Change of ownership2

A new decade has arrived and with it the news that the Pleasurama site has a new (old) owner. The owner of the freehold is Ltd Company Ramsgate Development Co Ltd which up to November 2019 was owned by Colin Hill who used his puppet retired accountant as owner of the 100 shares, however as of the 3rd November 2019 these shares were transferred to Martin Carlo Rigden making him not only the lead director but sole owner of the Ltd Company.

At the same time the charge imposed by the Mintal Group (actually Colin Hill again) was satisfied in full. This implies that £3,434,346 was paid to Colin Hill by the new owner to give Martin Rigden clear title to the freehold

However what also seems to have happened is the money spent on the site is now in excess of £11M which seems to be an extraordinary sum considering what has really been spent on it over the years.

Accounts 2019

Expenditure
In 2013 I wrote a blogpost (read it here) which laid out the known expenditure :-

Item	Narrative	Cost	Evidence
Lease	3X 199 years	£550000	Dr Sue McGonigal
Deposit	Refundable to SFP	£1000000	Dr Sue McGonigal
Cliff repairs	Contribution	£100000	TDC & Painter
Roadworks and Storm drain	KCC Highways	£600000	Painter to BBC
Planning application	FRC Frewster	£22000	TDC
Total		£2272000

Since then (bar maintenance) the only known maintenance on the site is the cost of the site obelisks which according to Cardy weren't paid for from Colin Hill's funds (this amount was in the region of £750K according to the sub-contractor who did the actual work.

Then in 2016 Ramsgate Development Co Ltd bought the freehold for £3M however they didn't actually pay this amount as the deposit of £1M was deducted, the interest on said deposit was deducted as was the cost of the 3x199 year leases @ £550K meaning just under £2M was paid over.

That makes a figure of around £5M and not the £11M that appears in the current accounts.

Change of ownership

In March 2019 things changed within this ongoing saga with Colin Hill "giving up" ownership of the Pleasurama site.

Well at least on paper he has.
In March Martin Carlo Rigden became the person with significant control at least according to Companies house.
In reality Colin Hill still retains control by virtue of two legal charges he holds over the controlling company "RAMSGATE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED" (09422758) details provided here.

 So nothing changes and even after 21 years it seems we await TDC taking back control of the site. Whether they have either the money or even the will to listen to the people of Ramsgate only time will tell. Certainly nothing will happen until the Development Agreement drawn up by the UKIP administration in 2016 hits the long stop date sometime in 2020. The main issue with this DA is the fact the details were never published so whatever the agreement it is shrouded in secrecy and details are locked away. That there is a deal is undisputed as the Land Registry notes TDC's involvement in the land to this date.

Here is the full title deeds

Freeholder

Having attended the Cabinet meeting in September and listened to the political point scoring from both Labour and Conservatives, One point that escaped the interest of the participants and that concerns the Freehold of the 7 acre former Pleasurama site.

Iris Johnston has said during a further meeting that the Conservatives (Ezekiel & Latchford) walked TDC into giving up the Freehold of the site, and Rick Everitt in his Q&A has clearly stated that:

6. Who will own the freehold once the site is developed?

The current contractual arrangements with SFP entered into in 2006 mean that the Council has substantially disposed of its freehold interest in the land (with freehold transfer provisions documented in the development agreement); the Council’s only continuing legal interest is the right to receive overage payments in respect of the completed units.
There is no change in this situation, the reason it is necessary for the transfer of the freehold is because the arrangement will enable the developer to grant for sale long leaseholds in the finished property.

Is this true? and does the blame for the disposal of the Freehold lie with Ezekiel & Latchford? Well No!
Although the wording in 6 above is true as it did form part of the Development Agreement signed in 2006 and also in 2009, the giving of the Freehold goes back to July/August of 2002.

During the Council Meeting held on the 25 July 2002 under point 41 the Council state 3 things

1. Officers be instructed to inform Ramsgate Boulevard Limited that the Council are not prepared to go forward with their scheme (effectively ending James Godden's interest in the site)

2. Officers be instructed to prepare a marketing brief to enable the site to be marketed as soon as possible. (This document was called "The Ramsgate Rennaissance Commercial Development Opportunity")

3. Officers be instructed to take possession of the site immediately

Now you have to remember that Leader of the Council and his deputy were Richard Nicholson and Iris Johnston and the Council majority was under Labour control. So it was Labour who instructed the Officers to prepare "The Ramsgate Rennaissance Commercial Development Opportunity" and what an opportunity as it is very unusual in Thanet that TDC relinquish the Freehold of a major (7 acre) seafront site but that is what was offered.

"7. Basis for disposal
 7.1 The Council intends to dispose of the identified development site on a freehold basis"

(page 24 of the above document)

So it is completely ridiculous for Labour to blame the Conservatives as it must have been their instructions to Officers which help sell the site to SFP Ventures (UK) Ltd in the first place.

As an aside it also begs the question as to why Ezekiel and Latchford used Leases to enable SFP to own the site as it could and probably should have been the Freehold that was sold in 2009.