Ramsgate leaps ahead Margate

as best value seaside town

Ramsgate property is reported by haart estate agents on findaproperty.com, as being the best value seaside town in the south-east, with average house prices at £151,000 compared to a regional average of £207,000, this is in spite of a 73 percent increase in prices since the 2001.

Regeneration of the waterfront and town-centre, combined with marine heritage, future promised high-speed rail link, even Ramsgates grammar schools appeal to the middle-class professionals seeking either a house or second home.

Are there any lessons from Ramsgates improving popularity that can be learnt and applied to Margate, possibly not, Ramsgate harbour, is inherently picturesque and dominates the town, where as Margate has the tawdry Marine Terrace, Dreamland now more car park than amusement park , an as yet to be revealed Turner Gallery, which may well be as hideous as it is unpopular, but time will tell.

The margate regeneration game, where various agencies vie for influence, such as KCC, TDC, Arts Council, the list goes on forever, quite honestly an unco-ordinated leaderless scrum with no clear objective, for instance we have the company that owns Dreamland, which traditionally has been a place of entertainment, that the council (TDC) appear, to have conceded ground instead of making it clear, that this land should remain for the purpose of entertaining, for without it Margate has little to offer visitors.

Margate also has the Turner contemporary for which there is minimal local input, not only are the decision makers from out of town, but the artists supported by Turner, don't appear to be local either, in terms of region of or nationality.

What Margate needs is clear leadership, as it is, there's a diversity of interests, there are three major cultural projects at the moment, in development Dreamland which is in private hands, but presumably subject to local-authority planning, Turner contemporary apparently controlled by self-appointed elite, and the old Marks and Spencer building owned by Thanet council, but probably delegated to outside consultants.

It would be great if the leader of Thanet District Council, could tear himself away from the vision of the cafe society, and address a wider audience of Thanet people, who would like to see Margate as successful as Ramsgate.