Plan to demolish Ramsgate High Street building and replace with 5 shops and 39 flats to be discussed by councillors

The developer will demolish the building and create new shops and flats

Plans to demolish a row of shops on Ramsgate High Street and rebuild  5 smaller shops and 39 flats will be discussed by Thanet councillors next week.

The application submitted by JDP (Ramsgate) Limited is to demolish 60-68 High Street and 1 to 11 George Street which comprises the Pilgrims Hospice shop, Sugar Rush, formerly Cats in Crisis and Simply Danish furniture shop.

The proposal is for shops and 32 one-bed , 5 two-bed and  2 three-bed flats with refuse and cycle stores and external play space. Car parking is not included in the application.

Planning documents for the proposal state: “The new commercial space will be divided into smaller commercial units. The residential aspect of this proposal will be generally accommodated upon the upper floor levels; however part of the George Street commercial accommodation will be residential use.

Aerial view image Kudos ADS

“It is envisaged the building will be demolished to ground level. However, the footprint of the building will be constructed over the footprint of the existing foundations.

“The development will provide for 5 new commercial units all with their own bin storage areas. All will be provided with their own entrance and secondary exit. The dedicated residential entrance located upon George Street and Meeting Street.”

JDP (Ramsgate) Limited says the flats will be energy efficient and built to ‘lifetime homes’ standard. They say town centre properties need to ‘diversify’ to survive.

Thirty-five letters of objection to the scheme have been lodged with Thanet council with concerns including over-development, lack of parking, increase in traffic, lack of consultation with current business owners and a need to protect the Sugar Rush community hub and dance school.

Corner site image Kudos ADS

Councillors Tricia Austin and Becky Wing have called the application in to be considered by the committee due to concerns of potential overdevelopment of the site and the mix of flat sizes proposed which consists mainly of one bed units.

A report to councillors says: “The existing building is considered to be of little architectural merit and is identified in the Ramsgate Conservation Area Appraisal as an opportunity for enhancement.

“The proposed development would largely maintain the character established in the historic commercial core of Ramsgate of commercial buildings with residential above. Whilst the proposed building would be a single building, the introduction of a number of separate frontages and doors to the ground floor, together with its vertical emphasis would add interest to the building and read as several units turning the corner of the High Street and George Street in a uniform way reflecting the traditional pattern of development on this site and within the surviving surrounding area but with a modern design and approach.”

The development will not provide any affordable housing after the applicant raised viability concerns. An independent viability appraisal concluded that no affordable housing provision was achievable, whilst making provision for financial contributions requested by both the Thanet council and KCC and the NHS.

Former tenant Cats in Crisis has moved to a new shop in Queen Street and Sugar Rush has mounted a fundraising campaign to help raise £15,000 to take over the old HSBC building in the town.

Planned relocation

HSBC Ramsgate © Copyright N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

Sugar Rush, headed up by Heidi Moran, also houses Stage Door Arts, provides performance, rehearsal, meeting space, music and office rooms, hotdesks, baby and children classes, community social groups and more.

Heidi moved the business into the current venue in March 2020 and completely renovated what had been an empty unit for a number of years.

Fundraising events include a ball and auction at Ramsgate Music Hall on March 31 from 7pm.

It will include cabaret, live music, DJs and auction.

Tickets from £5 at https://www.outsavvy.com/event/12529/the-filthygorgeous-ball-charity-auction

Find the Sugar Rush JustGiving page here

Council planning officers are recommending that members defer and delegate the application for approval, subject to safeguarding conditions and the receipt of a signed agreement for developer contributions, when the application is discussed on March 15.

Developer contributions requested:

Community learning, youth service, libraries and social care contributions of £640.38 towards additional resources, equipment and services at Broadstairs Adult Education Centre

£2,554.50 towards additional equipment and resources for Thanet youth services

£2,162.55 towards additional resources, equipment and book stock (including digital infrastructure and resources) to be made available at Ramsgate Library

£5,728.32 towards specialist accommodation in Thanet.

A contribution of £2,124.33 is also requested towards improvements at Thanet Household Waste and Recycling Centre to increase capacity.

NHS Kent and Medway have requested a contribution of £21,744.00 towards refurbishment, reconfiguration and/or extension of Dashwood Medical Centre and/or The Grange Practice and/or East Cliff Medical Practice and/or Summerhill Surgery and/or Newington Road Surgery and/or towards new general practice premises development in the area.

