Joyland Books

Hi all,

I hope you've all had Nick Laister's e-mail re the above by now to attract the Secretary of State, Ruth Kelly, to call in the Thanet Local Plan for her further consideration.

I think it's very important that we all try to respond to this to attempt to get the Local Plan (hopefully back to the pre-amended one!)

The deadline is 16 June 2006. I know everyone's busy but it shouldn't take that much time to deal with. This must surely be worth sacrificing any TV show or other menial matters to try to make a policy change for the real good of Dreamland's future.

Martin

PS I know I'm up late but I've had to deal with a wad of pre- new job start paperwork on-line. Got to get to bed soon as I can't be late for the first day at 0900 this morning.

Well, I have written my letter. Ended up being 2 A4 pages, not bad considering I hate writing letters, but once I got started that was it.
Can't let this just drift by and leave it to others to do......I hope you have all written your letters as well.
I just thought that I'd remind everyone as there is only a few days left...

Hello Lou et al,

I'm sad to say you're ahead of me there. I left a message for Nick earlier just to try and gauge if there were any vital things to mention in this letter. I have a work assessment test to study for tonight so I'll do my utmost to finish drafting my letter tomorrow night now and send it asap afterwards. (And there was me trying to appeal to everyone else to take some action with this issue!)

Well, I think as long as we get our letters in the post by this coming Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest we should all be fine, by first class post of course.

I visited the park on Saturday (yesterday) for the Coasterforce event and I thought things were quite nicely done on behalf of the operators, however THAT fence and the rather confusing entry system to the park this season needs much to be desired. The entrance "tunnel" arcade building seems to have been completely closed for this year, including all the arcade machines. Hopefully they may re-open this for the peak season. Without wanting to sound at all negative, personally I feel that every possible deterrent has been employed by the property owners to hinder potential customer footfall to the park for this season (including obliteration of park signage outside the park area). Very sad I think as the operators are really trying their best to run things.

Dammit! How did I miss this?
I'm not sure I got that e-mail and now it's too late to send a paper letter anyway!
Is there a way to submit via the internet?

Well it maybe best to send a letter but if that is not possible now then you could send a fax or an email I suppose.

I got the following information from their website
www.go-se.gov.uk/gose/contactUs/

email : jim.palmer@gose.gsi.gov.uk

fax : 01483 882259
(not sure what the prefix is for international faxes is though)

Finally got mine in the post today.

Sorry to hear you missed this one Jim; hopefully you can take advantage of the other communication options. Even myself, having been keen to chase everyone else up on this issue, just about seem to make the deadline. (Life sure is hectic sometimes).

It sometimes irritates me a little when I try to get my close friends to try and have a greater input to issues like this, however, I guess they can't all maintain the same enthusiasm levels that some of us long-timers. As I've said before this Campaign is certainly not for the feint hearted! - you have to be in for the long haul (and I'm not talking airlines there, although I'd rather fancy that option).

Let's hope our effort here has some positive effects.

I have copied my letter below if anyone needs any inspiration!

Martin

Dear Mr Palmer,

Re: Thanet Local Plan; Policy T11 Dreamland

As an active member of the Save Dreamland Campaign I wish to request that the Secretary of State considers calling in the above Local Plan to review Policy T11.

I attended the recent Council meeting where final voting on the Local Plan issues were conducted. Since the Dreamland Park closure announcement in January 2003 I have attended most of the related Council and Public meetings.

After the recent Council meeting I was very disappointed at the Council’s final choice of option regarding the Dreamland site’s future redevelopment. I believe their chosen option does not fully enough protect this historic site from potentially adverse redevelopment. There was also a “secret meeting” that resulted in a last-minute amendment to the Local Plan after the closing date statutory consultation period.

The Council have apparently almost completely disregarded the verdict of the Independent Inspector’s report, which was highly favourable in Dreamland’s continuation as a working amusement/ theme park.

Dreamland is Thanet’s most visited tourist attraction, and as such I believe the site has significant strategic importance. Its world-renowned Grade II listed Scenic Railway roller coaster, built in 1920, also offers unique appeal for all ages.

The above Policy has, in my opinion, been poorly worded and numerous Public consultations have resulted in over-riding support for the retention of the Dreamland Park. The park also has the full support of English Heritage, among other historic bodies.

I hope you carefully consider all of the above and I look forward to hearing from you.


Yours faithfully,



Martin Porter (Mr)

Thanks for the information. I'll send one of my well constructed letters as an e-mail.

I've been away from the computer traveling and working in places that don't have internet access a lot this month.

Nick

When will we hear whether the plan has been called in or not?

Any ideas?

The time is now up. The Government Office should write to everybody who got in touch with them.

I havn't received any sort of acknowledgement to my letter regarding this. Has anyone else heard? I know things take time but 4 months seems an awful long time.

No. I haven't heard either

I'm in the USA. Got a reply ages ago....