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Dreamland Margate: General Discussion

Some disappointing news from the latest Dreamland newsletter. I've only included the interesting bits below. :)

Dreamland Trust said:
NEWSLETTER JULY 2013
Posted on July 22, 2013 by dreamlandmargate

As we neared the end of June we eagerly awaited news from Thanet District Council of a site hand over date. However, due to an administrative error in the council’s land transfer process, the handover has been delayed by a couple of months – the knock on effect means that we will not be opening next summer and are now aiming for an Easter 2015 opening.

We were obviously disappointed to hear the news, but this does now provide a longer lead in time and an opportunity to fully engage people as we rebuild Dreamland. The commitment of the council and the Heritage Lottery Fund is as strong as ever and we are looking forward to gaining access to the site again this autumn.

Ever since the Public Inquiry in March 2012, we have effectively been locked out of the Dreamland site, so our first job on gaining access will be to re-asses the internal and external spaces.

Landowners, Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company Ltd., has been granted permission to appeal the High Court’s decision. The council’s lawyers are awaiting the Order from the Court, this will confirm the grounds on which the permission to appeal was granted. The Court has confirmed that the case will be expedited and we await a hearing date.

This doesn’t halt the vesting process and the council are still able to proceed due to the withdrawal of the Suspension Application. Meanwhile MTCRC have been removing their property from the site and cinema building.

MOVING ON

During this period of limbo we have been busy in the background working with the professional team made up of project managers, Gardiner & Theobald; Wayne, Gerardine and Jack at HemingwayDesign; Tim Goode at Guy Hollaway Architects and Michael Smith from the National Fairground Trust to finalise the rides line up, plan park content, create the overall design, develop the pre-opening programme, branding, internal and external layouts.

Later this year, contracts will be put out to tender by the council for construction and restoration work – we anticipate restoration work to the Grade II*-listed Scenic Railway will take approximately 12 months to complete.

Running parallel to the physical work will be the pre-opening learning and engagement programme and we look forward to announcing training and volunteering opportunities further down the line.

Some headway has been made with the Dreamland Archive and we are now looking forward to formulating a partnership with the South East Archive of Seaside Photography project at Canterbury Christ Church University to create an online portal on the SEAS Photography website at www.seasphotography.org.uk.

We have also been developing a restoration project with 14-18 year olds through the Thanet Skills Studio at Westwood Cross. This is an opportunity for young people to learn about their heritage and develop traditional skills in restoration, engineering and up-cycling.

On the commercial side, our Project Director, Mike Nuttall, is reviewing the Business Plan and will be inviting operators and concessionaries to show an expression of interest once the land transfer has concluded.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Over the coming months we will keep you all informed and fully up-to-date with progress, opportunities, events and activities via the newsletter, website at www.dreamlandmargate.com or on facbook and twitter.

Whilst here, we would like to thank our partners, funders and the community for their passion, support and commitment and we look forward to working together to re-build Dreamland for future generations to enjoy.

HAVE A WORD

We’re starting to see some really exciting branding ideas coming from team Hemingway and it occurred to us that this is an ideal opportunity for Dreamland supporters to make their mark by sending us one word which best describes Dreamland for you. Go on, give it a go! No cheating though – just one word emailed to [email protected].

If you've ever been, definitely worth e-mailing in your word! I'm sending in 'bracing', due to the sea winds that buffet you while you ride the Scenic!
 
How much all this legal nonsense be costing MTCRC? The writing's on the wall.

Removal of their property? What the hell was there?
 
New blog post, Missing Rides.

Dreamland Trust said:
MISSING RIDES

The Dreamland Trust was granted access to the Dreamland site, by Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company, in June to undertake an inventory and mark various component parts of the Historic Rides Collection owned by The Dreamland Trust. This was the first time The Dreamland Trust had been allowed on site or given access to the collection since the CPO process began almost two years ago.

The Historic Rides Collection has been collated by The Dreamland Trust, over a decade; many of the rides being rescued or donated by supporters of the Save Dreamland Campaign. It is with disgust and disbelief therefore that The Dreamland Trust reports that MTCRC began removing The Historic Rides Collection this week without consent.

The Dreamland Trust worked with MTCRC to identify all the parts of the rides; each one being spray painted with a distinctive pink identification mark. Their removal and expected disposal via scrap merchants, or onward sale, is viewed as theft and has been reported to the police.

Most of these items are designated for up-cycling into creative interpretation, café furniture and set dressing. The removal of these items does not impact on our plans or delay the project.

The Historic Rides Collection also includes a suite of rides acquired and purchased by The Dreamland Trust, which are currently with external heritage rides restorers where some restoration work has already begun. Other historic collections include a series of amusement park and fairground artefacts and paraphernalia held in secure, off-site storage, and the Dreamland Archive soon to be available as an online learning resource.

