I read an article in the Metro recently that had me slightly inscenced. This would be the free tube newspaper that takes me hours to find one without another person attached to - or sitting on - it. It was a teeny tiny paragraph which I tore out but lost very quickly as it rivaled a postage stamp in square footage. It described (as best as a text that size could) the recent end to donkey rides on Margate sea front, and so of course I was instantly interested. I looked up the story online when I got home and was pretty surprised that I had not heard of it before. Not only are the donkeys leaving the shoreline this summer, but Margate was the first resort to ever introduce donkey rides as seaside entertainment back in the 1890's!!! And now they are leaving. Margate's donkey man has his own completely understandable reasons for ending the rides, but it seems so sad to lose another part of our heritage from the local shoreline. There is talk of the council taking over the franchise but I have a very unfounded feeling that perhaps not a lot of good would come from that move. After all, surely a job such as that is one done for enjoyment and not for extreme, target-busting profit. So goodbye to the donkeys, for now. They say the deck chairs are next, due to a terrible summer and increased council rates. People (local or otherwise) don't utilise or respect the fantastic things we have available to us enough. Hopefully they will be back soon, and fronted by another enthusiast like the previous one!
On a lighter note, the website has been updated again today!
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