Weather News

Whilst us Thanetians haven't yet been affected by the polar vortex that's clagged up most of North America, I'm not taking any chances, and have kitted out the old jalopy accordingly. Boris the Bulgarian, round at that corner garage, did a very nice job - at a very nice price!

We have, nonetheless, been experiencing the odd blow down here on Kent's Ramsgate Peninsula. According to the excellent FixMyStreet website (from which I have purloined the photo below) the hoarding around the Granville Eyesore here on the trendy East Cliff has succumbed, and is partially blocking a road...

I guess the owner, a Mr Jason Hough who lives in Surrey and bought the site for a paltry £165K, couldn't really be expected to give much of the proverbial tinker's, especially given that his recent planning application to build 1,235,987 flats there was rejected. I must say, though, that with last year's tragedy over at the Ramsgate flour mill still fresh in people's minds, and with the parlous state of the deep earthworks on the site, he's taking a bit of a gamble leaving it exposed like that.

Meanwhile I see the Ramsgate Society is offering a £100 reward for information leading to the conviction the knuckle-dragging vandals who desecrated the restored shelters on the front. Good luck with that!

And the Krug is on ice for the end of next month, when the deadline for those other knuckle-dragging vandals, SFP Ventures, to get on with their non-development at the Pleasurama Eyesore runs out. Our beloved council appears to have grown a full set of cajones this time, the indications being they will tell SFP to shove it where the sun doesn't shine (Margate? - Ed.). About time too.

My chum Councillor Motormouth has already congratulated the 1000+ Friends of Ramsgate Seafront group, which has, er, 1000-handedly carried out a high profile Facebook campaign to rid the town of this more-than-decade-long blot on our seascape. That seems a trifle premature, but what the heck! Well done chaps!

Now, what are we going to put in its place? Heritage theme park? Van Gogh Museum? Ginormagantuan Wetherspoons? Site-specific barker's nest installation? Answers below please.

Pip pip!

Update Jan 2014: The hoarding has now been repaired - hurrah!
Update Feb 2014: But now the rest of it has blown down - boo!

Cardyology

Cripes! I see that there's a rumour going round that Cardy Construction, the company that has been booked to build the Royal Sands (aka Titanic) development on the Pleasurama eyesore here in Ramsgate, is in a, um, spot of bother!

This gossip, and (please note Mr Cardy's lawyers) I am definitely NOT saying there's anything in it, was probably sparked by a charge and a subsequent winding-up order that was lodged against them last month, and appears to have been disseminated via Facebook and the local blogs, and other, Broadstairs-based, print sources.

Now, whilst someone has obviously been upset enough, and had their payments delayed for long enough, to go to the trouble of trying to wind the company up, that is definitely not the same as saying the company is on the skids, or that it is about to g* b*** (asterisks there to protect the innocent). In fact it's a tactic that's often used as leverage to get a delayed payment out of a firm when relations have turned a bit sour, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the ongoing viability of the company. I know this, because my accountant Cyril told me.

Not only that, but according to my information, the striking off letter was suspended three days later, suggesting that the dispute was resolved pretty quickly once it had escalated to that stage.

I must say, Cardy's last set of accounts, for 2012, look pretty healthy. But then the construction industry has been going through hard times, and who knows what their next set of figures will look like. I would cough up the twelve quid for a credit report on them, but Cyril says he needs that for his bus journey home.

Meanwhile there's another meeting at Duffer HQ in Cecil Square tonight to discuss the whole Pleasurama mess. I wonder if Deputy Leader Poole The Fool will acquit himself better tonight than he did here in Ramsgate earlier this week? My guess is 'no'.

Ferrygate - Separated At Birth?

 

Reader Samantha writes:

Has anyone else noticed the striking similarity between the £3m Thanet Council was hoping to get for the freehold of the Pleasurama eyesore in Ramsgate, and the £3.3m it has lost in the Ferrygate debacle? Talk about funny money!

