Dreamland
MARGATE
Save Dreamland Update September 2012
The big news story this summer came from Thanet District Council with the
announcement on the 17 th August 2012 that the Secretary of State approved the
council's Compulsory Purchase Order served on Dreamland's current site owners,
Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company Ltd., following the Public Inquiry
earlier this year.
I am delighted that the Secretary of State has backed our plans to reopen Dreamland as
a major seaside visitor attraction of regional and national significance. Along with our
partners, Thanet District Council, we were confident that our plans would be found to
be robust, deliverable and in the public interest.
The Trust was very pleased to support the council in its efforts to secure the site to
enable us to implement our vision, which has been shown time and time again to be
the development that the people of Thanet most want to see happen. I am very grateful
to the council for believing in our project and putting its time and resources behind it.
We have built a really great partnership on this project, and I am looking forward to
working with TDC as we now move towards implementation.
The residents and businesses of Thanet, and its many existing and future visitors, have
waited far too long for work on this project to start. The funding has largely been in
place since 2009, and plans have been drawn up since around the same time. The news
that the CPO has been confirmed by the Secretary of State is hopefully the final major
hurdle that we will have to cross before we start work on site. This decision means
that the entire Dreamland site can remain intact, covering essentially the same area of
land it has done since it opened as Hall-by-the-Sea in the 1870s. Britain' s oldest
surviving seaside amusement park site will be a place of activity and excitement again.
The Dreamland Trust is ready to make a start on site and we hope to have Stage One
of the project open by Easter 2014, subject to there being no legal challenge to the
Secretary of State's decision. When we open, Dreamland will include the Stage One
rides and attractions (not all of which have been publicly announced yet - so watch his
space), an events area and car park, which between them will utilise the whole site.
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