Wetherspoons Rank Outsiders

The result of my latest 7 day poll is in - and it's an overwhelming vote against Wetherspoons taking over the Royal Victoria Pavilion here on our lovely Ramsgate front! For the record, here's how you voted:

Question: Which future for the Royal Pavilion?

Wetherspoons Pub: 36% (35 votes)
Market And Community Space: 63% (60 votes)

So that's that, then. We should be getting our foodie market and community space any time soon! Hurrah!!!

Meanwhile, up on the grimmer west side of town, I see that the Project Motorhouse initiative to, er, create a community space in the old Motor Museum has been re-christened by the mandarins over in Margate. Riffling through the 240 pages of guff about 'Key Performance Indicators' and 'Summary Outturn Positions' that's being presented to TDC's cabinet next week, I came across this gem (click on the pic to big it up):

I know that nice, Australian, Dr Who lady who's spearheading Project Motorhouse won't mind me saying that she can be a bit gobby, but 'Project Motormouth' is going too far, I'd say!

Meanwhile a building has collapsed on Ramsgate High Street, not completely of its own accord, it has to be said. Oh well, nothing new there then.

Motor Museum Shifts Into Top Gear

My TV chums at Beeb South East were out filming here in the Millionaires' Playground this morning - it was all part of a story about the old Motor Museum (aka Project Motorhouse, aka West Cliff Hall) which will air on tonight's prog.

Ramsgate celebs Brenda Blethyn (aka The Greatest Living Thanetian) and Janet Fielding (aka former Doctor Who companion Tegan) were on hand to help clear the garden for the cameras ahead of next month's benefit (in, er, Slough), which will feature no fewer that ten Doctor Who companions and at least one actual Doctor Who!

Let's hope they raise enough funds to regenerate (geddit?!??!) this derelict building, which is a key part of our lovely sea front!

Click here to watch on BBC iPlayer (About 18 minutes in. Available until tomorrow evening.)

Do also take a gawp at this short promo the Project Motorhouse people made a couple of years ago...

Flog Your Assets

Shushing back to the Millionaires' Playground in the old Priapus yesterday evening, I almost drove straight on into the harbour as I passed West Cliff Hall (motor museum in old money).

Despite a well organised, well developed and well backed citizen-led plan to return the crumbling pile into a useful space for the people of Ramsgate, the rotters at TDC have gone and bunged it up for auction. And as residential too! What's that all about? A quick tour of the Harman Healy website revealed, er, west cliff 'all.

My spies tell me that the sign's appeared without notice, and despite a promise to consider carefully the proposal to turn it into a community arts space and cafe. A sort of Van Gogh Contemporary but at a fraction of the cost, if you like. Ah, er, now that may explain it. The Cecil Square duffers wouldn't want anything on the south side upstaging their precious, £24m Turnip, would they?

Meanwhile I see the whole of the Gazunder's second page is devoted this week to the World According to Chief Duffer Councillor Baywatch, in which he says he intends to conduct a review of all properties and sites for sale under the council's asset disposal programme. But presumably not this one. 'The lengths that people are prepared to go to to protect these sites may mean that we have misjudged public opinion,' says the Bearded One in a triumph of understatement.

Update: The Mayor of Ramsgate has now said in the comments to this post 'Auction has been suspended pending detail disscussion with interested group.' Phew!

Ramsgate Man Chuffed Off With Hornby

By Isle of Thanet Gazunder Tourism Editor Sandy Gusset

A Ramsgate man has claimed his idea for a Hornby Museum on the isle has been stolen - by Hornby!

The Margate manufacturer opened its doors to visitors this weekend, with millions expected to marvel at the Scalextric cars, Airfix models and toy trains on display.

Now Thanet millionaire and socialite Richard Eastcliff, 29, says he wrote to the firm last year suggesting a Hornby visitor attraction in Ramsgate's former Motor Museum.

'I told their marketing manager it would be a fantastic addition to the island's range of indoor tourism offerings,' said Mr Eastcliff. He added he had even suggested a name - Hornbyland.

Mr Eastcliff says he is now working on an alternative attraction for the disused West Cliff Hall called ThanetWorld. 'It will be an intriguing tribute to Kent's Ramsgate Peninsula,' he said. 'We hope to attract thousands of visitors a week with our displays of hair straightening products, double glazing and bad tattoos.'

Hornby was unavailable for comment.

Richard Eastcliff is 29.

Blast From The Past

Crumbs! It's amazing what you can find trawling through back issues of Adscene! Here's Sandy Beach, just before the 2007 local elections, handing over the keys of Ramsgate's West Cliff Hall (or 'Motor Museum' in old money) with the front page headline: New Life For Motor Museum! According to Sandy, the god-botherers in the picture were going to renovate the building and install a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and pie factory.

