Granville Designs

Yikes! I see Surrey-based developer Jason Hough has re-submitted his plans to build 346,907 flats with three parking spaces on the Granville Eyesore, here on Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff!

Actually there's not much more I can say about this that our local Bibliobloke hasn't already said on his excellent thanetonline blog. Click here for that.

Jason and the architects, Clague of Canterbury, are still proposing a hideous, 80s-style monstrosity, much taller than any previous structure that was on the site, along the lines of the one that was wholeheartedly rejected last year. The only difference appears to be that he has counted 100 parking spaces in the area, thus justifying the mingey parking allocation on his site. All I can say is that he must have counted them on a wet Wednesday in December, not in the blazing heat of a sunny Saturday in August, with a scout concert going on at the Granville Theatre.

If Kent Highways, who were one of the main objectors last time, fall for that, then they must be dafter than we all give them credit for.

The other sticking point last time was Jason's refusal to contribute a sum of some £50K to the community chest, to cover the extra strain on local services and infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads, etc) which such a huge development would inevitably place. Poor Jason said it would mean his development wasn't financially viable. To which the correct response is: 'So you want to subsidise your development with public money, eh?'

Whilst all the focus is rightly on the Pleasurama Eyesore down on the front, the Granville Eyesore eyesore pre-dates Pleasurama by some 15 years. That's right. More than 30 years an eyesore. Much of the hoarding around the site is now dilapidated, and the entire area looks a mess.

So I'm not agin development as such. But please Jason, come up with some plans that everyone can get behind!!

Update: The deadline for comments on this proposal is 14 March 2014, not 4 March (which is what the silly council duffers put on their letter to local residents). You can email them at planning.services@thanet.gov.uk

Huge Erection At Very Short Notice

Reader Samantha writes:

I see the planning application for the massive development behind the Granville on Ramsgate's East Cliff is due to go before TDC's Planning Committee this Wednesday.

To put this in perspective, if this development goes ahead it will be about a third of the size of the proposed Pleasurama development on the front.

As a local resident who will be enormously affected by this proposal to build 38 flats with only 19 parking spaces, I feel that the council should really have given me more notice than a second class letter, posted last Monday, to arrange to speak before the Committee by today.

I have already objected to this development on the grounds of the materials used, the height, and the woeful lack of parking space. I understand that the plans have been altered since they were first submitted in January, and the number of parking spaces reduced even further! Neither the developer's architect - Clague of Canterbury, who I emailed months ago - nor the council, have updated me on any of these issues, despite being able to hold 'public meetings' with the current residents of Granville House and Granville Court.

I agree that the site, which has been derelict for 30 years, needs something done, but if it isn't done in close consultation with the people who live around it, the chances are that we will have yet another Pleasurama debacle on our hands. Yet again, it seems that local democracy and accountability is singularly lacking in Thanet.

Hmmm. Well, Samantha, that certainly is a poke in the, er, eyesore for Thanet Council!

Update: The application was rejected by the planning committee. A victory for common sense, methinks!