margate is in Thanet duh!!
Agree with Anonymous1 and Anonymous2.
Why does Margate need a new hotel? Who stays there for long? I thought it was a day trippers' destination - the Turner, a drink in the Old Town and then back to London. Can't see people spending more than a tourists' weekend there.
Meanwhile Ramsgate soldiers on. I guess the ramifications of Pleasurama are more complex than commissioning a new hotel in Margate but that's no excuse for letting the prime site in Ramsgate rot.
Can anyone advise why TDC have this misguided notion that they can alter the identity of Margate into something resembling St Ives?
Can't see it happening. I was in Margate on the weekend and although the Old Town is attractive, it's a small area and the rest of the town is pretty awful.
Anonymous£
Agree with 11:23 why are KCC developing a hotel wiht tax funds? let a hotel developer do that within the bounds of the town plan.
Complete waste and sounds like Margate's Pleasurama.
Agree on the 2,000 empty homes too: these refer to all Kent. I think from memory TDC have renovated c.20 and built c.11 in 10 years. They're talking about doingc.30 more now.
KCC's chauffeurs are a load of bollox too. I bet the taxi bill is huge as well.
Why don't the councillors see/review the costs?
Margate is better than St. Ives, that's why I choose to live here!
Anon 10.49
Since 1998 TDC and KCC were aware of the questions about the long term reliability of the Pfizer Development site. The implication being that the public authorities should seek some undertaking or assurance about Pfizer longer term commitment to the area.
If we go back to the period leading up to 1995 two factories (Both starting with a "P") were subject of reports to DTI and MOD.
One factory closed with 1200 redundancies. Two Labour MPs from that area raised Commons questions aimed at getting grant aid to secure the jobs in their constituencies. But it was unthinkable.
Meanwhile in another area known as Thanet their factory admitted to losing market share for at least five years. Yet millions of grant aid was directed at it to keep jobs in Thanet.
They had then recently had a redundancy programme. And some of their workforce, chosen by the management aware of reasons for loss of market share, were made redundant. These chaps ended up working as contractors on the Pfizer development site.
Perhaps the lesson is that at a time MI5 are receiving reports of sabotage don't grant aid the sodding factory ? Another area in exactly that same position at that time didn't try grant aiding a factory which was under MOD Plod and local SB inquiry. And I think you'll find it wasn't long before that loyal town got 1.6 billion of grant aid to attract new employers.
Think on.
`
Margate like Ramsgate jsut doesn't need another hotel on the seafront and certainly not funded from tax.
Agree with the point as well on KCC bending over backwards for Pfizer and grant aid etc and the thing falling apart.
4,000 jobs lost is a disaster but good to see Discovery park is starting to improve but there seems more non-pharma businesses like accountants or shifted from the Thanet towns?
Why would we fund a hotel from tax?
what about the lifeboat station? Nothing mentioned about them and they are one of our major'assets'.So necessary in a seaside town. A Hotel can go anywhere!
Whatever happened with the 4th town centre housing etc?
http://hernebaymatters.com/nnf-blog/?null
It says here the TDC Airport Committee for Manston was cancelled as of c.May/June??!!
This shows some of the Pleasurama documents just released on the TDC website from c. 2 weeks ago - it seems Harrison and Nicholson were voting to keep the information secret...
http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=544&MId=3534&Ver=4
I suppose the hotel will be free to attract visitors like the turner centre its time overseas aid was scrapped and made seaside aid as charity begins at home,
Stargazer.
Can I point out that this isn't and shouldn't be a fight between Margate and Ramsgate, both areas have had improvements made to the harbour areas and inward investment lately has probably favoured Margate while ten years ago it was Ramsgate.
We should be encouraging more investment into both Towns!
I think you're too late for that 3:57. Margate has clearly taken Ramsgate's tax money for years.
And Ramsgate's councillors have allowed that to happen.
You're right that there's also an issue of where/how KCC's £2Bn has been spent (that both towns pay for). Around Alex King's and Paul Carter's constituencies I'll bet.
