Philip Miller talk about Southend to Margate

[Alan]

Hi all,

I found this on the internet by Philip Miller from last year.


Mr Miller: If you compare Southend to Margate, I have an interest in Margate. I am trying to do some business there on a park that was there for 90 years and has now closed down. The demise of Margate as a town is really built around the demise of Dreamland Amusement Park. That is another story, but if you look at Southend, 30 years ago - I own a business on the seafront, about eight or nine acres. It is called Adventure Island, but my family bought it from the receiver. Southend was really in the doldrums, for whatever reason, and over the years we have kept reinvesting, and particularly in the last ten years I have put in £15-£16 million of my own money and others around me have followed, so you have got another attraction up the road. It is all private money and the council come along with all their bits as well. Your question was about a good one and a bad one. I do not think it is quite as simple as good and bad ones. You could not necessarily call the Isle of Thanet a bad one because it is a private guy that has ruined the site, who owns the park. You cannot blame the council for that because it was not theirs to do anything with. In Southend it ranges from good to indifferent to bad, depending what the time of the year it is and where the moon is half the time. If you ask what is the answer to it, some sort of guidance for all the councils to follow in regard to all coastal regions that rely on tourism would be helpful.


Alan


PS Not shure if its been on before.

[Zoidstar]

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