Ramsgate - How has it come to this!

I LOVE Ramsgate, I always have since my 1st trips to Broadstairs and here when I was a kid on day trips from London. Beautiful beaches, safe sea, lovely harbour with boats I dreamed of owning when I grew up, pleasurama (or whatever it was called in those days), walking over to the beach, and wondering why we couldn't have one of those little tent/chalets on the promenade! Ice cream, amusments, swimming in the sea, happy happy days. When we moved to Ramsgate, it was like a dream come true, all my holidays on my doorstep!

Oh how quickly it all changed! The Marina pool was already gone, Nero's if not gone, very nearly. I remember watching in disbelief as TDC went about the destruction of Thanet as a destination for holiday makers and day trippers. Pleasurama - burnt, hoverport - lost, port - lost (regained more in spite of TDC than because of it), museums - gone, Grotto - gone, Manston airshow - gone, then back, then destroyed by TDC, Pavilion - gone, shall I go on?

Ramsgate sands as a destination is now a joke. If you have anyone in your party unable to walk the 1/4 mile from the marina car park, you have no chance, assuming you can afford the mugging you will suffer when you pay for a ticket to park! Museum is FINALLY open again, in spite of TDC, how can it possibly take 6 YEARS to negotiate a lease in anything other than TDC world! The outer harbour is constantly silted, giving it a horrible reputation, how much more can the council possibly squander!

There are signs of hope! Harbour Parade has, with no help from TDC, turned itself into a vibrant and interesting destination, and a great place to spend an evening, along with a walk around the harbour. But that's about it! The Pleasurama site is STILL unfinished, partly through the inept handling of the development, partly of the inept handling of the planning issues, partly through the property crash, partly through unreasonable expectations.

This has resulted in a well meaning and spirited group trying to urge the site to be finally dealt with, along with the pavilion, and rightly so! As seems par for the course in Thanet, there isn't really a defined outcome that they want to see, other than they don't like the developer, and they want SOMETHING there!! I support their aims in that the Pavilion and Pleasurama sites must be bought back into use without further delay, but they have attracted some of the usual suspects who always bring discredit to groups such as this.

From amateur "forensic accountants" making abhorrent attacks on people's families (is that appropriate from the director of a company dealing with property rentals for housing associations that it could be argued could benefit from this development not going ahead...) to serial protesters that would only be happy if Thanet returned to the 50's, and was made to stay there! Don't get me wrong, by far the majority of the group are well meaning, bright and passionate about these sites, as am I, as is only right, but a healthy dose of realism is required along with a little bit of expectation management.

There MUST be some joined up thinking, to present a coherent and viable alternative if the group is to be treated with the seriousness it deserves! You cannot on the one hand argue that the site should not be sold too cheaply at a figure around £3.3 million+ as it doesn't represent good value for the tax payer, then in the next post argue that it's best use is as a site for a slide and skate park! That flies in the face of not only reason, but basic economics!

Flooding? There are houses along the 2nd half of Marina Esplanade that seem to have survived with little more than sandbags for as long as I have lived in Thanet, nobody has drowned to my knowledge, just as when the station and Pleasurama were there, no biblical flooding then either! Flooding is simply a nothing argument, put forward by the representative for the guild of bandwagon jumpers councillor Driver, who will support anything he thinks will justify his existence, is there any issue that clown won't jump on to try to gain some column inches!

The same goes for the Pavilion. Turn THE prime beach front site, that is currently up for sale at in excess of £300k and requires in the order of £2million spending to refurb it into a community centre, really is simply a non starter.

Just in those 2 suggestions alone, the idea is that the council turns it's back on income of £3million+, decides to spend another £2million, not withstanding the cost of the Pleasurama skatepark, then to somehow find funding every year to keep both running, with the loss of the no doubt considerable council tax it currently receives from both properties!

Why not combine the 2 sites, and offer them for sale either on a very long lease, or the freehold on completion of any project, so both could be developed as a combined project that could EARN Ramsgate income, rather than a millstone around the necks of taxpayers, demanding funds to keep it going every year?

I TOTALLY support the fight to get something done with both sites, and there are some with some great ideas! The tunnels plan, fantastic, the suggestion that the Pavilion should house somekind of theatre aswell as other commercial enterprises, perfect!

But to remain credible, the arguments against the current plan MUST be joined up, cogent and supportable, plans MUST be viable, not only to build, but to maintain in the medium/long term, and to give any project any chance of success, TDC must have NO involvement in it after planning consent (preferably even at the planning consent stage, but sadly there is no option there) to suggest otherwise is a nice dream, but will always remain just that.

I would urge those that do care about Ramsgate and it's seafront to join the facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/516220578418850/532034363504138/?comment_id=532040903503484&notif_t=group_comment and voice your support.

I will probably have been booted out for not towing the line, but I will continue my best efforts to try to help Thanet in general, and Ramsgate in particular from my blog. Lets remember, the Pleasurama site has been under concrete since it was reclaimed initially as a boatyard before it was a station!