Margate has had for a while various organisations that tag themselves with regeneration in their name or as a purpose, now it would be unfair to write off all their efforts but such notoriety will make the likelihood of revival harder.
At the risk of upsetting various quangocrats, “officers”, councillors and assorted “duckers and divers”, I’ve always felt that the local council have been negligent, in not being at the head of regeneration. Still realism is not something your likely to see from TDC who if anything have selfishly been the main cause of the demise of many of Margate shops, by taking over the main car park (Mill Lane) Monday to Friday thus depriving businesses of that essential supply of customers.
Its seems that all kinds of organisations, have wasted money, from KCC/Arts council, employing an expensive curator & staff of the as yet to be built Turner or TDC paying millions over the odds for the Marks & Spencer Building.
So far things that have bought, benefit to Margate are events such as Thanet Pride, Big Sky, quad bikes the Volley Ball and who knows maybe the controversial “Dippers and Divers” .
It seems the Margate regeneration game, is nothing new take a gander at this from 1936 report in the Times, still this is from a time when Margate was a destination for Britain’s holiday makers. Timesarchive
Too many shopping centres and too few people to support them. Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Birchington, Westgate, Minster, Northdown Road, Westwood Cross. 130,000 people in Thanet max. - not difficult really. Why should the council flog an unpopular dead horse?
ReplyDeleteYou're right anon 1:54, we obviously need far more cheap housing & far more immigrants to support our shopping centres.
ReplyDeleteTDC is trying to keep the High St and develop the Old Town when retail reduces every year partly because of internet shopping. More on the mess they are making from this post 6 months ago
ReplyDeletehttp://marknottingham.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-town-is-becoming-like-ghost-town.html
Over a year ago - during my time as a County Councillor for Margate & Cliftonville - I remember clearly a statement made at County Hall by Conservative KCC Leader Paul Carter 'informing' members in the council chamber that the regeneration of Margate was going absolutely splendidly.
ReplyDeleteAs a local KCC member at the time I got up and told the council that on that very morning I had counted 44 shops closed and boarded up in Margate and that the years of delays caused by the mismanagement of the Turner Contemporary project had cost our town dearly. I made it quite clear that the leadership at KCC were deluding themselves if they thought things were going just fine.
Conservative Margate & Cliftonville Cllr. Chris Wells then stood up and said I was (to use his very words) "painting far too black a picture of the situation".
The fact is that Margate has had the double blow of a recession that has affected everyone globally and two local authorities who have buried their heads in the town's golden sand for far too long!
And that remains the truth: it would be somewhat economical with the truth to claim everything is going splendidly; but it is equally so to claim total gloom and doom.
ReplyDeleteThe answer for Margate is not magical = it is about increasing footfall and reasons to get people into the town.
There was an interesting report in the London evening papers this week that, on average, it costs £660 per year to shop in a high street over other forms of shopping. And before your fingers all jump to the obvious car parking charges, the largest slice of that cost, some £3 per visit I think (this is all from memory) was in coffee and cake: eg the additional spend that comes from visiting an area.
It is that additional spend we want from visitors to Turner Contemporary, which is why no car park alongside the gallery makes sense. We want tourists to wander through the town and spend money on the way.
Yes,other attractions and events will play their part as well, and Margate High street is suffering, but it is wrong to say efforts are not being made. As ever, the sideline experts have a field day, but balancing the books means real difficulty bridging the gap between what we would all like to do, and what can be done in the short term.
The TDC parking issue is on the agenda for discussion, but whilst there is still excess parking capacity in the town, is not the immediately critical factor, tho I understand the symbolism and irritation of the issue as well.
No one has their heads buried in the sand; no one underestimates the scale of the problem. And, please note, there are no personal jibes in this answer, nor grand pronouncements: just an acknowledgement of difficult work in progress.
They are still trading at the moment but if you care to take a look at Pearson's estate agents website and look at the shops for sale, you will find among them Hilton's fake Rolex emporium and the smaller of Henry's two shops - the one where they sell the toy cars - are both for sale. Need we say more?
ReplyDeletePlenty of other Margate and Cliftonville shops are on the market too.
Margate town centre is on its knees now and set to get worse unless buyers are found. Parking nearby is either difficult or expensive.
Trouble is Westwood Cross free parking is hard to beat and you are less likely to shop your way past beer swigging, benefit fiddling undesirables there.
