Shipwrights winning the jobs struggle with Barstewards, this is not a blog and other Sunday rambles.

Once again not much in the way of local news on the Thanet blogs this week, I notice the Isle of Thanet Gazette has dropped its thoughtful blog spot this week, perhaps because we had nothing much to say.

Looks like Tony Bignews is trying to get a reaction from Simon Moores here http://bignewsmargate.blogspot.com/2010/10/local-democracy-week-shame-on-local.html

Story of the week goes to the Gazette this week, their website is crawling so I will do the link later, how the various bureaucrats in local government can waste their time deciding if it is a good idea to put a roundabout at the other end of Margate seafront is beyond me.

The slipways development business seems to be attracting almost universal opposition, though what is interesting to me is how many people avoided actually criticising the design as unattractive.

It is very difficult to criticise contemporary art or architecture, this is the closest to come out of TDC that I have managed to find:

“The underlying reason why Ramsgate Harbour is so visually satisfying is the harmonious relationship between the harbour structures and the boats that populate it. Ocean-going ships display no features that are not essential for their efficient operation. Likewise, the structures that make up the harbour, the Lighthouse, Clock House, Obelisk, Magazine etc, are made up of simple ‘platonic’ forms, cubes, cylinders etc. The design of the proposed building is one of a series of colliding fractured forms. This would be totally at odds visually to the rest of the Harbour and considerably to it detriment.”

Plenty on the shipwrights v barstewards side of the issue but very little on the building being ugly, the nearest most people seem to get is something like “nice design, but not in our harbour.”

This business over contemporary art and architecture is a difficult one, I posted about it earlier in the week at http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-never-stopped-loving-you-neon-makes.html and I sometimes wonder if the distinction between contemporary art and modern architecture, isn’t the best place to start.

In terms of actual buildings I think on the whole architecture has not progressed from modern to contemporary.

If you make the distinction that art assumes the artist will take materials and produce something whereas the architect puts his ideas on paper and other people construct it.

As I said a comment on the post.

“Hi Sixtus you hava mi lucre.”
“Mea culpa Ghirlandaio, Bernini he say he painta alla Cappella Sistina”
“Mama mia suba contractor”

So I have to take it that Tracy Emin produced a piece of contemporary architecture with the neons.

Mind you the ten grand commission on the deal suggests that some of us are in the wrong business.

Sorry I digress, the problem here is one of aesthetics, in the west we are in a fix to start with, as language and therefore our thought structure is platonic. By this I mean that it is much easier for us to decide if something is logical than to decide if something is good.

This seems to produce, for the most part, those who say contemporary art or architecture is all good or all bad.

With modern art this is not so bad, one has terms of reference but when it comes to contemporary art, to make the judgment that this piece is better than that piece, very difficult.

I can handle, “this is not a blog” but am still having difficulty with, “this is a chicken”

Back to the blogs, Mr Earplugs has the news that Kent International Airports bosses are coming to Thanet see http://nonightflights.blogspot.com/2010/10/infratil-top-brass-come-to-kent.html

In a way the whole airport expansion thing is just another, only in Thanet story, as anywhere else it would be the subject of a public enquiry, this is not based on being for or against the expansion but purely on the size of it.

Simon Moores has a pleasant local history post, see http://birchington.blogspot.com/2010/10/glimpse-in-time.html this glances on Cliftonville becoming a conservation area.

I would say to the good people of Cliftonville, make sure it extends all the way to the sea as the developers are looking at the vacant sites on the foreshore, especially look for any wiggly lines going round sites between the cliff and the sea.

Here in Ramsgate we have had years and years of the Pleasurama nondevelopment, with the prospective view from the cliff top of acres of ribbed grey rubber it is likely to become known locally as Cardy’s Condoms.

At least if the site is in a conservation area you stand a chance of getting something in keeping with the area.

Back to the slipways development, Ramsgate Town Council decided to object to it this week. I wonder if there comes a point with any developer where they decide to go along with the wishes of local people, in this instance I would say that is improving the boatyard facilities there.

Would there be a lot less money in a £2m state of the art boatyard than a £2m bar complex I wonder.

Mark Nottingham has only put up the notice of the death of Roy Ford http://marknottingham.blogspot.com/2010/10/roy-ford.html this week, so there is only sad news coming from the Labour camp this week.

There is a rumour going around that Mark may not be standing for re-election as a councillor next year, perhaps because he intends to stand in the next general election.

I am still working on the oil bunkering issue in The Queens Channel 5 miles off Margate, despite reassurances from The Port of London authority, pumping two million tons of oil between ships, in a marine conservation zone seems unusual to me.

There doesn’t seem to be any restriction on the weather that they can do this in that I can find, which as the dedicated oil spill response capability in the Port of Ramsgate, seems to consist of The Thanet Fisherman’s Association and fishing boats can’t put to sea in very bad weather, well you could say I have my concerns.

There is a rumour that a chunk of St Augustine’s Monastery (picture above) in Ramsgate has been sold to The Landmark Trust, the Landmark Trust already run Pugin’s Grange.

The rumour, and it is only that, is that the monks for some reason didn’t want to sell it to the Landmark Trust, who had already made them a reasonable offer, so they spent a considerable amount of money putting it on the market through an agent who sold it to the trust.

I shall probably ramble on a bit more.