A contribution to the provision of off site open space of £34,125.00 towards play equipment and facilities at Boundary Park in Ramsgate

60 Comments

  1. Surely this has to be turned down ,because,where is the parking spaces for the flats,I thought all new plans had to provide some parking for the owners/tenants,this, has been TDC mantra for quite a few years now,because they have turned down some previous plans ,or have they changed their tune ,can anyone shine a light on this parking thing

    • Hi Ray absolutely agree with the need for parking spaces especially in a town centre for each flat, but my main reason for turning it down no affordable housing!! How will local people be able to afford them one bed flat in Ramsgate are up to £650 a month for cubby holes, so a flat which confirms to all energy efficiency and built some top notch standards are going to cost £150 approx on top we need housing local people can afford.

    • The harder is is to find parking places in town, the more chance there is of car drivers deciding to use other forms of transport. So I completely support the idea of housing developments without parking spaces.

  2. theres a good 2 thirds of this town that needs demolishing , its mostly derelict anyway , and as for that lovely old bank building being used by ” cats in crisis ” really ? i think we should be more bothered about people in crisis.

    • Its Sugar Rush who want the bank. Cats In Crisis are down the road in Queen St i believe. Sugar Rush are a “LGBTQ+ friendly venue” – but shouldn’t every venue be like that in 2023? When I go to the cafe, no one asks me who I go to bed with. And they need handouts, so not exactly viable if they’ve already been trading. They’ve picked a landmark big building which will need renovation and conversion and hence ££££. I’d like to do that – I want a shop, I go for a shop too big and too expensive for my needs which needs renovation – and then I ask the public to give me some money. That 15k will be eaten up with fees, rental deposits and some of the renovation costs. Will they ask for more in a couple of months time as that building is not cheap to rent, business rates won’t be cheap and of course bills to heat the building….

        • The point being that the venue finds it necessary to point out that it is friendly towards the LGBTQ+ fraternity. Why ?

          As Rob points out, why should it matter as to ones sexual or gender preferences to go to a coffee shop – or anywhere else come to that.

          We don’t have to put up with signs that say they are friendly towards Muslims, or friendly towards Albanians or any friendly towards any other particular identity or group of people or beliefs, – so why should the LGBTQ+ group be singled out ?

          I am sure there would be an outcry if a premises advertised that they were friendly towards heterosexuals or friendly towards members of the white middle class !

    • It’s a charity shop called cats in crises. Normally cats charity shops are called cats protection.

      • Sorry to contradict you but Cats in Crisis is a small local cat rescue working in and around Thanet. Cats Protection is a huge national organisation very highly thought of by cat lovers but not based in Thanet

  3. Just to help you out here.If anyone including the deluded planning office at TDC think that not providing any parking spaces is a good idea and that car drivers will forgo using personal transport for public transport they should look where that has happened elsewhere in Ramsgate and everywhere else this I’ll thought out policy has been applied.
    The fact is though Thanet has some bus services they are diminishing daily.All that will happen is that drivers will park their cars anywhere and will damn the consequences.
    TDC revels in tramline managerialism which puts developer contributions over the harm their thoughtless expediency does to local communities.

    • The less people drive, the better it is for everybody- including the drivers- and for the environment. But too many car drivers are obsessed by the idea that they are the most important section of society. They seem to think that pedestrians are so unimportant that they hardly need thinking about, let alone noticing and avoiding.

    • Not everyone has a 5 a.m. shift start.
      Are you suggesting that building projects and traffic management schemes should be shaped by you personal and peculiar needs?
      If car use and ownership was limited to the very, very few who really had no other option (for example, people starting work very early or very late) there would be no problem.
      But far too many of us have been bamboozled by the glossy adverts to part with £10000s to buy something which turns out to be an albertross.
      It simply isn’t sustainable to keep on building more roads and motorways and parking places. The country will be completely tarmaced over.
      Be part of the solution. Not the problem.

      • There is nothing peculiar about it, many people have a 5am start to their working day. Think yourself lucky that all it appears you have to do is sit around all day criticising others for making a valid point.

        • A bus service (omnibus = “for all”) is provided (or not) depending on the demand.
          The Loop bus services, for example, begins at 05:19 from WWX. The no.9 to Canterbury has been cut back.
          If there was a demand for a bus service before 5 a.m., there would be one.
          When you say “many” people have a 5 a.m. start to their day, I would say that many, many more do not.
          That’s why the “rush hour” is around 7.30 to 9, rather than 5 till 6.
          Anyway, must dash. Got a bus to catch.

          • Andrew hi the loop starting at o5. 19 is 19 minutes after the L Reynolds started their shift not much good to them is it so its shankses pony for them. No insult intended towards L Reynolds. For those who don’t know what shankses pony is it’s walking.

        • I don’t think you’ve understood the use of the word “peculiar” in this context.

