Margate – or bust.

I had a couple of visits to Margate recently, one outside the Turner Contemporary and one inside. The outside visit was a walk around the Old Town area which has been nicely restored and provides an interesting backcloth to TC. It was Wednesday morning so things were quiet but on Thursday when I returned it was a bit livelier. What struck me from an architectural point of view was the thin veneer of prosperity which has been added to the seafront facing the TC. This will be extended towards the railway station with the renovation of Dreamland Cinema, maybe Tesco’s new superstore and eventually the Dreamland vintage amusement park.

Behind this veneer are acres of derelict and semi-derelict premises which in years gone by would have been buzzing with holiday makers or supporting the establishments who were accommodating the holidaymakers.  Now those holidaymakers have gone elsewhere there are just too many buildings to find practical uses for their future. Where this happened in Northern towns, the councils purchased many with the help of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and bulldozed them, making parks and open spaces between the remaining buildings. This approach was not considered a success up North so it is probably not the best solution for Margate.

What is needed is to make the seafront “relevant” again. People used to flock to the seaside, they do no more. Children were allowed to roam free; they are now permanently supervised by protective parents. The whole nature of society has changed. If a Middle Class mum wants her children to go swimming, dancing, ice skating, horse riding, or whatever, she puts them into a car, takes them there and brings them back.

There are many financially secure families, living in private houses on Thanet estates, working probably in Canterbury, shopping at Westwood Cross and only going to the beaches when the weather is baking hot. Run down historic town centres have little effect on their lives. We must make the seafront relevant again by introducing family orientated and supervised entertainments and also have a serious re-think on car parking strategies

Chinese Puzzle?

Much publicity was generated about the Thanet District Council delegation, which visited China in 2008 with the supposed intention of securing Chinese investment in the China Gateway project. Three years on, with no commitment by the Chinese to support the venture and a fragile financial predicament of the development company , no sign of economic advantage from the East Kent Opportunities LLP backed venture has filtered through to Thanet.

In fact the planning permission for China Gateway Phase 1 still remains outstanding and not approved because of real concerns about discharge of effluent from the factories and warehouses into septic tanks above Thanet’s underground drinking water supply.

Grandiose schemes like these are “pies in the sky” and it is very unlikely they will come to fruition. The number and type of jobs created by this sort of venture are not accurately quantifiable and by no means secure. Take the example of M&S Westwood Cross for instance, on the face of it, a creator of many jobs, but when the number of jobs lost at M&S Margate is deducted, the picture looks far less rosy.

The only way to job security is economic prosperity for the whole island and whilst Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate continue to look run down and unattractive to both visitors and prospective new residents alike, the Thanet malaise will remain. Grants are available for regeneration on a large scale like Turner Contemporary or on a small scale for garden planting etc. We need a council sympathetic to the needs of the whole community and with the energy and determination to make it happen rather than sitting on their hands and saying “it can’t be done”

NO COMMENT !!!

Just as well I published my April Fool’s post this morning, it might be the only advertisement the poor old Turner Contemporary gets, even if it was by implication.

I have to thank Don at Promote Thanet for highlighting this, but with only two weeks to go to the grandest opening in Thanet for many, many, many years, there is no substantial mention of it on either TDC website or Visit Thanet.

Is it, they have no interest, financial or otherwise in the project? Is it, that their IT department is crap NO non-existent? Or is it, they just don’t care? No doubt we will be told by the usual semi-official  blog sources that the services are “farmed-out” and they have no control over what is published. How many businesses get sub-contractors to do specialist work for them, it is not rocket science, but a sub-contractor is expected to carry out the work efficiently and in accordance with agreed requirements. Get your act together TDC and publish the opening, even I can manage it in my spare time.

In case anyone out there does not know what I am talking about

THE TURNER CONTEMPORARY NEW ART GALLERY OPENS IN MARGATE ON THE 16^TH APRIL 2011. 

 ( remember you heard it here first (well not quite))

Thanet Art Gallery “opening” soon.

 
Chalky Walker and his outside broadcast team are oiling their tripods and polishing their lenses in preparation for the big opening event, Local people are excited to see the result of 12 years of hoardings around the site and have high hopes that the finished product will live up to their full expectations. Chalky will be out interviewing visitors and getting their views about the future regeneration potential from such as local masterpiece.

The opening ceremony will be conducted by GO’D who is a larger than life figure in the area, expected to hold back the waves and get the sun shining especially for the event and also for the hoards of local people expected to turn out for the well-wishing.  It is hoped that the blue skies of Thanet so often revered by famous artists will decorate the ceiling of the new gallery.

Numerous local artists have been commissioned to provide a colourful array of varied artistic talent from Thanet and beyond and the response has been overwhelming. My own meagre contribution (see picture above) will have to remain in cyberspace and at the wrong end of town (Whatever happened to my board Gerry! :-()

The “Van Gogh Alfresco” commonly known locally as the Great Wall of Ramsgate “opens” on the 23^rd of April 2011 at 3pm, so put that date in your diaries. Where’s my diary? ….. ah! yes…only 22 days to go!

Oh, you thought I was referring to …er … the other…………………………..

COUNTDOWN CO-INCIDENCE ?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!

Number of days to opening of Turner Contemporary = 68  (Thanks Tony)

Number of days to the Local Elections = 87

Co-incidence or WHAT ???

Open for business - Closed to tourists

With the 2011 tourist season almost in sight, it is interesting to see the frantic preparations to get Ramsgate ready for the onslaught of visitors to Thanet (read Margate) triggered by the opening of the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery in Thanet (read Margate).

  The Ramsgate signage is all in place to direct hoards of uninformed visitors to the Ramsgate Visitor Information Centre where they can get acquainted with all the details of the latest attractions in Thanet (read Margate).  Just as well Thanet has an award winning Visitor Information Centre, oh but that’s in errrr Margate. Even the alfresco waiting area is empty in Ramsgate and the only hoards to be found are hoardings. Is this what we pay our council tax for, could not £17+ million have lifted the whole of Thanet as a tourist destination.

Strangely enough the real council slogan “open for business” has an ironic twist with TDC providing little or no support to business in Ramsgate. There are more shops thriving in Ramsgate than there are in Margate, without the council’s help. If they give help similar to that given to the Community Pharmacy Gallery in Margate then perhaps Ramsgate is better without it.

Just a quick reminder about a news flash, some six weeks before last Christmas, was it £40,000 ? to be shared around the old towns to spruce up empty shops. How many empty shops have been given a facelift in Ramsgate (Answers on a postcard please to Cecil St, Margate) What this current administration fails to realise is that “Margate needs Thanet” more than “Thanet needs Margate”.

It seems that the only type of council business conducted on the south of the Isle is employment for the “boys with the black stuff”.

Watch this space for future editions of “Tarmac Thanet News”