We are finalising the rides line-up for the 2015 opening, which will be supported by guest rides and visiting attractions.

The police are aware of all the missing items and have visual evidence of the property being removed from the site and are carrying out further surveillance and investigations.

The Dreamland Trust asks that if anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of the items, or is offered the stolen property, to immediately contact Margate Police Station in confidence.

Thanet District Council will become the new owners of the Dreamland site following the completion of the 28-day vesting process on the 3 September 2013.

The Dreamland Trust extends grateful thanks to Margate’s vigilant community for alerting us to this activity.

Are there any depths these evil, worthless, greedy, hate-fuelled crooks won't sink to? Roll on 03 September after which we can all breath a sigh of relief. I'm very worried that the rest of the Scenic will burn in a mysterious 'accident' sometime in the next few weeks. The day they finally get full site access will be a cause for national relief.
 
Oh dear, not good. Not good at all.

As much as I would love to see this project happen, I still believe it is doomed, and this only seems to confirm it. :'(

As you say, it wouldn't surprise me if another fire suddenly came out of nowhere.
 
The day has finally come, the day has finally come! :D

Kent Online said:
Dream is a step closer as regeneration of former Dreamland theme park in Margate set to begin

The site of the former Dreamland theme park has been transferred to Thanet District Council today, clearing the path for its regeneration to get under way.

Closed since a fire destroyed its flagship attraction the Scenic Railway in 2008, surveyors are expected to assess the condition of the site imminently.

First on the council's to-do list will be to renovate the Grade ll-listed ride, cinema building and menagerie cages at the Margate venue.

As this work goes on, re-branding and design proposals will be laid out by the Dreamland Trust and its partners, the group formed after the six-year Save Dreamland Campaign.

The aim is to open a heritage-style theme park with traditional rides in 2015, but there could be one final stumbling block to the project going any further.

Former site owners have mounted a legal challenge to the council's compulsory purchase, due to be heard at the Appeals Court from September 25.

Today's announcement is the latest chapter in a legal saga that began in June 2011.

Council leader Cllr Clive Hart said: "The transfer of Dreamland to the council is another significant step towards creating a world-class visitor attraction on this site.

"With overwhelming public support and the vital funds in place, we have been resolute in our commitment to deliver this landmark project and believe that the compulsory purchase of the land was the only viable option to save and restore the site.

"The council has carried out significant urgent repairs to the important heritage assets and has been saddened to see the site stand vacant and unused for such a long period of time.

"The continued legal challenge is nothing short of frustrating. With support from the Secretary of State, and the High Court, we are hopeful that the right outcome will be determined at the appeal, and will continue to do all we can to unlock the regeneration of this part of Margate."

The Dreamland project has already received £3million of funding from the council and £3million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

An application for money from the government's Sea Change Fund saw the project awarded another £3.8million, but this was dependant on the council getting a long lease on the site.

After this could not be agreed, the council issued a compulsory purchase order in 2011.

The order was approved by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in August last year.

But the long legal process saw a challenge from the site owners heard in the High Court in March, with was dismissed in May.

Dreamland Trust chairman Nick Laister said: "The transfer of the site to our partner Thanet District Council is one of the biggest milestones in our efforts to return Dreamland to its rightful place as Margate’s biggest visitor attraction and to the people and community of Margate.

"The Dreamland Trust and the council have worked very hard to secure this transfer in the best interests of Thanet.

"Having a large, derelict wasteland in the middle of the seafront has been so detrimental to the image of Margate.

"The transformation of the town has already started following the opening of Turner Contemporary in 2011.

"The reopening of Dreamland as the world's first amusement park of thrilling historic rides in 2015 will be the another big step forward for the resort.

"We hope to be able to cross the final hurdle at the Court of Appeal later this month.

"We have the right team in place to deliver this project and, with the necessary funding now available to us, we are confident that the people and businesses of Thanet will not have to wait too long now to see visible progress on site."

And a reaction from the Dreamland Trust on Facebook.

Thank you everyone for your fantastic messages and support :)

Really pleased to see some positive activity on the Dreamland site today with Thanet’s young offenders helping to clear the car park. Also pleased that Thanet District Council has increased site security!
 
Project update from the September 2013 newsletter. As usual, I've picked out the most interesting bits.

Dreamland Trust said:
SEPTEMBER 2013 NEWSLETTER

PROJECT UP-DATE

On the 3 September the Dreamland site passed into the ownership of Thanet District Council – a significant moment in Margate’s history as Dreamland becomes the Peoples’ Park once again.

Community Pay Back young offenders were engaged to help clear the Dreamland car park for re-opening and an eight week survey programme is about to begin.

