{"id":2702,"date":"2011-05-09T15:20:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T15:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=2702"},"modified":"2011-05-09T16:42:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T16:42:39","slug":"margates-grade-ii-theme-park-faces-cpo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=2702","title":{"rendered":"Margate&#8217;s Grade II theme park faces CPO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">A compulsory purchase order is to be served on the disused Dreamland theme park in Margate after negotiations with the current owner fell through.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thanet District Council is backing a scheme to turn the site into a heritage park with historic rides and sideshows to help regenerate the Kent town.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Transfer of the land had been agreed in principle by landowner Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But the council said it had been unable to agree details after a year of talks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Vintage rides salvaged from Blackpool and Southport have been bought for the \u00a312m heritage amusement park on Margate seafront.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The attraction is to be centred on the Grade II listed Scenic Railway, the oldest rollercoaster in the UK, badly damaged in an arson attack in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The park will be run by the Dreamland Trust, which will be given the site by the council for a peppercorn rent.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The council said millions had already been invested in the project by Thanet, the government and the Heritage Lottery Fund.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The heritage amusement park is seen as a vital ingredient in the regeneration of Margate, along with the Turner Contemporary art gallery which opened further along the seafront last month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Because of the importance of this site to the town&#8217;s future, we need to take action to ensure that the heritage amusement park goes ahead,\u2019 said the council&#8217;s chief executive Richard Samuel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Huge amounts of money have already been invested to bring this project to fruition and we can wait no longer for agreement from the landowners.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This is not something we wanted to do, but the failure of the owners to reach a sensible agreement has left us with no choice but to take compulsory purchase action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We have been in negotiations for many months now and we feel that we have been generous to a fault.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Chair of the Dreamland Trust, Nick Laister, said: \u2018With all the technical work now complete and a substantial part of the funding in place, the acquisition of the site by the council will allow the trust to commence work on the implementation of what is a key project for the regeneration of Margate.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For background items see: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\">LINK<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/local\/kent\/hi\/people_and_places\/newsid_9392000\/9392461.stm\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<\/a>BBC News: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-kent-13273752\" target=\"_blank\">LINK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A compulsory purchase order is to be served on the disused Dreamland theme park in Margate after negotiations with the current owner fell through. &nbsp; Thanet District Council is backing a scheme to turn the site into a heritage park &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=2702\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2702"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}