Covenant my ass

In recent weeks stories have appeared on social media about a possible Covenant for leisure on the former Pleasurama site. Now it would have been something to batter Thanet District Council with, especially during the last 3 years of protests trying to stop the Freehold being transferred to the developer.

Quote Derick Smith "In the (London) Gazette of November 29th 1861 there is a copy of the presented act by which the Kent Coast Railway and the London Chatham & Dover Railway would acquire lands by compulsory purchase and transfer in order to extend the railway from Faversham / Herne Bay to Ramsgate Harbour. It would appear that the Act gives provision for the land at Ramsgate Harbour to be transferred from the Board of Trade to the railway companies. There is no mention of any covenant." 

Basically what the above means is the beach under the cliff was owned by the Board of Trade and in 1861 the land was transferred to the railway, they dug a tunnel from there to the top of Hereson Road. A tunnel 1 mile long and the chalk spoil was deposited on the land to raise the level to provide a platform for the Sands station. This state of affairs lasted until its closure in 1926 and the newspaper article above shows this was purchased by the Ramsgate Corporation.

So there is no chance that any covenant was registered at Land Registry as the land wasn't donated but purchased. This state of affairs lasted until 1974 when Ramsgate Corporation was absorbed into Thanet District Council.

During Ramsgate Corporation's time the land was leased to various leisure companies until it finally resurfaced as Pleasurama in the 1960's

Now there is no sign in that history for any opportunity for the land to be safeguarded for the future as only for leisure use, so is there any scenario that meets that need?
There could be if Ramsgate Corporation had written that into the deeds when it was transferred to Thanet however there is no precedent but the records were stored in Ramsgate Library and destroyed in the August 2004 fire. So might someone have found it between 1974 and 2004. This is unlikely but possible so lets look at the facts.

December 2002 Thanet District Council agree to the development of the land.

November 2003 Planning permission for flats and a hotel applied for

January 28th 2004 Planning permission granted

After planning was granted a very vocal protest group got 5000 signatures together and took a trip to Westminster to meet the local MP Stephen Ladyman.

August 2004 Ramsgate Library is destroyed

The window of opportunity to examine the files is rather small however the most damning evidence there is no document is the fact that for 13 years there has been no use of "a piece of paper" to derail this development.

Michael Child had this to say and remember he has been at the forefront of the campaign for its entire 13 years.

"Barry basically these old covenants are a waste of time, and in the case of Pleasurama I doubt there would be one as the council bought the site from the railway company.

Ironically I would guess that the railway would have needed an act of parliament, which I doubt has been repealed, so if people want to waste their time that would be the one to peruse

Best regards Michael"

Says it all really

If I discover anything else I will post it here

Video nasty

Following on from this original post today I wake up to a video nasty being posted on a closed group "The Friends of Ramsgate Seafront of which I'm not even a member. Thankfully I have friends who alerted me to the video which has now been taken down, mainly because it has backfired on Kandice Jones, who actually secretly filmed me and my wife with her mobile. She can certainly be heard on the video and as such no matter who posted it she certainly is responsible for its uploading to Facebook.

The poster was a profile "James Clark", a profile that some feel is a fake and although I am unable to say yay or nay what is true is the profile was admitted onto the FB page at circa 2a.m. 24/7/2015 by Kandice Jones. This is odd seeing as the admins vet every profile so Kandy letting in a fake is certainly strange. Then the video is posted and pinned to the top by admin, certainly posted with the collusion of admin then.
To deal with what is said is difficult as I haven't played the file and it is now gone but the background to what was said is easily explained as is some of its confusion.
For nearly 2 years I investigated the fiasco know as the Royal Sands. This is evidenced here. and during the investigation I met a long time opponent of the scheme who allowed me to take her papers away which I photocopied and duly returned, so it cannot be the papers to which Kandice refers unless she is paranoid. David Green a Labour Councillor gave me a box of papers relating to the site as he was having a clear out. When he heard I was leaving Ramsgate he requested their return due to the confidential nature of the paperwork.

He makes that point as one of the comments on the thread.

Also to make it clear as to ownership Friends of Ramsgate Seafront was constituted in November 2013 therefore files before that in FORS possession cannot exist. David Green's papers where given to me late 2014 and could , in theory, belong to FORS except they have been returned.

As I was treasurer of FORS from its inception I felt obligated to return checkbooks, cash box, monies, and provisional accounts back to the committee however there was the small? matter of returning £10K grant to the Awards for all and at this point I was being abused and harassed by Kandice and her partner so I returned the (very) small box to who I thought was a committee member. This was handed over in Lovetts office and signed for. Jo Hanchett confirms this in the post.

It was only after this that Kandice rocked up on my doorstep with Margarita Moscoso and a guy I didn't recognise. It was at this meeting I said I have nothing belonging to FORS and for them to leave my property. Even though I left the doorstep Kandice continued to film my wife (who had nothing to do with FORS). When I was warned back in March this secret video existed I emailed the FORS committee to warn of the consequences should it be released onto Social Media. The feedback I got was Margarita didn't know it was being filmed however not ensuring the secret film was deleted is on the head of the entire FORS Committee which seems to have sunk to an all time low.

Now that FORS and Kandice have released the video the gloves are off and the Police are involved. I do wonder how much lower FORS can sink but as they say not my problem.

p.s. There is also the matter of the rumour being put about that I left Ramsgate when the heat was turned up due to me about to be outed for being paid £29K by the Labour party to infiltrate local groups. This is so funny seeing as the local Labour party hasn't got two pennies to rub together. And "in a hurry" don't make me laugh I told the committee in September 2014 I was leaving because my step-daughter was going to have our 1st grandson. To move I had to sell 4 properties in Meday and buy property in Southampton. Anyone who knows the house buying process this isn't anything done in a hurry. This will also be part of the police investigation.