I'm with Stargazer, who cares about starving and diseased foreign children when we can build nice seaside hotels instead!
Press reports say the same designer has worked on Dreamland, so the taxpayer-funded Turner/Dreamland/Old Town empire gets ever bigger while the rest of the area rots. Nice if you're among the chosen few, not so clever if you're not.
So are KCC planning to sell or lease the site to a hotel operator who take all the risks in running a hotel or are they planning to add yet another commercial enterprise to their ever growing list of companies that they have set up in completion to Kent's businesses?
I am sure that you would not be too please if having risked your own cash to set up a Margate hotel somebody comes along and risks tax payers money to set up in competition. And if it fails it wont be Paul Carter that looses his shirt but you and I and in the meanwhile other Margate hotels could suffer a downturn.
Unfair competition is what it is called, so I hope that they are just applying for planning permission, then selling the site and then handing the profit to TDC who gave them the land in the first place.
I've just heard KCC are going to financially support a rival airport for Lydd. It's called Manston. They are going to spend money on trying to get flights going from Kent, England to Kent Virginia USA just because they both called Kent as nobody actually wants to fly that route.
Then I've heard they want up build a new railway station 1 mile from the airport because the current railway station 1 mile from the airport is too far away.
Then I've also heard they will pay to advertise flights for a money losing airline to entice lots to Dutch people to Kent. We won't be able to move for clogs, Edam and reefers.
Of course, anyone putting such ridiculous notions forward would never have any intention of following them through to reality through fear of being lambasted as complete and utter morons for the remainder of their miserable careers.
Let us explode some of the myths reported above. The stuff about Manston is just that, a myth. Currently it seems improving Rochester airport is more in the frame.
Broadstairs is not rotting despite the allegation all the money goes on Margate.
Two weeks ago a couple I know visiting Thanet could get no nearer than Sandwich for a humble bed and breakfast at the weekend. Maybe there is scope for more hotel space.
Agree with all the above except for the tripe from 9:10.
Improving Rochester now is nothing to do with the millions wasted on Manston - or the pollution and cancer. Or deceit around monitoring etc.
Broadstairs has lost lots of shops to WC - but is smaller than Ramsgate and Margate so the dereliction doesn't stand out as much. Millions on a community centre too?
B&B in Sandwich requires tax hotel in Margate? Friends of mine tripped over a paving stone once. It doesn't mean every pavement needs repairing.
Another TIB.
Kiosk car in the park again and seafront HGV's.
Stop the Arms Fair in London and UK arms trade: http://blog.caat.org.uk/
Also an article on toxic legacy of birth defects in Iraq of depleted uranium. Interesting to see what weapons were/are stored at Manston etc and Thor mercury.
http://blogs.kentonline.co.uk/post/You-Got-Mail-read-the-expenses-correspondence-between-Kent-County-Council2btax-inspectors.aspx
Paul Carter and travel expenses - nothing on chauffeurs though.
My favourite was the new rail station at the airport near to Ramsgate station and only a squillion quid. Superb value.
Another TDC head leaves apparanetly: Sarah Carroll
Richard, you seem to have been hijacked by the bollix writer again for elsewhere he tends to be deleted by blog administrators.
Funny Bustard with nothing to say except insults again.
What have you just said, 4:02, precisely nothing. You really are something of a turd, not fit for much except throwing away.
Farnie only pops up when there's something about Manston and pollution. Probably another elderly baggage handler or RAF corporal.
No-one else cares 10:25.
Peter, 5.33 posting, yes you should be worried, consult your doctor, drinking so much could be a sign of diabetes. But it would be far better to drink as you go.
Surely support for the existing hotels should come ahead of unfair competition setting up new hotels to do existing trade out of business?
There's no suggestion that there's not enough business for all of the existing hotels, and even Louise Oldfield of 'The Reading Rooms' welcomes this development.
Most of our hotels were demolished during the 90s & early 00s, so we desperately need more.
But why in Margate, not Ramsgate?
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