Haha! Well, Samantha, if you are saying that the council's book-cooker woke up on Monday morning this week, saw that the three million sovs would be unforthcoming from the 'developers' of the Pleasurama site, and realised that, as the £3.3m ferry hole it was intended to fill would therefore remain unplugged she had better fess up, you may have a point.

I'll get my accountant Cyril on it straight away!

Separated At Birth?

Reader Samantha writes:

Has anyone noticed the similarity between The Great Wall of Ramsgate, as pictured in a new paperback called The English Seaside by Peter Williams, and published by English Heritage...

And this, The Great Wall of Ramsgate as depicted in your blog on April 27....

Are they by any chance related?

Hmmm. Interesting question, Samantha. I see English Heritage states in its blurb for the book: 'For too long the English seaside has suffered from a bad press, accused of being tatty, cold, grey and windswept, but Peter Williams finds the seaside to be warm-hearted and welcoming, about having fun, riding the rides and seeing the shows.'

Well, the rides went long ago, the cold and grey has got colder and greyer, the tatty tattier, and as for the being windswept, I see we're being warned about stonking great gusts tomorrow! Pip pip!

The Average Wall Of Ramsgate

Flaming eyesores! The Great Wall of Ramsgate seems to have gone the same way as TransEuropa Ferries!

Has G O'D smitten (smited?) the graffitied artworks down in a fit of pique? Has Tiny Terry Painter peevishly removed them because the people of Ramsgate have had the audacity to rise up and thwart his plans to blight our lovely seafront with concrete sticks? Or have the developers, SFP, done the decent thing, fallen on their Swiss sword, and de-rigged them in preparation for the removal of the hoarding and landscaping the site as a park? (I think you've overdone it on the Tramadol again - Ed.)

Whatever the reason, isn't it about time someone organised a Swampy-style, tunnel-building, Occupy eco-war and reclaimed the site for us Ramsgatonians??? To the yurts everyone!!!!!

Trains And Boats And Planes

Trundling around the old Millionaires' Playground earlier, I thought I'd snap a few off. So here goes. I'll start with the trains...

Well, you would have seen trains there 100 years ago, as it used to be our lovely Ramsgate Sands station. Now it's a delightful row of, er, concrete sticks, part of the ever-to-be-constructed Royal Sands (aka Titanic) development of luxury dwellings, sanctioned by The Duffers. If you pop over to the developer's website, and have a spare two grand handy, you can put down a non-refundable deposit and look at an artist's impression of your splendidly appointed apartment. Which is probably all you'll ever get for your money.

Next some boats...

Oh dear! There don't seem to be any there either! In fact, as I've said before, I haven't seen a TransEuropa ferry in ages. Never mind, there are still some boats in the marina...

Then to cap it all, this thing flew over...

Hey-ho! Just another day in paradise!

Bush Tucker Trial

While you lot freeze your knackers and/or clackers off, I'm suffering in my jocks in 40+! I've moved up country to Jimmy Wicket's holiday home (he's taken a bit of a shine to me), where I'm undergoing ordeal by barbie and esky, which involves being force fed juicy steak, yummy prawns and slabs of ice cool stubbies. At this rate, I'm very tempted to take up Jimmy's offer of becoming his stooge and making Oz my permanent place of abode.

Mind you, the heat brings its own risks. The whole state is dry as a nun's nasty, and everywhere is on bushfire alert. When you consider that almost 200 people lost their lives due to bushfires in this area a year ago, it puts a few Poms whingeing about a bit of snow, some disrupted trains and a lack of grit into perspective, doesn't it?

I'll leave you with that thought, and to show I'm not totally out of touch with the latest happenings in the Cannes of Kent, here's a couple of shots a reader sent me of how the Pleasurama/Royal Sands/Titanic development is coming along!

Sign Wave

Crumbs! Tooling back from a cheese and wine evening in Whitstable last night, I noticed the Dreamland signs at the end of the Thanet Way had finally disappeared. And only three years after the pleasure park itself became defunct!

