Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Spectacular End For Ostend Spirit

Holy shipwrecks! If you've ever wondered what it would be like to stand on a beach with a ruddy great cross channel ferry steaming towards you at full tilt, then this is the video for you!

The ferry in question is none other than our own Ostend Spirit, which, after we forked out £700,000 in 2010 to dredge the Port of Ramsgate to accommodate it, spent a grand total of, er, not very long operating on behalf of the now defunct TransEuropa Ferries between here and Oostende. The very same Ostend Spirit, in fact, that was occupied by its Slovenian crew in Tilbury for weeks while they demanded unpaid wages after TransEuropa sank without trace, taking £3.4m of our council tax with it.

The very, very same Ostend Spirit that could have been seized in our port and sold to recoup some of our decimated dosh, had not Our Harvey been out to lunch when the harbour master rang to tell him it was about to set sail and request permission to nab it.

Well, it's junk now, having been sold to a breakers yard in Turkey for scrap, which is where the video comes from.

Meanwhile TDC's spin doctors have been rotating at 20,000rpm to bring you the news that Ramsgate has been granted £161K of eurofunding 'to build on the success of this increasingly busy port'. Well, that's what it says in the Maritime Journal, and who am I to disagree?!!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leave poor Lee Harvey alone! "Its all his fault", shout TDC, Shortly before it is released he is no longer working for TDC (when does that review become public?)! Its not his fault. Why couldn't the good Doctor have made a decision? Was it not discussed before? Unbelievably shocking behaviour.

The bottom line is, TDC needs to fundamentally change. Starting with the good doctor. When will responsibility actually be taken?

Anonymous said...

How smooth, sad, yet brilliantly executed was that!

Anonymous said...

Are they all out to lunch?

Anonymous said...

Its rather sad when reading the embargoed request for a public interest report for the debacle of the ferry-gate scandal, i would think that the public would be calling the watered down report as a Pubic Interest Report!

Anonymous said...

Well the following three paragraphs provide more laughs and are taken from the Maritime Journal 12 Sept 2013. They relate to a conversation with the Ramsgate Harbour Master Mr Brown who claimed the Port of Ramsgate’s time had come again:-

Quote:
But he also points out that it’s a matter of ‘location, location’, and Mr Brown believes that the new North Sea and Baltic Emissions Control Area (ECA) will have an impact on cargo flows. This is because the cost of the low-sulphur fuel that’s soon to be mandatory around the UK and the associated European coastline will impact port choices.
“Scrubbers are expensive, and simply not a viable option for many vessels and the cost of the ECA compliant fuel, which has to have a sulphur content of less than 0.1%, could easily be over three times what the fuel costs now, he says. “It all means that operators interested in a continental link will be looking for the shortest route possible.”
Enter Ramsgate, with its place on the tip of the UK’s westernmost point, which gives it connections to the continent comparable to Dover, without, as Mr Brown puts it, “the necessity for entering the M20 motorway stack”. It also has good rail links alongside the roads.”

Unquote

First
“operators interested in a continental link will be looking for the shortest route possible – Enter Ramsgate..” Err! The shortest possible route is via Dover, hence millions of traffic movements per year compared to Ramsgate’s nil. Plus you can get an economically viable sized ship into their properly dredged port.

Second
“ Enter Ramsgate, with its place on the tip of the UK’s westernmost point” Err! We’re the tip of Kent not f’ing Rockall or St Kilda.
The message from all this is don’t get on a ship mastered by “experts”.

Readit said...

Scrubbers are not expensive in Ramsgate, couple of lagers, a packet of chips and take your pick.

Anonymous said...

Johnny H

I have written another gag.

"TDC have appointed the overseas branch of their joint Witherspoons auditors to advise on salvage of a vessel Harvey should have impounded.

Turkish Deloitte"


Too much build up do you think ?


Anonymous said...

Johnny H again

"Harvey was sent to recover a ferry in Turkey. And thought he was told he would have to gob off at the yard foreman.

He reported to TDC later that he was directed to Go Lip Ali."

Too much build up do you think ?

Anonymous said...

and dont forget 3.16pm the third laugh you missed

"Scrubbers are expensive", yeah tell me about it.

Anonymous said...

Somebody give Harvey a mobile phone, dosn't need to be a smart one.

Readit said...

