To find out more and get involved in this project residents are invited to a road show event where they can:
- Find out what a marine plan is
- “Fly along the seabed” to see the Dorset coast in amazing detail from the ancient riverbeds to historic shipwrecks
- Feed into the marine plan by saying what activities happen where in Dorset waters.
All events will start at 6.00 pm and will finish at 7.30pm. The Swanage event will be at the Middle School on Tuesday 1 February 2011
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8 comments:
How about a Marina plan???????????
It would be nice, but wasn't the idea shot down in flames decades ago?
Little sailboats might not generate the income needed to justify this. Bigger yachts might not come in numbers, except for overnights. Poole is nearer to those folk, I suppose.
What would be nice would be:
-create a breakwater or barrier of some sort along the path of the old pier (you can see some piling still there) which will shelter the sailing club from easterly winds and waves
-create a public landing stage for all craft that is accessible 24/7 and free, and add more temporary moorings in the bay so that visiting craft can assess the town and its amenities.
But these things have to pay their way, either directly through fees and charges, or indirectly through increased income to the town's amenities and businesses.
why not just carry the concrete part of the pier on branching off in the opposite direction to the wooden bit towards the old stone quay?
9.23 That's the sort of idea I meant in my post before yours.
A Marina would certainly transform the town. We would end up with a weatherspoons, cafe rouge etc. 2nd thoughts - perhaps not but shelter for the sailing club and a landing stage would be great. Could the council invest some of their recent windfall on this ?
sailorboy-
Glad you like my idea of a breakwater and public landing stage.
Can the Town Council invest its recent windfall in this (from the sale of the caravan park)?
In a word : no.
That money is ring fenced and income from it can be spent only to reduce the town's sizable debts, past and present, and on maintaining existing infrastructure and programmes, such as the crumbling Town Hall and the upkeep on the tennis courts, for example.
The windfall is also the subject of a number of 'issues', conditions and/or covenants contained in the contract, which allow the purchaser Darwin) to reclaim a sizable amount of the money (from Swanage Town Council) due to issues such as lower than predicted income and overall commercial performance of the park, the Vista, the pool, restaurant and bar. There were also considerable legal costs and penalties incurred with the sale, as well as operational debts of the park (including employee terminations issues) to be cleared. The reported 7.2 million windfall is not true - it will be considerably less than that when it is done and dusted. The Town Council will not release these details in meetings, nor are they available through FOI requests as they involve a privately-held company.
How do STC manage to cock up their business deals so badly? They leased off the ice cream huts on the beach and ended up paying out massive compensation to various parties. They sold the station yard and made a loss. Now they appear to have sold the caravan park for far less than we had hoped. Criminal!
Well, the good news is that the town's family silver is all but sold off, so little more wrong can happen. The Town Hall and White House will be next to go, along with the boat launch park. STC has seriously considered leasing out the public loos to a pay as you pee private firm. Martin Ayres is a good chap - everything wrong lies at the feet of his predecessor and the mayor at that time, and especially his predecessor. The rot set in when they refurbished the Vista (and embarked on illegal caravan sales), for three quarters of a million pounds, which has never made a shilling in profit since.
Swanage has not been well served in recent years, it must be said. Let's hope Martin can stem the hemorrhage.
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