A new brown sign (how appropriate) now directs drivers to the varying delights of 'Thanet'. Ramsgate's there, although I'm wondering how long it'll take the local wags to scrawl a 'W' next to the anchor underneath. Other posts were awaiting signage, presumably to the Ike and Tina Turner Centre, and Chas 'n' Dave Margate International Airport. Or perhaps we'll be getting the long awaited 'Thanet - Home of Chinese Globalisation'!

Royal Sandcastles In The Sky

Time to move on and put those Tesco bags in the cupboard, methinks. I'm sure you've all had an elegant sufficiency of ChinaGatewayGate.

Now as you know I'm not usually one for the red tops, but I couldn't help noticing that the front page of yesterday's Thanet Times splashed the news that people had been camping overnight to get a slice of Tiny Terry's Royal Sands development. You know, down here on Ramsgate front where Pleasurama burnt down. Well, I can imagine the DFLs haven't heard about the knackered old jumbos that will be circling over their penthouses, but apparently even Thanetians have been piling in. No doubt the lack of heavy training flights over the weekend won't have done Terry's open day any harm.

And speaking of knackered old jumbos, regular contributor Steve tells me he's had a call from those nice people at British Airways after his, er, inquiry following one of their 737s going round 40 times the other weekend. Apparently we can expect to hear more from them, as they've stopped training in France due to a plan to cut down their carbon footprint (= can't afford the fuel). Hey ho. Do Harrods stock earplugs?

Island In The Sun

Where else could you trot out on this nice, sunny morning for your cliff top walk and witness a millionaire basking in the sun at 9am?

This particular captain of industry was relaxing on the cliff top in the comfort of his blue and white sun lounger, soaking up the rays, and enjoying a tin of high class Stella Artois, which, as I'm sure you've gathered from their advertising, is a tincture so expensive that it really is only affordable by the rich and famous.

Proof yet again that the Cannes of Kent is attracting quality tourism, even this late in the season!

Tell Tale Signs

Yesterday's appeal for signs spotted by readers on their travels has really opened up the sluice gates. Mr X sent in the above, which, although it's not officially recognised by the Commission on International Signs and Symbols, is nonetheless pretty clear in its meaning. Mr X also contributed this:

Perhaps if we were to adopt a similarly direct approach with our signage here on Kent's Ramsgate Peninsula, it might prove more effective?

Pleasuredrama

Sniffing around the blog of our local doctor/councillor councillor/doctor last night, I spied a piece of interesting news.

Of course, I wouldn't ordinarily have been lurking there had it not been for a tip-off from one of my vast band of loyal readers that Dr Simes had been bitten by the same dog twice in the space of a few months whilst riding his bicycle. The hound goes by the name of 'Roly', and I was intending to point out that, despite past animosities between Lord Simes and myself, I only possess a cat, Bertie the Burmese, and that training him to do anything more than sleep all day would test the patience of a saint.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered a comment from our local bibliobloke and dogged Pleasurama digger Michael Child. In it he reveals that he has spoken to the architect of the long-awaited Pleasurama development here in Ramsgate, who has told him that our crumbling cliff will be repaired by the council this autumn, in preparation for the start of construction on the site in spring 2008 (a year behind schedule, but never mind).

Quite why he decided to break this important Ramsgate news in such an obscure way, on a little-read blog based in the tawdry Tory north of the island, is beyond me. Still, I suppose we only have the word of the architect, and it was an architect who told us the Turnip Centre would be opening in 2004.

Bandstand Bash

The Eastcliff Residents Association are holding a bit of a do tomorrow afternoon at our brand new, super-duper, out-of-this-world bandstand. Let's hope the weather holds out for it.

Turps and terpsichory are promised, although dancing will presumably be limited to tripping only the very lightest of fantastics, given the state of our crumbling cliff.

Sign Of The Times

Terracotta Glenn, who sent in his plan for larger-than-lifesize Vikings along the seafront in my Richard Eastcliff Award For A Grand Design For Ramsgate competition, has sent me another photograph from his China trip. He writes:

If Ramsgate is to be taken seriously as an attraction for the rich and geriatric, this picture shows what you really need. A man of your, er, standing in the community must surely have noticed.

I have noticed, Glenn, and more and more frequently as I head towards my, er, 30th year.