News: July 2008

In  January 2003 the owner of Dreamland, Jimmy Godden, announced the closure of Dreamland. The park is to be redeveloped as "leisure boxes, some retail and a supermarket". Joyland Books will provide updates on the campaign to save Dreamland and its internationally-important Scenic Railway ride.

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Wednesday, 30 July 2008

A notice has been served by Thanet District Council to ensure that a fence is put in place to protect Margate’s Scenic Railway, the country’s oldest rollercoaster, until it is repaired.

The Urgent Works Notice has been served on the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company, the owners of Dreamland. It requires them to put up a continuous 2.4 metre high steel fence around the entirety of the listed structure.

The Notice was served on Monday and, if it is not complied with within two weeks from the date it is served, then the council will, using planning powers send contractors into the site to erect the fence. The council will then recover the cost of this work from the site owners.

The move follows the fire, which broke out in early April 2008, destroying approximately 20% of the tracks of the Scenic Railway, the workshop where the cars were housed and part of the “station”. The ride first opened in 1920 and was the first amusement park ride to be Grade II listed in 2002.

Leader of Thanet District Council, Cllr. Sandy Ezekiel, said: “Although the council is still in ongoing discussions with the owners of the site, we believe it’s absolutely essential that measures are taken to preserve the Scenic Railway until repairs begin. We feel that we have given this enough time since the fire broke out and still there is no fencing in place to protect this unique historic asset. The time has come for us to take action and that’s what we’re doing with the issuing of this Urgent Works Notice. If the work is not completed within the next two weeks, then we will be sending in people to do this work. That’s how important this is to us.”

Monday, 28 July 2008

Friday's Isle of Thanet Gazette reports on the Prince's Regeneration Trust's report on the future of Dreamland.

Sunday, 20 July 2008

A brief news update from last week's Isle of Thanet Gazette. This snippet on Dreamland was part of an article about future plans for Margate:

Changes planned for Margate before 2010

Dreamland is set to become a heritage amusement park. The plan is to have many of the original rides back including a refurbished Scenic Railway. The Fun House brought back from Southport, the water chute and a ferris wheel. There are also negotiations to buy some old-style waltzers. The Prince's Regeneration Trust has been commissioned to produce a report into the seaside site by its owners, Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company and the Margate Renewal Partnership.

MRP director Derek Harding said: "I can understand people's frustrations that nothing seems to have happened on the site and if we wanted we could put a fairground on every week but that is not the sort of thing that is going to bring people back year on year. We need to ensure we have robust proposals and proper investments for the future."

The old-style rides would be used but they would also be exhibits so people could learn their history as well as riding on them. The future of the site is expected to be announced in about six months' time. 
 

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Joanna Brown, who sent us some wonderful 1950s and 1960s photos of Dreamland a few months ago, has been back into her photo album and uncovered some more photos, this time of Dreamland in the 1980s. We have put all of Jo's images into their own gallery: The Jo Brown Gallery. Enjoy!

Wednesday, 2 July 2008

The Save Dreamland Campaign has been sent a copy of the the Prince's Regeneration Trust's (PRT) completed Scoping Report on 'The Regeneration of The Scenic Railway & Dreamland Cinema, Margate'. The report indicates the areas of work needed to bring forward the regeneration of these "heritage assets" in the near future, proposes an outline programme and budget for the preparatory stages of the scheme and sets out a potential structure for project management of the regeneration of the two sites. The report formed the basis of an application for grant funding by the Margate Renewal Partnership to the DCMS's Sea Change scheme on Monday.

The completion of the PRT's scoping report is covered in today's Your Thanet.
 

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