See Ramsgate First Manifesto for 2009

Ramsgate First successfully Petitioned for a Ramsgate Town Council in 2006. Later in that year, in an attempt to scupper the process, Thanet District Council called a referendum and sent out voter packs together with a leaflet that was regarded by the Kent Association of Parish/Local  Government as prejudicial. 

Despite the thinly-veiled assertions that a town council would financially harm the people of Ramsgate they voted overwhelmingly in favour of their own Town Council. 

Now that the Town Council is almost upon us it is right to say what it could mean for the people of Ramsgate. 

WELL IT DEPENDS ON WHOM YOU ELECT 

When Labour was in control of Thanet District Council they favoured Margate and Broadstairs in the vain hope that they might gain seats in those towns from the Tories. Consequently they neglected Ramsgate. 

The Tories, in power since 2003, favour Margate and Broadstairs because they can get a Tory administration elected on these towns’ votes alone. Ramsgate, being mostly Labour, can go to blazes. 

Either way Labour or Conservative, Ramsgate loses out. 

It lost the Bucket and Spade Run, traditionally a Ramsgate event, now moved to Margate. It lost the incredibly beautiful Model Village because Thanet District Council wouldn’t help with the security costs to prevent vandalism. TDC closed and demolished the Marina Swimming pool and the adjacent lift. Events staged in Ramsgate are under-funded and poorly advertised. Margate gets well-advertised and well-funded events. 

It is quite clear that despite its fantastic Royal Harbour and south facing sea front Ramsgate comes well down on TDC’s priorities.  

And of course there is the Turner Contemporary which has become an unhealthy obsession and which TDC pursues to the exclusion of all other sensible regeneration plans. 

That is why Ramsgate Town Council must have councillors who are independent of the main national parties. Not Tories in independent sheep’s’ clothing. We mean men and women who want to put Ramsgate first. 

So what are Ramsgate First’s plans for Ramsgate should it have a decisive say in the town’s future. 

As you may have read the present annual budget of £110,000 for the largely ceremonial dining club known as the Charter Trustees will be replaced by a Town budget. Within a few years this will rise to around £500,000, a figure we predicted in our Petition leaflet in 2006.  

Ramsgate First told the truth, upfront, warts and all. 

Our town plan for Ramsgate includes the following proposals. 

Short Term 0 -3 years: (ST); Medium Term 3 – 7years: (MT); Long Term 8 – 15 years: (LG) 

Public lavatories – (ST):           We shall seek to have this provision transferred to the town council from the district together with the budget. Much of Ramsgate’s public lavatory budget is presently used to subsidise lavatories in Margate and Broadstairs. We shall ensure that Ramsgate gets its fair share of this budget. We shall reopen public loos in Elm Road, Boundary Road recreation ground and Ramsgate East Cliff. We shall site new public lavatories in Ellington Park and Pegwell. We shall also enter into partnerships with restaurants, hotels and pubs to have public access to their lavatories.

 Town Centre – (ST)      We shall seek to have the Ramsgate High Street and Harbour Street gentrified with new paving, street furniture, Dickensian-style street lights and effective traffic calming.  We shall give grants to businesses to improve the look of their shop fronts. We would encourage chain stores to adopt a less corporate style of shop front in favour of a local and more individualistic style. 

We shall ask KCC to ban the use of Harbour Street and High Street by traffic between 9am and 6pm everyday. 

We shall work with KCC to reopen King Street and Queen Street to mini-buses and taxis to help improve access to and from Town Centre shops. 

Harbour and Front – (ST):        We shall encourage the further use of the Royal Harbour as a commercial and leisure centre. We shall encourage the development of a Cross Wall first-class fish market and restaurant. We shall negotiate with Thorley Taverns to purchase the long-disused Customs House as a Maritime and Town museum for Ramsgate. We feel that this exceptional building that is in an advanced state of disrepair should be saved for the town.

We shall encourage a diversity of shops and restaurants on the front to encourage visitors. We shall ensure that all businesses sign up to a good neighbour policy and encourage responsible drinking and behaviour. 

With the present collapse of the financial markets the likelihood is that the Royal Sands development may founder. We believe that the Marina Esplanade should be reopened (MT) to one-way traffic to encourage flow and to allow herring-bone parking along the front for around 120 cars and that the whole site should be developed from the demolished Marina swimming pool site to the Harbour Parade roundabout. We shall put pressure on the District Council and KCC to seek respectable UK based companies to carry out this development. We believe that such a development could be financed by the more imaginative use of sea front properties. (see Leopold Street.) 

(ST) We would seek to have the hidden Tourist Information Office put into a property on the front perhaps sharing with the new museum. 

(MT) We would seek with KCC to have new street lights on the Harbour Parade and Military Road in keeping with our history and style. We would seek to put additional street lights on the Royal Road plinths to create, in time a stunning visual image.  

(ST) We would seek to restore the fairy lights along the front and harbour arms. 

(ST) We shall seek the re-assignment of the street cleaning budget to the town council so that streets can be cleaned on a regular and effective basis. We shall remove all of the graffiti and chewing gum deposits on a regular basis. 