The high court appeal was heard at the High Court 25 and 26 September and a decision is anticipated within weeks. Meanwhile, Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company (MTCRC) has vacated the site.

The design team were able to visit the site this month for the first time since their appointment. Once the survey reports have been completed and the cost plan reviewed, the project team will be able to finalise the plans and designs for lock down and sign off.

Once the appeal decision has been released we will be opening the gates to Dreamland and inviting all to join us is in marking this milestone event – details will be released at a later date.

MISLEADING MEDIA MESSES UP MESSAGES

The week of the appeal whipped up a real media frenzy. In this instance some of the reporting was both misleading and unbalanced and so we must publically put the record straight!

BBC SE Inside Out programme broadcast on the 25 September misled viewers into believing that the £10m grant money secured for Dreamland, including Sea Change and Heritage Lottery Funding, was to be used to purchase the Dreamland site – this, of course, is not the case.

All secured grants are ringfenced for restoring the Grade II* listed Scenic Railway, Grade II listed menagerie cages, front entrance to the park and bringing back into use the internal café, event and retail spaces under the cinema building, ride restoration, design, branding, content, landscaping, learning and training.

Site purchase costs are a separate matter and currently being negotiated between Thanet District Council and MTCRC.

I’m so glad we’ve cleared that up – moving on!

BLACKPOOL MEETINGS

In September The Dreamland Trust had a series of meetings in Blackpool. This was an opportunity to introduce Dreamland designers, HemingwayDesign, to the Thompson family who own and operate Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the park’s Head Engineer, Steve Hughes and David Cam, Company Secretary and Director.

We also met with the Head of Blackpool Illuminations, Richard Ryan, who took us on a tour of the illuminations depot at Lightworks.

And last week we played host, in Margate, to the Hastings Pier Trust. We look forward to seeing the pier being restored over the next 18 months or so.

HISTORIC RIDES COLLECTION IS GROWING!

We have now surveyed the rides collection on site and can confirm that key rides planned for Phase One are intact and have not been scrapped as initially feared, although parts of some of the rides earmarked for up cycling have gone.

In addition to the remaining rides, we are in the process of acquiring ten historic thrill rides plus two original, iconic rides returning to Dreamland for the opening line up! New additions include:

Austin Car Ride
This is one of the most popular juvenile rides where young children can ‘drive’ a car on their. In 1948 parliament passed an act acknowledging pneumoconiosis in Welsh miners rendering them unable to work in the mines. Chairman of Austin Motors, Leonard Lord, created an employment opportunity for disabled miners to work by building a factory to produce children’s pedal cars in the Austin style – the Austin J40. Showmen came up with the idea of fixing the cars onto roundabouts making the J40 accessible to many children.

Muffin the Mule
This ride was built around 1949 by R J Lakin & Company of Streatham for S & J Thurston and decorated by chief artist, Edwin Hall. Originally this ride had streamlined cars in which children could ride, but in the 1950s the popularity of a certain children’s television puppet saw the cars changed to Muffin the Mules.

Double Decker Rocket Ride
An unusual children’s ride which in addition to the conventional platform mounted toys at ground level, also features an upper deck of Rocket cars adding double the fun! The idea was patented by north eastern showman, James A Crow, in the late 1940s, and the rides were built under licence by Orton & Spooner of Burton on Trent.

Hurricane Jets
The delight of this 1950s ride is that the rider can control the elevation of the cars by the operation of a joystick. Built by the Langwheels Company of Middlesex, these popular rides could be found in many amusement parks, including Dreamland, although the one we have acquired has spent its life on the travelling fairs.

The Historic Rides Collection is held in safe, off-site storage. The opening rides line-up will be supported by visiting and guest vintage rides and attractions.

DREAMLAND ARCHIVE ALL AT SEAS

This month our volunteer archiver, Suzannah Foad, packed up the Dreamland archive and shipped it off to the South East Archive of Seaside (SEAS) Photography project where Dr Karen Shepherdson will oversee the creation of a Dreamland online portal on the SEAS website.

SEAS is located at Canterbury Christ Church University at Broadstairs. The Archive focuses on digitally archiving substantial historical seaside collections, which have originated on the South East’s coast including, quiet naturally, that of Dreamland.

And very timely this is too because the latest donations to SEAS have come from Mrs June Pratt of Margate and provide wonderful insight into Dreamland’s past. June inherited the photographs from her father, Derek Dolding. Derek, as many will know, was the former leader of Thanet District Council and when Bembom Brothers took charge of the Dreamland site in 1981 he acquired from Bemboms a series of extraordinary images featuring Dreamland’s lion tamer.

