Best Wishes to you all

shoppingRAMSGATE.

With shopping being in everyone’s mind at Christmas I felt this was a suitable post to read with your Christmas Turkey and a glass of mulled wine. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
(Click on pictures to enlarge)

The public consultation about this time last year, on the Core Strategy planning proposals, identified the possibility of making Staffordshire Street car park in Ramsgate a key site for the development of an “anchor store” to provide an enhanced shopping experience in Ramsgate town centre. Staffordshire Street car park is adjacent to Cleaver Lane which is an original cobbled street, quite unique and a survivor of “old” Ramsgate.

These two adjacent features provide a unique opportunity to integrate a very special shopping experience within the existing fabric of the town. By providing a series of small shop units fronting the north side of Cleaver Lane an “olde worlde” Dickensian street can be achieved, but enter any of these small shops and they are connected directly into the large new department store beyond, thus creating a wealth of differing shopping environments to suit all tastes

The remodelled site contains a two storey car park at the ground and lower ground floors and a panoramic restaurant at roof level with roof terrace and views of the church spire and town. A solar panel array on the roof provides a substantial proportion of the electricity requirements for the centre.

This is one of five proposals being put forward as opportunities for the regeneration and revitalisation of Ramsgate in the 21^st century and in preparation for the 200^th anniversary of Ramsgate Royal Harbour. Such schemes will require inward investment into the town and provide opportunities for employment together with an enhancement of the town’s economics.

highspeedRAMSGATE

A new Ramsgate swimming pool in the High Street has now been APPROVED

The Localism Bill has become law and is now THE LOCALISM ACT.

The Sandwich Enterprise Zone includes money for UPGRADING the Ramsgate Line

There is no money  allocated for building PARWAY STATION..

So NOW is the time for highspeedRAMSGATE

There are many problems which need resolving in St Lawrence and Manston. The airport needs a good rail connection if it is to survive at all, St Lawrence needs traffic management improvements, Our Grade II listed Ramsgate railway station needs a secure future, Warre Recreation Ground requires protection for the future and a solution needs to be found for the improvement of the existing swimming pool. to maintain a good level facilities in and around Newington.

With the new Localism Act it will be possible for local communities to take charge of their own planning requirements and make suggestions for revitalising an area. Here is a suggestion (click on picture to enlarge) which could address many of the communication issues surrounding the airport and the railway. This could also provide a funding opportunity for improvements to Warre Recreation Ground.    Any comments?

To PARK or not to PARK.

Cllr Worrow has supposedly “seen the light” on the “trivial matter” of free parking versus parking charges and obviously the Conservative councillors are crying “foul”. But when are these councillors going to wake up and see the true situation.  To describe the parking situation in Thanet as an absolute mess, is being kind to it.

We have free parking in Westwood Cross to encourage out of town shopping and parking charges in the Old Town Centres to finally kill them off. Even the Christmas free parking is in obscure car parks not near the town centres.  Minster has free parking and the shops are thriving, other villages have none and the shops have all shut. YES there is a connection between available free parking and shop viability. I live within walking distance of Ramsgate town centre, but on occasions when I have to take a car into town, lack of easy parking just puts me off, so people who have to drive in regularly probably go elsewhere.

The council do not even learn from their mistakes, having cocked–up Thanet shopping by building Westwood Cross, there are still councillors supporting the future cock-up to be, known as Parkway station. Billed as a station for the Kent International Airport it is on the wrong side of the runway and will include, yes you guessed it, a huge car park.

Any moron can work out that an air passenger arriving at or departing from KIA by train will have no car, so who will use this car park. Not the existing commuters because most of them have their commuting arrangements already worked out. There will be an influx of new commuters wanting executive houses built around the station or on the Eurokent site. Ramsgate station will then be downgraded, when all it needs is a good parking scheme to make it more viable.

Back to Ramsgate town centre and Leopold Street car park, this has a 30% usage level with proposals to close two upper floors, when all it needs is good security and appropriate management to make it popular. This could take the pressure off Pier Yard and allow a much more pleasant pedestrian space in front of Clock House (if ever it opens again)

The way parking is handled in an urban environment can have a profound effect on the appearance and prosperity of a town. In some French towns on-street parking is alternating, so on one side of the road, parking is restricted from the first to the fifteenth of the month (see above sign), then the other side is restricted for the remainder of the month . This encourages a free flow of traffic and reduces the appearance of “cars everywhere”.

This post has been written from memory of various encounters with poor parking management throughout Thanet, and I am sure there are many more examples of which I am not aware. So maybe some Thanet councillors will take good parking provision more seriously now they have lost their lucrative allowances over such a “trivial matter”.

SHOPsuccess2

RAMSGATE

The Promenade Shelters Appeal Charity Shop at 52 Queen Street, Ramsgate, has been open for a second week. The shop was set up last week by Nelson Crescent and Prospect Terrace Residents Association to aid the Ramsgate Society Shelters Appeal and  raised over £2000.in the first week.

 Agreement was reached for the shop to stay open for a second week until 10th December, and it has been doing a good trade in the second week. 

THE LAST TWO DAYS ARE THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AND EVERYTHING MUST GO AT KNOCK DOWN PRICES.

.The shop is open 10 to 4 each day . Any support would be most welcome  and thanks to Pearson Gore,Estate Agents for the loan of the shop.

SHOPsuccess

RAMSGATE

The Promenade Shelters Appeal Charity Shop at 52 Queen Street, Ramsgate, looks set to stay open for another week. The shop was set up last week by Nelson Crescent and Prospect Terrace Residents Association to aid the Ramsgate Society Shelters Appeal and has so far raised nearly £2000. 

 Agreement has been reached for the shop to stay open for a further week until 10th December. We need more items to sell and volunteers to help within the shop for two hour periods. The shop is open 10 to 4 each day except Sunday 10-2. Any support would be most welcome  and thanks to Pearson Gore, Estate Agents for the loan of the shop.