Thursday, 20 July 2006

This week's Thanet Times a dispute between shareholders of Dreamland over money owed, including a statement that the owner of Southend's Adventure Island is no longer interested in acquiring Dreamland.

Campaign Leader, Nick Laister, commented today on Rupert Kenyon's statement regarding Philip Miller's interest in buying the site: "I spoke to Philip Miller yesterday about Rupert Kenyon's quote that Philip is apparently no longer interested in purchasing the site. Philip said that Rupert's statement is completely untrue and that he is still very interested. Philip's position has not changed."

Sunday, 16 July 2006

Adventure Island boss Philip Miller's continued interest in acquiring Dreamland is covered in today's Kent on Sunday newspaper. Miller, owner of Southend's hugely successful theme park, again confirms his interest in redeveloping the Margate amusement park and warns against turning the site into housing. He says:

"I think Thanet will be missing a trick if they do not make use of Dreamland. There are lots of places you can build houses on, you don't have to put it where a famous amusement park has stood for nearly 90 years".

Miller confirms that he would be willing to buy the site for £3.5m, and says that if someone will give him the go-ahead he will be "straight down there."

He states: "Amusement parks can make a huge difference to a town. Southend was really in the doldrums when we started out, but the park has really helped the whole area."

The article also includes quotes from Waterbridge owner Toby Hunter.

Wednesday, 12 July 2006

Campaign member John Mace recently wrote to Thanet District Council to ask whether the Council will be taking any action on the matter of the 'DREAMLAND' sign, which was recently removed from the cinema building and not replaced. The Council's response states that Thanet District Council has written to the owners stating that: "unless the signage is replaced in the next 14 days or unless listed building and advertising consent applications are received in the same time period, the matter will be reported to the next planning committee with a recommendation of enforcement action."

The response also makes reference to the fencing that was erected without planning permission close to the Scenic Railway. At the request of Thanet District Council, the owners of Dreamland applied for retrospective planning permission, which was refused. The Council states: "Enforcement action has been instigated for the removal of the fencing near to the scenic railway."

Tuesday, 11 July 2006

A new website has launched that will be of interest to Save Dreamland members. UK Theme Park Leaflets does exactly what it says on the tin, and features good quality scans of theme park promotional material, including some very rare Dreamland leaflets from the 1980s and 1990s. These include park maps and some great photographs. The Bembom Brothers 1989 and 1990 leaflets can be downloaded, as can the combined 1997 Dreamland/Rotunda leaflet.

Wednesday, 5 July 2006

Back on 22 May, we launched our new Photo Gallery, A Cavalcade of Photographs. One of the images (right), courtesy of Dez Watson, showed the Alice in Wonderland ride from 1978. We received an email today from Campaign member and writer Iain Aitch, with the following message: "I was in Ramsgate a couple of weeks ago and came across the carriages from the Alice In Wonderland ride from the 1970s photograph. A pair now stand sentry to the gates of a kiddies playground on the Westcliff by the IOTA gallery and the boating lake." Click here to see Iain's photograph of the carriage.

Monday, 3 July 2006

More photographs of the Dreamland Miniature Railway have been added to our new gallery: A Cavalcade of Photographs. These pictures are courtesy of Peter Wilson.