The Friends of Queen's Pier, Ramsey

The Queen's Pier Story.... TYNWALD DEMONSTRATION 20th MARCH 2001
A potentially lively Tynwald sitting will commence this morning, with their being eighteen questions and one protest planned for the morning's schedule. Friends Of Ramsey Pier are to hold a demonstration outside the House of Keys this morning, lobbying MHKs and Ministers as they arrive at the house. The focus of their attention will be on Transport Minister, Tony Brown, who is due to make a statement on the future of the old Pier. The Pier was the subject of a previous placard wielding demonstration late last year, when the Ramsey MHK, Leonard Singer, formally requested the funds from Tynwald to complete the restoration of the pier. An independent survey, commissioned by the Friends of the Pier revealed that the pier would only need a fraction of the money that an official government survey claimed it would need to mount a restoration project.
				This morning, outside the House of Keys, the Ramsey MHK, Leonard Singer claimed that Tony Brown, the Transport Minister is trying to delay the decision of the future of the pier until after the next election, and to wash his hands of the eventual conclusion.
"His intention, as I can see it, is to delay it as long as he can," said Mr Singer, "so he can get to the election and wipe his hands of it. He has had four years to go through this, and he has actually gone against a Tynwald resolution which gave him four months to come up with this report." The matter was raised in Tynwald four months ago, when the conservation group lobbied Ministers entering the House in request for the funding to restore the pier. Mr Singer revealed that the Transport Minister requested more time to review the facts of the matter, and was handed four months in which to do so. It is feared by the group that the case of the pier will be once again, not so much delayed by Mr Brown, as ignored and brushed aside.
				"What he is going to tell, us today is why he hasn't complied with the Tynwald resolution from last November which said he should submit his final report on the fate of the pier this month," continued Mr Singer. "He hasn't done, and he is going to tell us why he hasn't done. But as far as I am concerned, these are just delaying tactics." "I have seen this report," he continued, hinting that he will not be easily brushed aside by these delaying tactics, "and the amount of extra material contained in the report does not warrant an extra four months to come about."
This morning's protests certainly seemed to have captured the public's attention and support for the pier. The air was filled with passing cars sounding their horns and shouting support for the placard waving protesters as they stood outside the House of Keys. This display of public support for the Victorian Pier shows that there is only one outcome of this situation that will be accptable, and, if Mr Singer's fears over Mr Brown's delaying tactics, then the fate of the Ramsey Pier could well be one of the many contentious issues at the Ballot Box in the forthcoming election.
Our thanks go to Mike Wade, Content Journalist BeeMedia PLC. Tel:01624 624624 for the text above, which featured in Beemanx's news section. Photo's are courtesy of David Lloyd-Jones

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