          “peculiar
          adjective
          1) Not ordinary or usual; odd or strange: synonym: strange.
          2) Belonging distinctively or primarily to one person, group, or kind; special or unique.”

          The second definition the most relevant.

      • Laurence Davies. I was going to say that Andrew is not using “peculiar” to mean odd. But now I’m glad I didn’t, because I wouldn’t want you to think I was “sad”.

        Do teachers teach because they want people to know how clever (meaning “well-educated) they are?

        • How you make the analogy between teachers teaching and Andrews comments to me on here stretches the imagination. Still I suppose it gives you something to have a dig about. I note that no one has come back on your question as regards the percentage of the adult population who starts work early or late, maybe you can do some research yourself and add it as a comment on this thread?

          • Laurence Davies’ imagination seems limited. Andrew in his 3pm comment yesterday was certainly hoping to educate him in the less usual meaning of “peculiar”. The point of my rhetorical question (9.33 am comment yesterday) was not to get a reply but to stress that most people don’t need to be out and about extremely early or extremely late.

  4. Don’t worry about the parking. We shall all too soon have this ’15 minute cities’ Checkpoint Charlie nonsense, as is being planned for Canterbury. We’ll ‘own nothing and be happy’???

    • A brilliant scheme, designed to discourage feckless motorists from making quite unnecessary journeys.

  5. To those of you questioning the need of LGBTQ+ signage. The need is clear.

    Firstly you cannot compare heterosexuality nor faith to the LGBTQ+ community. Signage is often displayed as a bastion to those who are in that community and can regard the shop/pub/restaurant as a safe space where there are ally’s. Not all shops pubs etc are welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community. Having ally’s is incredibly important to help call out nasty behaviour.

    To your reference about being asked who you sleep with. I think the importance here is if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community you have every right to be proud and outwardly so, given the previous disgusting behaviour this country has waded against them.

    Don’t judge people.

    We’re all here for the same thing. Happiness.

  6. No parking??

    There is a car park to the rear of these properties ffs!

    Stop popping out kids and there would be no need for more and more new homes (plus the dinghy sailors)!!

  7. Decades ago I submitted a Planning Application for a client (NOT in Thanet!) to demolish an existing small industrial unit in a small town, and construct 5 X 2 bed flats. The local authority Planning Department insisted on one and half parking spaces per flat! The idea was that they provided parking for “visitors”, which I managed to fit in, and obtained Planning Permission. The population demographic has changed a great deal since then, and many single elderly people like me no longer drive, or need to. I own a 2 bed bungalow with no parking, and used a bike up until Last May. But after a rapid decline in my health, and being now in my ninth decade if I need transport, like I did yesterday to go to the QEQM, I use a taxi.

  8. I’m not happy with one bed flats. Also the number of flats suggest they are being crammed in. We must ensure that the dead hand of Planning doesn’t dictate to elected councillors.

  9. The local conservation officer thinks the scheme will be a big improvement on the current building.So do I.Not that I’m anti-Brutalism per se, but this building is very much out of place.

  10. Anti-car people are

    1- deluded.
    2- ill informed.

    Public transport is not public transport its private transport. You can’t depend on it.

    Not all cars are harmful.

    The focus should be making personal vechiles greener. Not hammering people who don’t want to be held hostage by profit first transport companies

  11. One could say that “car people” are naive suckered who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the advertising blurb on every telly advert and most glossy magazines.
    After all, who would, in their right mind, spend £10,000s on a car which spends 23 hours every day sitting outside the owner’s home/work. And, when it does move, it is frequently overtaken by old ladies on bicycles.

    Public transport is, by definition, public. Unlike a private car, which isn’t.

    A double decker bus, which takes up the space of 2 cars, holds nigh on 100 people. A full bus would take more than 50 cars off the road. What’s not to like about that?

    Almost all cars emit chemicals and particulates that are harmful.

    • And buses do not, dirty cars will disappear ,and he replaced by electric ,then problems really start ,what to do with all the batteries,ev batteries last about 7 years of so ,there is not enough factory space to recycle old batteries now,so millions will be dumped or stockpiled ,until enough recycling space is available if ever

      • Ray the bread, please re-read Andrew’s comment. 100 adults on a bus would not be causing the same amount of pollution as 100 adults, each driving a car. So the real solution is not electric private cars but a much, much better public transport system.
        “Build it and they (people) will come.”

        (It would help if cars were more expensive to run and bus and train fares were cheaper, of course.)