That was more than two years ago now. And I haven't noticed anything other than weeds going up at the place. Oh well, the photo served its purpose I suppose - Sandy got re-elected. That's the main thing, eh?

Fart Farm News

Reader Brian writes:

Richard, as you were the only local blogger to accurately report the suspension of the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm construction in October (natch), I thought you might be interested to know that it is now back online. The Swedish energy company Vattenfall, owners of the Kentish Flats Wind Farm off Whitstable have bought the project off CRC the previous owners for a reported £35m.

The employment opportunities for locals will be fairly restricted during the construction stage, as the wind farm construction industry is very specialised, however I can foresee employment opportunities on the marine side, operating the support craft. The Port of Ramsgate will of course benefit by being the base for the support of the marine operations, and where a new berth will be built. There is also an 'Operations and Maintenance' building, to be constructed within the Port of Ramsgate, which it is envisaged that local builders will be given an opportunity to tender for. Further opportunities for local employment will be available for the 'Operation and Maintenance' stage of the project, which has a projected lifespan of 40 years.

It is hoped that the offshore construction will commence in February 2009, and the completion date is now late 2010.

And with my plan to turn West Cliff Hall (the Motor Museum in old money) into an exciting environmental adventure centre, the future of Ramsgate as 'the windy city' seems assured. Hurrah!

Wind Up

Blimey! What an appropriately gusty day for the government to give the go-ahead for another 7,000,000 offshore fart farms. Mind you, it'll give my campaign to promote Ramsgate as The Windy City a boost. And add weight to my plans to convert our crumbling West Cliff Hall into a world class research centre for wind.

As some older Ramsgatonians may know, we're no strangers to wind here in the Millionaires' Playground. And to prove the point, Samantha has sent me another of her splendid clips. This illuminated windmill apparently used to stand somewhere on Ramsgate's West Cliff:

Spa A Thought

The results of my latest 7 day poll are in, and there's a pretty conclusive majority of you who'd like to see our crumbling West Cliff Hall transformed into a Victorian themed health spa. Here are the results:

Question: What would be the best use for Ramsgate's West Cliff Hall (formerly the Motor Museum)?

Victorian Health Spa: 45% (25 votes)
Community Centre: 34% (19 votes)
Wind Farm Visitor Centre: 10% (6 votes)
Building Material: 10% (6 votes)
Fish Restaurant: 7% (4 votes)
Luxury Flats: 1% (1 vote)

If you recall, the Victorian health spa is the brainchild of one of my readers, Sarah Benfield, who says she put a detailed business proposal before Thanet Council in September and has heard nothing since. Rumour is that the council would prefer a fish restaurant run by one of our local hostelry millionaires, or the ubiquitous luxury apartments.

Sarah writes: As of yet still no news from anyone.....will try one last round of letters and then step it up... I wont wait for ever.

Well Sarah, good luck with the project, and if you need a celebrity to cut the ribbon you know where to come. Just in case, I've taken the precaution of picking myself out a rather fetching little number:

See you at the spa!

Hall Poll

I've popped another of my seven day polls in the sidebar. This time I'm asking what you think would be the best use for our crumbling West Cliff Hall. You can vote for multiple options if you like.

Meanwhile I see Oasis Hong Kong Airlines have been replaced on the oozalum flightpath this morning by MK. According to their website, MK's 747 is at least 16 years old, so think of it as a 400 tonne, H reg Ford Fiesta roaring over your bonce.

Oh well, look on the bright side. At least it's a change of scenery!

The Hall Truth?

Ho ho! I never tire of running this photo from the front page of Adscene back in April. There's Our Sandy handing over the keys of Ramsgate's crumbling West Cliff Hall to the Global Generation Church, just in time to make happy regeneration headlines before the local council elections.

Not long after, TDC's Chief Executive Richard Samuel issued a statement rubbishing the story [snigger]. So, what's happened to the clapped out Motor Museum since? Well, I myself have put up a couple of very worthwhile ideas, namely converting it into a Van Gogh Contemporary, or using it as a Centre of Excellence for Wind.

But now I've received an email from a Sarah Benfield, who says she put a detailed business proposal before the council last month. Her idea is to restore the place to its former glory and put it to work as a Victorian themed health spa. A splendidly imaginative idea, Sarah! Trouble is, other thoughts appear to be foremost in the minds of the powers-that-be. Sarah says: 'We've heard nothing and are being ignored.'

