BACKDOOR planning.

Getting “the cart before the horse” is becoming an art for Thanet planning policy.

Planning application  F/TH/08/0400                         APPROVED

Industrial development at Manston Business park (China Gateway)  

Planning application OL/TH/11/0910                       BEING CONSIDERED

Land at Haine Road (Eurokent)                       

New application  for change from Industrial to Residential

Planning Application  F/TH/11/0874                       BEING CONSIDERED

Ramsgate Slipways Redevelopment

Ramsgate Port Master-plan                                       DELAYED

Night Flights Consultation                             REPORTED AS IMMINENT

Core Strategy Consultation                                       DELAYED

Approval of Local Development Framework and Airport Expansion

If you are wondering how this list of various planning events affects you, well when finally Thanet District Council get around to approving their Core Strategy Local Development Framework all the major planning decisions will have already been taken

Eurokent can safely be given residential approval now there is industrial space at China Gateway although no go ahead has been agreed by Core Strategy agreement

Leisure development may be let into Ramsgate Harbour before details of the Master plan are available.

Night flight expansion may be approved before the airport expansion itself is approved by the Core Strategy.

"Don’t mix business with pleasure."

Continuing today with the Royal Harbour theme.

A recent planning application for building a bar and restaurant complex on the site of demolished slipways was refused by the council, and quite rightly so. It is not that Ramsgate can afford to turn down such investment but illustrates that a clear vision of the right place and right time is essential to good planning. Ramsgate is a town of two halves, the first half is a safe haven harbour and the second half is a leisure and recreational centre.

The waters between the two halves should not be muddied. Visitors come to Ramsgate  because of the harbour and like to see a working harbour not a “Noddy town” harbour.  Boaters, both recreational and professional use Ramsgate for a safe haven, repair and maintenance facilities. The strange thing about the waterfront at Ramsgate as a town planning exercise, is that it works successfully. The two uses co-exist and are entwined but are not mixed.

By drawing an imaginary line from the Obelisk, along the centre of Harbour Parade, Royal Parade, The Paragon and Westcliff Promenade as far as Westcliff Lift , then designating everything seaward of that line as marine-related usage, inappropriate residential and leisure developments in the harbour can be avoided.

On the landward side of that line there are scores of under-used buildings and sites suitable for a whole range of leisure and recreational uses. In that way both marine and leisure uses can be promoted side by side without one threatening to overrun the other. We must remain vigilant otherwise an inappropriate use may slip through providing a precedent to open up the flood gates