Derby and Margate were looked at this morning on either GMTV or BBC Breakfast. The reporter and Derby shopkeeper interviewed, both said that the new shopping centre had had a devestating impact. Switch to Margate where a 'quango man' from MTC Regeneration talked about the change in holiday habits in past 10 to 20 years being Margate's problem. I was furious as I shouted an obscenity at the TV! Margate high street and night life was ticking along quite nicely less than 10 years ago. Westwood Cross has taken retail and leisure out of the town whilst Dreamland was deliberately killed off for property speculation, keeping Kent Fire Brigade up to spec with realistic training, that TDC then ratified! Was it only 5 years ago that 600,000 visitors were attracted to a declining Dreamland?
ReplyDeleteThe distortion of the truth concerning Margate's decline is so that we can get excited about 130,000 projected visitors to TC and 600,000 projected as coming to a clapped out Heritage Dreamland funded by the tax-payer! We live in a world where more is less and black is white.
Not comming from Thanet but having stayed there for the last 3 years I dont know if TDC could have stopped Westwood Cross from being built. I doubt it as it is not unique in Kent. They knew what would happen to Gravesend and the like when Bluewater was built. TDC have to live with it but if you think visitors to the Turner will spend sufficent to pick Margate up you are living in cookoo land. The numbers just dont stack up. I see reports in your comments that shoppers in a town centre spend £660 p.a on incidentals. Thats £12 per week and probably in a single visit and almost certainly for a family group. So if you are lucky Margate will get an extra 100,000 visits to equate at £1.2 millions at most. That will only pay the rental and wages for about 10 small shops and 20 staff.
ReplyDeleteI hope the £16 million plus gamble on the Turner works but if it fails, one thing is for sure, the leadership at KCC wont put their hands up, they don't have a great record on admitting up to their multi million pound cock-ups.
Hmmm-yes clive but you don't sat it was your party that pushed for westwood cross do you?If i remember i asked Iris what shops were going up there and she said not the ones in the high street-ie m&s river island dorothy perkins etc but ones from canterbury-moonsoon debenhams etc but what happened as soon as it was built m&s applied and got permission to go and the rest of the high street followed Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteBrilliant post Tony. For as long as I can remember people have been saying we have the wrong people on the council. That includes Margate Borough Council before it was subsumed into Thanet D.C.
ReplyDeleteIn 2005, I took part (for the first and last time)in the Margate Carnival supporting, if you excuse the pun, Margate Football Club.
Bloggers, councillors and Margate residents ought to be aware that matches at MFC has attracted sizeable crowds for decades. I can't think of any other regular event in the town, over 9 months in the year, which can compare. At least the town has that going for it!
(Margate F.C. will shortly be celebrating 80 years of football at Hartsdown Park)
01:54 right at the start of this thread got it spot on. Too many shopping centres - too few people. And those that are here don't have any money. Roll on the TC, China Gateway and Manston Airport development.
ReplyDeleteMight I note that Margate Carnival is an old tradition, which once again is being kicked out? Ramsgate have had to make thiers a bi-annual event due to lack of support.
ReplyDeleteAll of the carnivals over Kent are suffering, despite being a well kept tradition with some of thier heritage spanning back over 100 years.
None of the councils care, and find it a waste of money.
Personally I love a good carnival, it bring in thousands if you get the right weather, not to mention children love it!
Why stamp out something so good for the town's popularity?
Might I note that Margate Carnival is an old tradition, which once again is being kicked out? Ramsgate have had to make thiers a bi-annual event due to lack of support.
ReplyDeleteAll of the carnivals over Kent are suffering, despite being a well kept tradition with some of thier heritage spanning back over 100 years.
None of the councils care, and find it a waste of money.
Personally I love a good carnival, it bring in thousands if you get the right weather, not to mention children love it!
Why stamp out something so good for the town's popularity?
KCC couldn't give a stuff about Thanet. We are too far away from Maidstone to bother with.
ReplyDeleteAs a Margate retailer, I watched the news article.It just shows how badly this town has been managed. There is no excuse for Margate having a higher closure rate than the rest of the SE/north of the country.The council are selfish with allocating free parking spaces to themselves depriving the High St of prime parking. If TDC had any serious intentions for regeneration they should have made College Square free with the new opening of Morrisons and encouraged more people back to the town. I understand that Councils will be forced to stop free parking for their employees, as this conflicts with green intiatives..About time too!!!
ReplyDelete