At the time the photographs were heading for the skip, but fortunately Derek made a timely intervention and saved them from certain destruction. On retirement Derek moved to France and took the pictures with him storing them for many years in a disused chicken shed! Sadly, Derek died last year and June, along with her sister, recovered the images and brought them home to Margate.

June very generously allowed the Archive to make high resolution digital copies, providing a digital safety net for the future and allowing access by all through the SEAS’ website at http://www.seasphotography.org.uk. For further information please visit the website: seasphotography.org.uk or twitter: @seasphotography.

Also in November, we are planning to open the gates to the park to invite people in to see the site for the first time since it closed to the public – a unique photo opportunity and a memorable experience to be shared.

And following the opening of the park we are inviting all our wonderful volunteers, supporters and partners to join us for The Big Clear – we’re rolling up our sleeves and pulling up the weeds – can’t wait to get going!

We’ll confirm dates and details of both the Key to the Gate and The Big Clear days shortly.

This project gets more exciting by the month. So delighted that they now have access to the site, and that restoration work can continue full-steam-ahead. But the most exciting day will come when work actually begins on rebuilding and restoring the Scenic... can't wait to see it rise majestically from the ashes, almost literally!

I wish I could go down there and help with The Big Clear, it'd be very thrilling to be so directly helping the rebirth of a park like that. What do we think that Thompson family meetings are all about? Establishing some sort of deal towards Margate taking on anything Blackpool decide to throw out or something...? I'd love to see Margate get the Mouse if PBB wanted to remove it, but they already have the one that the Thompsons ripped out of Southport!
 
Very glad to hear MTCRC no longer have the keys, and also that Thanet Council have (very wisely) stepped up security.
 
I am more exited for Dreamland Margate, then any mega budget rollercoaster, that we may be seeing in the next couple of years.
 
Dreamland on Facebook said:
We are pleased to announce that the Court of Appeal has dismissed the former owners' appeal against the High Court decision to uphold the the confirmation of the council's CPO.

That's it. The final hurdle. Now we can forget all the greediness and crap of the recent past and set to work restoring a theme park. :D
 
Dreamland Margate on Facebook said:
Our grateful thanks to everyone who turned out today to help clear the Dreamland site - 4 hours of non-stop moss clearing! Think we'll all sleep well tonight!

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Dreamland Margate on Facebook said:
...and here's the other end of the park - 50 fabulous volunteers helping to rebuild Dreamland :)

1469885_646933072016533_791204024_n.jpg


Amazing, brilliant! People power over corporate interests! :D
 
Unless the park is going to operate as a non-profit organisation, I can't help but feel it is kind of cheeky asking volunteers to help transform it. It maybe a subject matter that people love, but would you lay bricks for a new McDonalds?
 
Tom said:
It maybe a subject matter that people love, but would you lay bricks for a new McDonalds?

I see where you're coming from in regards to the non-profit notion, but it's a completely different kettle of fish really. People of Margate really want to see this happen. A McDonalds does little for tourism.
 
Tom said:
Unless the park is going to operate as a non-profit organisation, I can't help but feel it is kind of cheeky asking volunteers to help transform it.

The park will be run as a non-profit organisation. It will be operated by the Dreamland Trust, a charity, on behalf of the council and all money made will be put back into the park.
 
Sam said:
Tom said:
Unless the park is going to operate as a non-profit organisation, I can't help but feel it is kind of cheeky asking volunteers to help transform it.

The park will be run as a non-profit organisation. It will be operated by the Dreamland Trust, a charity, on behalf of the council and all money made will be put back into the park.

Then it is perfectly justified, thanks for that.
 
Hi All

I was down at Margate last Saturday after a long drive from the Midlands, but it was it worth every second.

I urge anyone who wants to volunteer email the below address with what you can help with. We put EVERYTHING !!! :)

[email protected]

Group shot
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Gallery @ the Thanet Gazette

http://www.thanetgazette.co.uk/pictures/GALLERY-Dreamland-community-clean/pictures-20252606-detail/pictures.html

And I can confirm that the park will be run as a charity... Thanet council will be receiving a "peppercorn" rent
 
Apparently everyone who attended the clean-up day got to purchase a special commemorative 'newspaper' of the event, with profits going towards the Trust. Ian from CF has scanned in a copy which you can read here. :)

It's got lots of details of the new park in it, and interviews with key figures. :)

EDIT: A worrying sentence I spotted in the above newspaper:

"Next year The Dreamland Trust will appoint a park operating company, and is currently in discussion with several leading national and international operators."

That must mean Merlin are involved in these talks, though I hope to god they don't get it. I can see Heritage Attractions (owners of LWV) or Parques Reunidos being interested. Why not just pick up the phone and ask EP to run it...?
 
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