Rumour is that the council would prefer the usual solution, luxury apartments. An easy fix, given the building isn't listed and probably won't be. Another rumour involves one of our local hostelry magnates converting it into a fish restaurant. Let's hope he's got an effing good chef on board, otherwise it'll be less Gordon Ramsgate and more like Gordon Bennett!

To follow the sorry recent history of this fine building, just click on the tag below.

Hidden Treasures

Have you ever wondered what it's like inside the Cliftonville Lido these days, or that rundown restaurant on Ramsgate's seafront car parkarama? This website will reveal all!

Update: Along with a salutary lesson in the parlous state our local council has allowed the West Cliff Hall to fall into.

Windy City

Remember this headline from a few weeks back? Just before the local elections, our glorious leader Sandy Beach was photographed handing over the keys of our dilapidated West Cliff Hall to the Global Generation Church, who were going to renovate the building and install a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and pie factory.

Not much has happened since then, apart from the story being pretty much nixed by our council's chief executive. So what to do with the place?

Well, I've had a brainwave (I get them constantly but this is a good 'un). With the Millionaires' Playground soon to be the centre of construction for the massive wind farm that's going to blight sea views for the Arsonists and Dickensians, why not convert the hall into a visitor centre? We could even get the old West Cliff lift running again, so people could nip down and have a shufti around the port.

There's plenty of interest in fart farms, what with the climate being turned up to 11, and companies like E.ON getting in on the act with that TV ad. Who knows, Ramsgate could become a huge, ecological tourist attraction, just like that greenhouse in Cornwall. So, anyone for Ramsgate - The Windy City? Of course, with the emphasis on wind, this would have to be one of the prime exhibits:

West Cliff 'All Use To Us

The future of West Cliff Hall, Ramsgate's former Motor Museum, is still in doubt.

Adscene trumpeted that the listed building had been given a 'new lease of life' on its front page last Thursday, complete with a photo of Our Sandy handing over the keys to representatives of the Global Generation Church, who propose running it as a community centre.

But according to a statement from the council's chief executive yesterday, a lease has yet to be signed, and the church group is only being considered as a 'short term', 'temporary' lessee. The statement adds: 'It appears that Global Generation Church invited Cllr Ezekiel to meet them at the property this week when the photograph was taken. Global were not authorised to have taken this action.'

You can read the full text of the statement on Councillor Green's Eastcliff Matters blog.

According to Global Generation's website the group was reformed in 2001 after some soul searching:

Global Generation took a more detailed look at why God would want a church in Ramsgate, out of this came the realisation that we wanted to be known as a Gift To The Town.

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place, but a much better gift to the town would be a long term solution to restore this wonderful building and bring it back to life for the benefit of all Ramsgatonians.

If you want to see just how neglected the exterior is, here's Philip Page's report on the state of the arts in Ramsgate from ECR TV a few weeks back:

Prayers Come True For West Cliff Hall

Hallelujah! According to today's Thanet Sadscene, Ramsgate's crumbling West Cliff Hall has finally been leased. The Global Generation Church will be running it as a community venue, and is going to spend the next year renovating the dilapidated building. They're promising a juice bar, cream teas, rock school and a pie factory (bit ambitious that last one if you ask me).

Council leader Sandy Beach, who's pictured on the front of the paper handing over the keys, must be praising the lord that yet another eyesore has been sorted in time for the local elections.

Curses! First the library rebuild, now this. No sooner do I knock something than it gets put right!

Ramsgate - A Pain In The Arts

Mr Ceaucescu (no relation) has been out and about again with his new best friend from Margate, arts commentator Philip Page (aka Arts and Elbows).

This time they've made a short film for ECR TV about the state of the arts in Ramsgate, and pretty bleak it looks too.

I don't know. You hire a Romanian, you expect the Cheeky Girls! Not this arty twaddle!

West Cliff Story

So I thought I'd tootle along to the West Cliff to see what all the fuss was about (see previous post). Talk about timing! The day after the kind of exposure on primetime national TV that most PR people would cream their jocks over, the Grange is closed to visitors.

That got the old grey matter going. What else on Ramsgate's West Cliff could I do to while away the time? Ah yes, the Motor Museum.


Er, no. Not unless I'd brought my hard hat. This is what West Clilff Hall used to look like in its heyday:


Gallery IOTA, maybe? Nope, in a fine example of arts regeneration, that's had to make way for a kiddies playgroup.

Oh well, the pub it is then!

PS: Apologies to Vince Runacre for shamelessly purloining the idea behind his superb Old Ramsgate (then and now) blog. There's some terrific stuff there, so do pay him a visit.