What amazes me is that MV rustbuckets Gardenia and Larkspur were sold as going concerns whilst MV sort of respectable Spirit of Ostend, crashes the Knackers yard.

Is Hoivay spending his severance at a Turkish resort? Or perhaps the Slovanian crew are collecting their wages.

Anonymous said...

why couldn't we seize the ship when it was in Tilbury?

Anonymous said...

The auditors report on TDC's handling of Ferrygate has now been published.
The council did nothing unlawful -

"but auditors said the council should have been more open with councillors about what was going on and criticised the lack of record-keeping. They also said the council should have taken outside legal advice."

Looks like the public's perception of TDC as stated in the recent independent report is spot on.






Anonymous said...

Well done in higlighting this again ECR.

Concerning that the councillors have done so little since the secret deals came out.

"Nothing unlawful" says the council report? Completely illegal to hide details from the council and public. And negligent to fail to recover the costs.

Why have sackings not begun?

The same problems at Manston with the councillors and civil servants tacitly agreeing to cover things up on the pollution levels and millions of fines.

Anonymous said...

Just to knock this on the head, they could not seize the ship anywhere because it was not owned by TEF but by P & O who leased it to TEF. Had TDC seized it they would have been hit by a massive claim from P & O.

Suppose though, that would have given you all something else to blame TDC for and have another could whinge.

Anonymous said...

Everyone blames poor Tim, but it's Holyer who has destroyed the local blogging scene. Why do they allow computer access to senile old men?

Anonymous said...

If its ok for senile old men to sit on the TDC and KCC councils then its ok for them to have access to computers. And when one young whippersnapper comes along to join the councils and even dares to stand for election as an MP the same old senile folk show their age bias.

Anonymous said...

Pollution at Manston I can't comment on as I am not a scientist. Millions in fines seems far fetched. None of the 'out of hours' aircraft are classed as noisy enough to warrant any fines though as has been explained both on here and verbally at the last KIACC meeting. Also they are not scheduled in at those times so can't be fined for that either.

Anonymous said...

Dull Manston fanaticism 8:27: must try harder.

You don't have to be a scientist on air pollution at Manston: just breathe deeply. And the Gazette recorded 4x EU safety levels remember. Hence Infratil (now GLOAG) and KIACC/TDC removing/downplaying the missing monitors.

Planes over the towns are banned so fines would apply. Given the frequency of illegal flights these would easily be millions missing form council funds and the community fund.

Your other points don't make any sense to comment on: how was the KIACC meeting? Are there minutes? When is the next one?

Infratil and Gloag seemed to have removed the complaints process haven't they?

We need a Police investigation not council fudging and coverup.

Anonymous said...

Your skull must be very thick Timmy for nothing goes in. For the final time, it ain't illegal to fly over towns.

Anonymous said...

Another idiotic Tim obsessive. And wrong on overflights as the S106 specifically forbids them at Manston for obvious safety and pollution reasons.

The noise restrictions in the S106 are rather strange as they don't allow for restricting noise at all it seems except possibly for military cargo planes.

And the airport on the water supply or removal of monitors would be funny if it wasn't tragic.

Anonymous said...

Flights are (legally) flying over the town almost daily. If they were "specifically forbidden by the S106" something would have been said and done by now surely?
Therefore, I am assuming nothing is being done wrongly and they will continue. Which is fine by me, they are infrequent either way.

Anonymous said...

11:53 you're being silly. The flights are illegal and forbidden by the S106. You're a Manston fanatic and simply saying they are not without any basis whatsoever. No doubt you will deny the pollution levels.

I agree with you that TDC and the Police should take action. Or indeed the public if neither feel able to uphold the law.

Padlocking Manston's gates and the TDC council chamber and Police station would be a useful start if they cannot regulate a small airfield?

If the flights don't disturb you that's fine for you but they pollute a lot of people unnecessarily and the fines that would pay for your public services are not collected.

Anonymous said...

Quote: "I agree with you that TDC and the Police should take action. Or indeed the public if neither feel able to uphold the law.
"
Why don't YOU do something about it? You're the most vocal and seem convinced you are right in the illegalities..

Anonymous said...

https://www.facebook.com/FRIENDSOFCAVUSBAY/photos/pcb.613912598691519/613912355358210/?type=1&theater

Phot of Ostend Spirit lifeboat 5 in small Turkish resort being converted to a Day Trip boat