Imagine what the place would be like with a proper, joined up seafront that had attractions on the Pleasurama eyesore, a thriving Pavilion and a revamped Motor Museum. Brighton wouldn't get a look-in!
PS: I forgot to big up the folks involved in Ramsgate's Rainbow Steps (Augusta Stairs in old money), which are also a part of the buzz that is bringing the Millionaires' Playground back to life. Trebles all round!!
26 comments:
Different clientele in Brighton. It is all a bit saucy and camp over there rather than the bucket & spade, fish & chips crowd that descend on Ramsgate.
Would be even better with a port, an airport and a parkway station.
Unfortunately you are talking about pie in the sky there, 2.26pm. Not to mention a pasty in the sea, and a jam roly-poly on the rails.
Ramsgate has got a port but the days of it being used/needed for commercial purposes are long gone unless of course you find animal exports acceptable. What is strange is that at the end of 2013, TDC has been granted more than £161,000 in EU funding to improve facilities at the Port. Tell that to all the anti EU UKIP supporters in Thanet.
Maybe the cash would be better used developing the port for leisure use.
I agree a port will be good, parkway and airfield for enthusiast not required at all.
I see that John Worrow has now come out in support of a CPO for Manston on twitter, so that's his election chances gone!
The fundamental problem with a CPO is that TDC hasn't got any money. The CPO for Dreamland is still dragging on for this very reason. I'm assuming one of the clever bods promoting the idea of a CPO will have an answer for this. The idea that they will lease it back to River Oak doesn't hold water because you still have to come up with the readies to buy it in the first place. And the idea that River Oak can lend TDC the money doesn't work either; because then, you are just issuing a CPO so that you can hand the site over to your preferred property developer. No court is going to uphold that one.
No, I think it's time for the CPO fans to explain where the money is supposed to come from. If they can't do this, they need to stop shouting about a CPO. Money doesn't grow on trees.
John Worrow's election chances were gone as soon as he crossed the floor 6 months after election as a Conservative, as far as I'm concerned. He voted against night flights back in the day and is now chairman of an influential committee on TDC. I seem to remember that he announced that he was resigning, then didn't. And of course he is on a pretty safe bet since a CPO is unlikely to succeed but is a popular idea with the public/voters!!!!!
See dermot o leary now supports Manstons field, not being at all synical, but has he joining the save our field, and if I cant watch planes there then I don't want anything there I am a spoilt undisciplined join the no boris island campaigners, may have something to do with him being married to a TDCs Tory Cllrs Daughter.
Don't suppose it has anything to do with that though, does it?
MANSTON HAD TO GO, NO CPO.
Does Manston have to go? In the past, Manston suffered from a lack of goodwill emanating from the local authority to the point the owners decided they had reached the end of the line.
Ann Gloag is facing a far more hostile public, including a united front from the local politicians, so maybe she will run out of enthusiasm. After all, the field, even closed, is still costing her thousands a day with absolutely no income.
All it will take is someone with genuine funds to make her a realistic offer and she will also cut and run. The fat lady has still to sing on this one.
What does "synical" mean?
Bit off topic.....but does anyone actually know what supports Thanet's economy?
I assume the state, via benefits payments and grants, is a major contributor.
I also suspect the financial sector, via private pensions, is another.
The property market probably pulls in external cash as well.
After that....I'm struggling a bit. But it seems to me that knowing where the money comes from would help to generate informed discussion on how Thanet can move forward.
I don't have planes screaming over my roof anymore so no doubt my health and property value have benefitted from Manston closing...mine and a lot of other people's....
9:49 ... Manston didn't suffer from a "lack of goodwill". It failed because the population of Thanet decided either not to fly at all, or if it did fly, it chose to fly from somewhere else.
10.57
An excellent question. Pfizer has gone but TDC Micawber style ignored signs, this would happen, for over a decade.
When Steve Ladyman was a cllr I think he was involved in directing 7 million of grant aid at a manufacturer who was (or is now) under Counter Terrorism UNit inquiries.
To her credit Iris Johnson is now looking at bringing TDC into line by introducing a policy for compliance with statutory reporting duties of Terrorism Law.
But for twenty seven years, to my knowledge, potential investors have looked at security implications of employing in Thanet given the area police and council were not even frameworked in law to comply with anti terrorism law.
The blogs over the last decade with so many one line wisdom merchants decrying any mention of the area history as "Conspiracy theory". They ain't done Thanet any favours. People defining the area as know all column dodgers.