Leopold and York Street;         Anthony Swain, environment architect and advisor to TDC’s Margate Old Town restoration, in a very public speech to Ramsgate First’s Ramsgate Town Plan meeting in 2002, in the presence of over 25 councillors, castigated TDC for having neglected York Street to the point where it had to be demolished. We lost some fine examples of 17th and 18th Century properties.

(LT)       We propose that the Swallow Hotel, Wilkinson’s site and the Argyle Centre together with the multi-storey car park be demolished. Leopold street, which is literally a waste of space taking up valuable building land, would be built over and York Street, presently one-way be widened and carry two-way traffic with bays on both sides for bus stops. The widening of the road will be compensated by the use of Leopold Street as building land gaining some 1,000 sq metres. We propose that the West Cliff Arcade be restored to its original spill-out on York Street with the original facades restored behind which can be sited the hotel, offices, shops, housing and the multi-storey car park built in various styles. See aerial view. We believe that as many as 60 flats could be accommodated making the development profitable. See drawings. 

Albert and Charlotte Court: (MT) It has long been my aim to bring the concept of Brighton Lanes to Ramsgate. This area would be ideal lying as it does between York Street and Harbour Street. My drawings currently with a local builder show that it could accommodate up to 16 flats with up to 18 lock-up shops beneath built in various period styles. There are four existing entrances to this area and another could be found in Harbour Street to enable a free flow of foot traffic from the town centre and the bus stops in York Street. The low-cost but attractive shops would enable small start-up businesses to thrive in the centre of town. (see aerial view) 

Parks and Gardens:     We will seek to restore the parks and gardens of Ramsgate to the highest affordable level. TDC makes a very poor effort to keep our hedges, lawns and borders in good trim and has allowed many to deteriorate to an unacceptable level. 

Tourism:          This we believe is the catalyst for Ramsgate’s revival. There will almost certainly be a boom in home holidays in the UK. The English Tourist Board estimates that seaside holidays are set for a 30 per cent boom. This is likely to prove a long-term development as foreign holidays fueled by cheap flights become a thing of the past.  We believe that if Ramsgate does not exploit the present potential let alone the future developments, we will be missing out to other more go-ahead resorts.

Ramsgate Harbour is clearly a great attraction. The south facing aspect of Ramsgate must be another plus to be exploited. The town and Harbour viewed from either point of view is tremendously attractive.

What we currently lack are amenities that modern day tourists would expect to find. 

The scar that once was Pleasurama continues to give the impression of a run-down and derelict beach. That the District Council has failed to address this over the past eleven years is evidence of their lack of imagination, expertise and dynamism. That they entertained two companies with less than impressive CV’s is evidence of their complete lack of judgement. 

We propose the following that a Town Council could initiate.

Putting fairy lights around the harbour and front. It is a cost-effective initiative that once paid dividends to Ramsgate and could again.

Keep the beach clean and tidy at all times. (ST)

Provide first class showering facilities at regular points.(ST)

Encourage builders to take the flints from the beach to use in local builds by expecting Planning applications in Ramsgate to include the traditional use of flint. (ST)

Open up the road to one-way traffic and allow herring-bone parking to bring visitors directly to the beach. (MT)

Build or improve properties along the beach that enhance the beach experience. (MT)

Build an all-weather swimming pool and leisure complex to which bathers can retreat. (MT/LT)

Take over and restore the West Cliff Hall as a conference centre, art gallery and exhibition centre. (MT)

Take over the Royal Victoria Pavilion and restore it as a theatre/cinema complex with bars and shops and reopen the sun deck with franchises for bars and cafés. Give the Granville management who have done much to make Ramsgate vibrant the first choice to move their theatre/cinema to this more central venue. (MT)

Demolish the Granville Theatre and rebuild as a covered ice rink. (MT) 

Cleanliness and smartness: (ST) Keeping the town swept clean, removing graffiti, washing the streets, encouraging shops to clean their windows and pavements, removing chewing gum and annual painting of street furniture will impress visitors and investors. 

Town Partnership: (ST)            We need to headhunt a highly qualified, go-getting entrepreneur to head up the Town Partnership Management. He/she may come expensive but in return we should expect him/her to pay his/her way and produce the goods in terms of on-going visitor attractions and inward investment.  

Good citizenship: (ST) Children either through their schools or individually should be given grants, awards etc to help keep their town clean and tidy. 

Tree Planting: (ST)      Children should be encouraged to plant trees and shrubs throughout the town and take ownership and responsibility for them. As they grow up they will have greater pride in their town and their part in it. 

How will all these plans and proposals be financed? 

Much can be achieved in partnership with the private sector.

Land can be sold to developers and Planning permission granted if the developers are willing to help fund local improvements. Other towns have done it. 

There are many grants and soft loans out there for projects such as these from numerous government and European agencies. Private companies such as Pfizers, Cummings etc may wish to be involved if the package is right. 

The trick is not to do what TDC did with English Heritage back in 2002 and expect them to pay for all the improvements. That was turned down. But a 50/50 partnership can work wonders. But you have to give something in return. Example. Did TDC get a lipstick donation from the China Gateway mob or the developers of Westwood Cross to pay for local town improvements such as a swimming pool? No.

And why not?

Because they are not very bright.