Margate Football Club, Hartsdown Park, Hotel Plans.

As far as I can see Margate Football Club have announced they are going to start building a hotel next month that they haven’t got planning permission for, see http://www.margate-fc.com/content/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1292538165&archive=&start_from=&ucat=24&

Simon Moores said on his blog http://birchington.blogspot.com/2011/01/game-of-two-halves.html that they have got permission to build an 80-bed hotel and this was granted in 2006, what worries me is that I can’t find the permission on the councils planning website. The reason that I am worried is that if there is one application that I can’t find there may be others.

I have been caught this way before, because the council sometimes changes the address it uses for the same building and if you don’t have the planning application reference you can only look things up by address.

Here in Ramsgate a building in Marina Esplanade, became one in Granville Marina, so there may be more than one address for Margate Football Ground and a whole host of plans that I don’t know exist.

I don’t know if this is down to TDC incompetence or a deliberate effort to deceive. The words of the Floyd song come to mind: Mother, should I trust the government? After the business with the leadership consultation my answer in the first instance is no.

What Simon seems to be saying is that football club have permission to build an 80 bed hotel and if they want to build a 68 bed hotel then they will have to get permission, what worries me is that as I can’t find the permission to build the 80 bed hotel they may have some other application, either filed or passed somewhere, that no one can object to or support because they can’t find it.

I should point out here that this is a Margate issue and not really something that I understand properly, I know that a lot of people support the club expanding and that a lot of people have concerns about the effects on the park.

My main concern here is that once again that council don’t really seem to have explained this issue, that is very important to a great many people, in fact the important documentation that the council have published on the internet seems to have the same prominence as applications for double glazing and garden sheds, don't help either.

As I couldn’t find the plans for any hotel I have used an old illustration of a model used to promote the redevelopment of Margate town centre, courtesy Margate Museum.

Update some comment about this issue is appearing on Thanet Life at http://birchington.blogspot.com/2011/02/light-at-end-of-tunnel.html you have to go fairly far down the comments to find it as the post started about Margate Caves.