        • Stop taking the magic mushrooms, public transport will never be ok, it sticks to main roads ,hard to get to places ,ie the countryside or any where off the main roads, public transport is useless,and while there is cars I will use one as a disabled person or am I not allowed to get around, how do you think the shops get their products vans, cars lorries ,or do they come in on magic carpets joke ,the car is here to stay ,get used to them,anti car people on this site are all I’m ok ,sod the rest ,there are bad car driver as much as pedestrians and bad,cyclists

          • Currently, public transport is poor, and routes are limited. But it has not always been like this and it is not impossible that in the future it will be much improved.

            There is no need for Ray to say silly things like “Stop taking the magic mushrooms”. He does, however, need to accept that the current situation, where cars and their drivers are at the top of the transport pecking-order and pedestrians are at the bottom, is not going to be tenable for very much longer.

  12. Parking has been considered in the application,people need to read between the lines. The ability of thinking out side of the car issue is required. Its 2023 not 1970 !

    New housing with many 1 bedroom flats (1 bedroom housing in general) is in very short supply. Dont know if the flats will be sold off or rented out but they can be considered ‘starter’ properties a first step on the housing ladder or for downsizers.
    They will be built to the most up to date energy saving standards, probably solar panels, air source heat pumps and wind turbines on the roof for low risk communal electricity needs.
    iirc the new flats will be electric heated, green renewable local electric.
    High st location with increased footfall (local high st shopping) cant be a bad idea.
    So what not to like ? Why do nimby’s have to interfere ?

    • People do like to drive,most young people are going to get a car,most refugees will get a car at some point,try getting your weekly shop for 4+ people on a bus ,home ,not possible ,plumbers sparkys and other small time businesses use cars ,food delivery drivers use cars ,the amount cars is going to increase wether we like it or not,public transport is not the complete answer ,because it is few heavily subsidised,when they are taken away bit by bit so routes go, prices rise ,and they Presto ,people will use cars again ,useless people want massive tax rises to pay for the lost subsidies,it will not happen ,no one ever voted for tax rises,especially in one of the most taxed countries in europe

      • If all you need a car for is a weekly shop for your family the you don’t need a car of your own, you need a reliable taxi firm. Public transport should all be nationalized.

        • I assume you’re a leftie from your condescending righteous tone? The trouble with lefties is that it’s your way or no way. You believe in free speech, but only when that viewpoint matches your own. Everyone is allowed to have a car if they want one. As long as its taxed, insured, has a MOT, the driver has a licence, the vehicle is roadworthy and the driver doesn’t break the law while driving, its no one’s business how often someone drives their own vehicle. Its their right. I am a car driver, but I also use public transport for many journeys. Yet the fact is public transport is only okay if you need to go from A to B and the bus goes to where you want to go. Buses rarely connect, and if you need to travel further, carry heavy things, or need a vehicle to carry tools for work, then you need a van or car. Same applies to those who are disabled.

          I agree some journeys people take by car are daft. I’ve seen people drive yards to a shop, when I walk. But it’s not up to me to look down upon them and berate their decisions. If someone lives in the centre of Canterbury, then why do they need a car? But anywhere else, should they have a car, then that’s surely up to them?! A car isn’t cheap to run, but neither is public transport at times.

          For me it’s about give and take. Who cares if someone has a car or not?! Lefties love control and they arrogantly assume their opinions are correct and above anyone else’s. That is what I take issue with, plus that arrogant way your kind have in talking down to people of whom you do not agree with as though they are uneducated simply because they may not agree with your viewpoint. That’s arrogant.

          • Goodness! What’s a “leftie”?
            The problem I have with private car ownership is that so many of us are “entitled”. Households have 2, 3 cars (or more).
            Where are they to go? How much of our countryside should we bulldoze through to build motorways? How much of our town centre should we smash down to build yet more carports?
            Surely, anyone with a shread of gumption can see that this is not sustainable!
            I take your point about public transport. In Thanet, since the recent cuts, bus travel has become nigh on impossible, other than the Loop. And it shouldn’t be. A joined up bus service would be great.

          • Well,Rob , I humbly apologize for being an arrogant, condescending , self-righteous “leftie”. I will spend the rest of my day praying for forgiveness, and when out buying my champagne for the evening, I will be sure to bow to all the men I meet and say “Mea culpa”, just in case they are you. Thanks so much for your words of wisdom!

  13. Quote: “The development will not provide any affordable housing after the applicant raised viability concerns. An independent viability appraisal concluded that no affordable housing provision was achievable, whilst making provision for financial contributions requested by both the Thanet council and KCC and the NHS.”
    So who are these flats for, what benefit to the community and how many will end up as AirBnB? What time scale does the work envisage and what disruption to traffic and those of us living close by will we have to endure? Is there any interest in the proposed new retail outlets? Development Omnishambles…

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