Save Dreamland Campaign: News April 2009

Monday, 27 April 2009

Visit Kent survey shows overwhelming support for Dreamland Project

Earlier this month, an online survey entitled 'A proposal for Margate' was sent to the existing Visit Kent UK database of over 31,674 people. Over 3,300 people replied and 93% felt that the Dreamland project is a good development for Margate. 78% would visit the Heritage Amusement Park when it opens.

Campaign Leader Nick Laister says: "Public consultation exercises undertaken by Thanet District Council, the Save Dreamland Campaign and Dreamland owners the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company have consistently shown that local residents and businesses want to see an amusement park at Dreamland, possibly more than anything else for the town. This survey shows that those who visit Kent also believe that this is good for the town and something that is likely to attract them to visit Margate. This is great news."

Locals Love Dreamland!

The Visit Kent survey is just the latest in a long line of public consultation exercises where the people of Margate and Thanet have shown that they love Dreamland and that they have a passion for the project. Here are just some of the consultation highlights:

2004 - Margate Masterplan: Dreamland generated the most responses to the consultation (44% of all responses) “with almost all of them strongly supporting the use of the site for a major amusement park, family-based attraction”

2006 - Proposed Modifications to the Thanet Local Plan: A total of 452 representations submitted and, of those, all but 10 related to the Dreamland site. Almost all wanted the site to remain an amusement park with the Scenic Railway retained.

2007 - Planning Brief: The Council received 229 completed questionnaires. Over 92% wanted the Scenic Railway retained, over 87% wanting at least 50% of the site in amusement park use and over 85% stating a desire for refurbishment of the Dreamland cinema building for leisure uses.

2009 - I Dream of Dreamland: Over 400 attend. 94% of comments made being in favour of the project.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Nick Laister and Susan Marsh represented The Dreamland Trust at a Dreamland Client Group meeting at the offices of The Princes Regeneration Trust in London on Friday 17 April. The meeting was primarily to discuss progress with grant funding applications. At the meeting, Margate Town Centre Company (the owners of Dreamland) announced that there had been a change in shareholding in that minority shareholder Waterbridge Group (which owned 30% of MTCRC) no longer holds any shares in the company. Existing shareholder Midos Group has acquired Waterbridge's share in MTCRC, but the Waterbridge team - Toby Hunter, Peter Beck and Ross Stewart - will continue to manage the project. The Client Group was assured that the change in shareholding will not have an impact on the heritage amusement park project. This news is also covered in today's Thanet Times.

Blog site Eastcliff Richard, in an article entitled "No More Sweet Dreams at Dreamlanders' Hotel", reports that a Reading hotel owned by Waterbridge Group (The Forbury) has gone into administration. Unfortunately, the article links this to Dreamland by stating: "...the Forbury was created by parent company Waterbridge, none other than the owners of Margate's very own car-park-cum-charcoal-factory Dreamland!" This article is incorrect as Dreamland is owned by MTCRC - as stated above, Waterbridge only had a 30% shareholding.

More accurate updates on Dreamland have been recently featured on the Margate Town Partnership website, This is Margate, and on the Margate Renewal Partnership website. Dreamland also gets a mention in a recent article in The Mirror about BBC series The Apprentice, which will shortly be featuring Margate.

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