Peter Checksfield (speaking of one line wisdom merchants) was recently asked if he thought retired senior detectives took up photography as a job ? Inquiry agents sitting in cold cars with a flask of coffee to keep surveillance on errant spouses ?
Or does he think they work office hours for a lot more money advising investors on security and crime implications ?
For example the arresting officer of the UDA hit men and drugs pushers at their Margate base 1992 he went on to found an inquiry company and is suspected to have employed a senior member of a bodyguard live fire training group set up at Deal Barracks 75 to 83.
Since this was before a local landowner went over police heads in 95 and closed the notorious 6th Thanet Gun range guess who already knew about UDA, about paramilitary activity and about mercenary preparations in Thanet ?
Investors pay for such information.
For example they might not trust GMBU in Thanet or any one associated with Thanet Trades Union Council. They might not trust any Thanet tory. They may not like the area being the HQ for the IRA supportive League of St George.
<a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/your_duties_of_overseeing_commis/new> And the Ch 4 documentary has certainly made potential investors wary of the folly that stalks Kent especially in and around its police and councils </a>
In case you don't know there are estimates of how many people have reportable knowledge in Thanet and who are breaking the law by being silent. And the figure is close to 1,000 including friends and customers of comment deleter Michael Child. Including tory colleagues of the gobby blogger Simon Moores.
It isn't just the benefits dependent culture that dragged the area down and made it so unattractive to better class employers/investors.
How very sad, excellent titled blog about the tunnels ends up about the airport again........sad but typical......get back on topic maybe someone would like to mention the tunnels and how their experience was????
11:16 you still have the residual pollution and cleanup cost affecting health and property though...
Who is in charge of Manston at TDC now? Is the Airport Committee still going? What is Iris doing?
I agree. It's all gorn a bit skew-whiff. Let's get back to the tunnels, shall we? Or at least stick to tourism and attractions in Ramsgate and the rest of Thanet.
Back too the tunnels.
I spent a few years of my young life living in what some would call the rat hole but to us kids it was a haven to escape the fear of bombing and aerial attacks I remember the smell of the chemical toilets the noise of people coming and going all night sometimes shouts to say the lifeboat crew were needed sometimes the singing but always the nagging fear your home would be a heap of rubble when you emerged in the morning carrying armfuls of bedding because it was too damp to leave it down there thanks to that old tunnel we survived and I look forward to a quiet stroll through there to contemplate how lucky I am.
Stargazer.
Anon at 1:03 pm seems to have escaped from the tunnels, but I will say no more in case they park outside my house with electronic equipment capable of interrogating the most powerful Wi Fi modems.
Worth mentioning the airport was/is touted for tourism. Remember the faff about KLM a year ago? The reality is though that Manston was/would be a huge cargo airport (Chinagate and EKO) - which would have reduced tourism.
9:49 really is incorrect with TDC not providing "goodwill" to the airport. Quite the opposite: too lax in regulating and fining illegal and off-course aircraft that have polluted the area and ultimately destroyed the airport.
The tunnels: terrific not but not a massive seaside destination. Iris has to prove herself in the next 3 months with Pleasurama and Dreamland. I don't think she can do it and will need to be sacked.
I haven't been to the tunnels yet but hope to, this is real history, to imagine how people gathered and remained for hours or even perhaps a day or night until danger passed once more, I cannot imagine what that must of been like, and I don't know how I would cope. they must have been brave people, the tunnels are open now, bring on the motor museum completion, flats on the sea front, and the pub on the front, Ramsgate is beginning to thrive once more, say it quietly though in case TDC decide to delegate more money to Margate, as if it has not had enough and its still a hovel.
MANSTON HAD TO GO, NO CPO.
Of course tourism brings in a lot of spends from all over the country. But we would not know, as 700 people at TDC aren't out asking day trippers questionnaires or leaving forms at hotels to gather such details.
A simple why did you come here, where from, what did you like/dislike and you build some knowledge, something TDC is severely lacking.
The other big money earner is commuters. Jobs that don't exist in Thanet bring in a fortune. Each season ticket to London represents approx £10k gross income. How much else is being earned and spent on our fair isle by people who live here work elsewhere?
It's called 'Manston Dreaming' - see YouTube.
PMSL!
What's all this sudden talk about Manston and airports. I'm amazed that no one has mentioed this before.
700 people at TDC is a tax cost: can fewer do it better? Why would you need more than say 200 staff for 3 small towns?
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