Gone With The Wind?

A busy week on the news front, what with work getting underway at the Ramsgate tunnels in preparation for a June opening, people pissing on war memorials, £10 rail tickets from London to Margate (but not Ramsgate and Broadstairs), and now the news that The Duffers are finally giving the 'developers' of the Pleasurama Eyesore the old heave-ho!

Lord, that I should have lived long enough to see that!

But strangely no local media outlet appears to have given a damn about yesterday's announcement by London Array that they have cancelled the second stage of their Thames Estuary wind farm - because of concern over the potential impact on the red-throated diver. That's a bird, apparently. Which the cynical might say has provided a convenient excuse to scrap something London Array didn't want to do in the first place.

The news that a potential 56 further turbines will not now be added to the 175 already blighting sea views from Margate will probably be received as a blessing by NorthEnders, but here on the sunny south side there could be some wailing and gnashing of teeth, given that London Array are based in the Port of Ramsgate.

Which means despite all the recent positive spin by our beloved council about a great future for the port and harbour based on leisure craft, a £7m loan for a cargo quay, and the wind farm business, we're currently down 50+ turbines, as well as a cross-channel operator. And, er, can we have our 3.4m quid back?

Oh well. Never mind. Something's bound to come up. After all, tomorrow's another day!

Floaters

Eurgh! Reader Ben has sent me this photo he took today of our lovely Royal Harbour, and writes:

I couldn't help noticing that the Ramsgate inner harbour was filthy today. There was a large oily slick of floating rubbish - not far from the disused King George IV Maritime Heritage Pontoons. This is hardly a good advert for Ramsgate's tourist industry. TDC used to employ a chap who would row out and scoop it up, I guess this is no longer the case.

Indeed. And with a Eurofunded project under way to tart the harbour up, you'd think they'd be taking a bit more care of it! Oh, but then they'd probably want more Eurofunding to do that.

Speaking of poop decks, word has reached the old ECR shell-likes that our former dredger, fittingly enough called Ramsgate, has turned up in Norway after being flogged off by The Duffers for £65,000 a few years ago. That was apparently part of a plan by Cllr Latchford (Who he? - Ed.) to bring in new, super-duper dredging arrangements. Ramsgate has been refurbed and is still apparently doing sterling work for the Norgies, so it does make you wonder whether TDC could have done the same and saved a few bob on the hundreds of thousands they've subsequently spent on getting contractors to do the job.

Hang on a mo. I think I may have spotted some of my council tax floating in that slick pic!