I suppose that having just finished the Boxing Day meal I do
in fact have time to write some sort of blog post, although frankly I have
little idea of what to post about.
Ramsgate and Margate’s two main leisure sites Dreamland and
Pleasurama are still giving problems. In both cases the council managed to get
control of the sites and then relinquish it, which may have been the wrong
thing to do.
Perhaps we would be better off with the council running and
to a greater or lesser degree subsidising some sort of conventional tourist
attraction in both towns. Although to honest I am not really sure how much
fairground and amusement arcade attractions contribute to the tourist economy these
days.
The Manston Airport site issue is still ongoing, with the mixed-use
industrial and residential complex proposed by the current owners still seeming
the most likely outcome. The American real estate company’s plans to turn into
an airfreight hub didn’t really go anywhere much over the last year, nor have
there been any viable contenders for reopening it as a conventional passenger
airport.
Port Ramsgate had a short incarnation as a car import
centre, well mostly a storage car park, which seems to be over now from the
absence of cars, perhaps we will see it being used for events again,
particularly the motorcycle sprint revival.
I recently spoke to the Ramsgate Harbour Slipways
leaseholder and gather that Hornby Hobbies are still hoping to have their
visitor centre there and the working slipway gained a new operator during the
year http://www.burgessmarine.co.uk/slip-way-ramsgate
The main area of local growth still seems to be people
relocating to Thanet, I think this is due to a mixture of better roads, the
fast train and people working more days with their computer from home. The net
result seems to be a slow and steady increase in the number of local residents
with higher incomes.
You only have to look at the picture taken on Ramsgate Sands
today to see why people would prefer living here.
We have had another reasonable trading year in the bookshop,
which I find encouraging.
Of course it’s all very much a case of what can I say about
the local area that is in any sense significant news to anyone.
Anyway here are the old local pictures.
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