SCENIC RAILWAY MARGATE ON FIRE

[ljn]

The council have done a clever thing. They have outlined the whole Dreamland site, including the listed cinema in the repair proposal and eventual CPO.

It would have been great for the owner to have just the scenic railway taken away and dealt with so he could get on with developing the rest of the site, but it looks like it may not happen that way.

The scenic railway would be worth nothing to him, but this way he stands to loose control of the whole development site.

Maybe good news for Margate

 

[Nemesis]

I know. Fingers crossed.

Of course, Waterbridge might just repair it...

Or the rest might just vanish in flames too. The site will still be there, but all of interest will have vanished.

 

[Nemesis]

Latest news is that Thanet is to issue a Repairs Notice.

Udated news regularly on the Save Dreamland site:

http://www.joylandbooks.com/scenicrailway/


Two great new videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU1zwpJzBC8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKbHCgSidds

 

[Nemesis]

Happier days:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3012990450606002460&q=margate+scenic&ei=x7kISJvSJoWkjAK0sbWnAQ

 

[ljn]

Woooooh! Nice video.

 

[Nemesis]

Sad though. The track can be repaired, but the trains are gone totally.

Rotten Boroughs in this week's Private Eye:

UNLUCKY JIM
There was an air of inevitability about the fire which last week destroyed much of Margate's Scenic Railway, a grade II-listed wooden rollercoaster, once the centrepiece of Dreamland, a classic seaside amusement park which closed after 80 years in 2003.

The closure left 20 acres of seafront real estate practically deserted and ripe for development by its owner, Jimmy Godden. But the listed rollercoaster was in the middle of the site, and an independent government inspector's report in 2005 went against the supine local council and reiterated protection for it and the amusement park.

That year Godden formed the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company with Reading-based developers Waterbridge, retaining a major stake in Dreamland.

A public "consultation" by Thanet council two years later tried yet again to float the idea of a development, coming up with an unhappy 50-50 compromise of "heritage amusement park" and the usual flats and shops.

This is not the first time Godden has experienced misfortune with his seafront developments. In 1998 his Pleasurama fun park in Ramsgate burned down in the midst of a campaign to save it from redevelopment. Fortunately on that occasion Godden had the comfort of a substantial insurance payout to soften the blow. In 2003 his Mr G arcade on Margate seafront went up in flames, but again there was consolation in that the hole it left, nicknamed "Godden's Gap" by locals, provided the perfect access road from the seafront into the Dreamland site.

When English Heritage listed the rollercoaster in 2002 Godden described it as "great news" and told the BBC it was "safe in his hands". A year later he closed Dreamland, and now more than a quarter of this historic ride lies in ashes.

Inspector Knacker is treating case as arson.