A government grant of £24,776 has been given to Thanet council to help clean up high streets across the isle.
The money is from a £9.75 million pot which has be divided amongst all councils across the country.
The aim of the funding is to improve the quality of high streets, helping to attract more residents and visitors so that local businesses can benefit.
It will be used to buy tools such as litter pickers and brushes and for providing training for volunteers on how to remove graffiti or tackle fly-tipping.
The release of the funding at the weekend coincided with High Street Saturday, a new national campaign day held for the first time.
South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay welcomed the funding. He is also supporting Thanet District Council, Ramsgate Town Council and the Ramsgate Town Team in their bid for money for Ramsgate High Street from the Future High Streets Fund – a £675 million pot to help areas modernise their town centres.
He said: “ Our high streets in Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Sandwich are at the heart of our local community.
“I know that changes to consumer buying habits represent a new and growing challenge for many town centres, and Thanet is no different.
“That’s why this funding will help to ensure that we keep high streets across Thanet looking their best, to encourage more people to return to the high streets as destinations in their own right.”
High Street clean up funding
Thanet District Council £24,776.00
Ashford Borough Council £22,355.00
Canterbury City Council £28,766.00
Dover District Council £20,300.00
Folkestone and Hythe District Council £19,533.00
Maidstone Borough Council £29,403.00
Sevenoaks District Council £20,936.00
Swale Borough Council £25,715.00
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council £22,594.00
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council £20,696.00
What a good idea! But we really need to clean up the people that make the mess in the first place!Margate and cliftonville are an absolute disgrace is secondhand furniture strewn all over the pavements drunks and dropouts hanging around.
Will we see thanet council spend the extra cash on cleaning? I will be keeping a check on it ????
The useless TDC will probably spend £23.000 of that on consultancy fees to get advice on the best way to spend the money.
that picture is not of ramsgate high street, it is king street and harbour street
high street lower case as in the town, not High Street as in the specific road. The money is for ‘high streets’ as in towns
Oh for goodness sake wake up people and smell the coffee the grab-all-give-nothing-back Tories have been cutting what they give to councils year after year. Now that the local Elections are looming they are sending a pittance of a sum of money that they stole in the first place. They give nothing back.
Pittance,won’t cover cost 1 extra road sweeper
What’s a road sweeper? we haven’t seen one in almost two years!
None of the money is to be used to employ roadsweepers (don’t forget that TDC is once again looking to make more staff redundant and cut back on services).
The money is to be used to purchase litter pickers and sacks that will then be handed out to volunteers to do the work.
So the new process is that Council Tax payers pay more money but still have to clean the streets themselves.
In “the olden days” every shop keeper would sweep and wash down the area in front of their own shop every morning. I think it was called civic pride. We seem to have now reversed the process and it is now called “couldn’t give a s**t” – to the extend that you have to step over it to get to the shop in the first instance . . .
How true if more civic pride was installed in a minority of people that drop litter well wouldn’t that be nice. Huge corporation’s like Tesco’s etc supply us with this rubbish why can’t they contribute ? Answers on a postcard please
Mackinlay is supposed to represent Cliftonville too, which is in a terrible state with no cleaners evident but he talks about Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Sandwich only. So the money is to be used for a few litter-pickers, brooms and training volunteers up to do the work. No training is needed in picking up litter that’s for sure. I wonder where the rest of the money will go?
Lots of residents already do Street and beach clean-ups regularly so what difference will this money make? A litter pick costs a maximum of £5 and refuse bags not much more for a large roll. I wonder what difference this will make and who needs training to pick up litter? I recently did one in my local park with children and they loved it. Common sense is the only requirement. No needles. No dog poo unless bagged. No broken glass. That’s about it.
Mackinlay!!!! The trained accountant who had “no idea what was being spent” . The Conservatives MP in Thanet South who even the Conservative party did not want as a candidate. Do you think he gives a fig about Clifftonville.
why aren’t all the criminals being forced to clean up Thanet as part of their community sentencing ??? with the amount of community sentences in Thanet we should have the cleanest streets in England not the filthiest.
It might go towards repairing Fido.
Great except it won’t change the mentality of the individuals who think it acceptable to litter,fly tip and not pick up after their dogs so fighting a losing battle really! Well done to lady teaching young ones to clean up!
How is 24 grand needed to train up volunteers? We already pay a fortune in Council Tax for our streets to be cleaned by TDC. Give the money to me and the High Street will be spotless, I promise!!
Isn’t this the kind of thing that isn’t meant to happen during purdah?
Hang on what about dirty old margate in the high street? It’s like one big bin, dog mess, rubbish, fag butt’s bins full, and loads of bloody empty shops, kids harassing passer buyers for money or smokes… Come on pull ya finger out your butt????
What a surprise, surely there can’t be local elections soon can there? When will Thanet wake up and see that since whenever, the tories have stripped all public services to allow them to give tax cuts to their rich friends and families and then throw a few crumbs from their loaded table. They are just a bunch of chancers claiming to have your interest at heart. Some hope, they have no heart, it’s business business business and the rest can fly.
Seen it all before!!
If that was 24.7m it would make a difference to Thanet but 25k would barely keep trigger’s broom going