A bid of up to £20 million for investment in Ramsgate will be made by Thanet District Council as part of its ambitions to regenerate the town.
Thanet has been identified as a priority one area in the Government’s Levelling Up Prospectus, announced in this week’s Budget. While the fund is open to every local area, it is especially intended to support investment in places where it can make the biggest difference to everyday life, including ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities.
As a priority one area, the council is expected to receive an award of £125,000 capacity funding to support the process. Further details are expected soon.
If successful, the funding will need to be invested in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities. This could include urban regeneration projects, cultural assets and local transport schemes.
The Levelling Up Fund, which applies to the whole of the UK, brings together the Department for Transport, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Treasury to invest £4.8 billion in high value local infrastructure.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Rick Everitt said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to deliver an ambitious vision for Ramsgate, which is already the focus of our new ‘Ramsgate Future’ initiative. The initial funding will help us to accelerate what we were already planning in terms of community engagement. We want to be able to submit our proposal to government in June in order to meet the deadline for the first round of funding
“While the Government will have set criteria which we will need to meet, the principles of improving local infrastructure and enhancing economic prosperity absolutely align with our aspirations for the town. We will be contacting stakeholders, including the town council, to ensure we develop an exciting bid that has wide public support.
“Following the recent success of the £22.2m Margate Towns Fund, I am delighted that we have this early opportunity to bring forward a similar initiative for Ramsgate and I believe this can be a pivotal moment for Thanet as a whole.
“The Government has said it will prioritise bids that can demonstrate investment or begin delivery on the ground in the coming financial year so we will move quickly, but key to the success of the bid will be involving residents from all parts of Ramsgate and I am determined that that will happen.”
‘Ramsgate Future’ was recently announced by Cllr Everitt and aims to build upon existing and forthcoming schemes for the town. This is to ensure that activity such as the £2.7m Future High Street fund, the Heritage Action Zone and plans for the Port are brought together.
This is excellent news, and I couldn’t agree more that the port, the harbour, the high street and our heritage are critical to align into a positive vision of our future. These are things worth investing in. Worth saving. Worth promoting.
Tourism is on the rise in our beautiful neglected town and there is so much goodwill here for a better future and so many people moving here who have something to offer and who thrive in this new community.
I hope the bid is a roaring success.
Does this bid offer a chance of encouraging industry to the port? or would that be dependent on private companies’ interest in moving there?
Let’s hope Ramsgates backers for this bid are as good as Margates have been in bringing the cash home my goodness TDC are going to have one heck of a spending spree 42 million let’s see what they can waste it on and I have no doubt it will be wasted
That would be my concern too. The money available needs to be spent on projects that benefit the whole population of Thanet & not just the select few.
Just to remind people about another little Thanet town called Broadstairs, doesn’t seem to on TDCs radar.
Oh look, where is Dave now then? Always moaning about Margate getting everything and not Ramsgate. Nowhere to be found. He will be back again soon complaining Ramsgate never gets any funding again shortly no doubt.
Daves here and has just seem the press release. And I moaned just once. Will be good if it comes off. All seems very fair to me. Or is it? AS Roy pointed out what about Broadstairs and the other smaller towns.
Litter, grass verges, flower beds would make a great improvement. Similar sized towns in Germany still have town centre road washing every few days.
Where in Ramsgate would you put grass verges?
The important thing is sustainability, if you make townscape changes can the funding be used to support these over a period of years once installed. Charlotte Square is a case in point only through the action of volunteers is it looked after.