Margate Football Club hotel and stand development given approval

Redevelopment plans for Margate FC Image GPM/Margate FC

Plans for a 120-bed hotel, new stands, restaurant, café, club shop and car parking at Margate Football Club have been given the green light following consultation with the Secretary of State.

Margate Football Club’s  application was developed with hotel partner IHG Hotels and the brand Holiday Inn Express to reflect increased demand for hotel rooms in Thanet.

Image GPM/Margate FC

The East Block will be used for a 120-bedroom hotel together with restaurant and bar facilities. The building will also include space for MFC club offices and a club shop together with the stadium control room. The stand will be all-seater and have a capacity of 650.

Image GPM/Margate FC

The North Stand will be a terrace with a capacity of 1,300 and behind this and integrated into it, there will also be space for first team home and away changing facilities, together with ancillary spaces associated with the first team. On the ground floor, there will be several studio spaces for sports and associated activities. On the first floor there will be a café/bar facility which overlooks the pitch.

Image GPM/Margate FC

The car park will be extended to provide 104 parking spaces and will provide access to all of the East Block offices, shop and hotel. The North End turnstiles will be renewed and relocated into

Plans for a hotel development at the Hartsdown site were originally granted in 2012.

The initial scheme was for a football stadium, an 80 bed hotel, fitness club, children’s club, children’s play area, theme bar, conference and banqueting suites, hospitality boxes, admin offices, boardroom, 10 five a sides and one full size all weather pitch and associated parking and landscaping.

Image GPM/Margate FC

The current plan rearranges the internal space of the hotel to expand the rooms to 120.

Developer contributions secured from Margate FC include £12,338.16 towards the Strategic Access Management and Monitoring (SAMM) plan to offset the potential impact on protected birds at European designated sites from increased visitors from the district to these areas.

Image GPM/Margate FC

Thanet council had been required to consult the Secretary of State due to an objection from Sport England over loss of open space with the extension of car parking taking a plot of land at Tivoli Park, but the go-ahead has now been granted.

Image GPM/Margate FC

A statement from Margate FC says: “Margate Football Club is delighted to let supporters know approval from the Secretary of State and Thanet Council has been granted for our stadium re-development plans.

“This is great news for the club, our supporters, our local community and our future. We look forward to making some further positive progress and will keep fans updated.”

The notification of planning approval was published by Thanet council today (May 28)

38 Comments

  1. How sad it is to see that Thanet Council Councillors and the senior planning bodies are being portrayed as a body that is willing to accept bribes. Is it justified. Regretfully.

  2. All for grown men getting excited about a bunch of yobs kicking around a bit inflated leather…

    • Peter please don’t comment regarding things you don’t understand. A local football club is a a big part of any community. You sound like a massive snob

      • As I said, the comment wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, and as I also said I WELCOME anything that encourages physical exercise (I personally loved cycling as a kid, and consequently I still do it regularly at 58).

    • I think you are confusing local non league football with premier league. The hundreds of boys and girls who play with MFC
      .and at Ramsgate should not be described as yobs

      • Fair comment (and MY comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek – I just can’t stand football!).

        Physical exercise should be encouraged, but I don’t think such a development should be on the edge of Hartsdown Park.

  3. Planning permissipn for sale .ill come back in 10 years time..

    Are quinn estates invoved?and guy holloway?if so i will put my morgage on not pne brick moving on site..

  4. Sounds good but pie in the sky. It is the same plan that failed 20 years ago. Economically non viable unless they can build houses on the pitch or on the adjacent Tivoli park against all the restrictions that TDC will try to over ride,

  5. Hotel??? why there, strangers looking for a room will go to the sea front surely.
    More green spaces will be lost and even more traffic around the area of coffin corner, combine that with the houses along shottendane rd all joining up at the lights wow! another area to avoid. Stadium I can understand but the rest umph!!!!!

    • Agreed. Would make far more sense to do up the Nayland Rock Hotel or even build something where Arlington Arcade is.

  6. I wish mfc luck, but I do find this abit odd. Lots of clubs have been struggling thought covid.

    For making the statium bigger I guess margate must be selling out ever home game.

    Margate play in what 6th or 7th tier of football, so not a great standard of football to be honest. But bring in enough money for this development ? Would I be right in saying at this level of football FFP isnt involved ?

    I know FFP can be off set against ground improvements.
    I really dont see the demand or need for this. Upgrade the statium ok but who is going to want to stay at a hotel with 22 blokes shouting and swearing at each other with flood lights in your eyes as you are trying to have a relaxing evening in your room 😉

    Still dont see the need for a hotel or even a club shop as I dont see many locals wearing mfc shirts ! It’s mostly plastic man utd and liverpool fans.

    Perhaps mfc have plans to sign Messi on a free and push up the leagues lol

  7. Why cannot designers have a bit of imagination. Boxes upon boxes in a prominent position towering above the local houses looks ugly. Still I suppose this will blend in with the proposed shack development opposite the existing club entrance.
    .
    Perhaps a roundabout should be installed NOW right outside the club to save on the bottleneck at Coffin Corner Traffic Lights.

    • Great news for the club but yet again TDC planners demonstrate how useless and ineffective they are in recognising bad design.
      The more they allow poor developments and fail to appreciate the value of surrounding environment the more we residents suffer the loss of character and quality of life in Thanet.
      They (TDC) are a shower, not fit for purpose.

  8. May perhaps visitors will leave the new road at shottondane and go to the first hotel they see. Which will be !!!!

  9. I wonder if they make the car park any bigger. What will happen to all those newly planted trees, next to the existing car park? It would be such a shame, and waste of money if they had to be pulled out again.

    • It’s about time this dreary town needs a or boost. Now build more sports facilities such as cycling track or athletic track

      • By all means “build” a cycle or athletics track INSTEAD of a hotel and car park.

  10. Great news for Margate FC, awful design (child with a ruler?), bad news for local residents and the wildlife.
    Surely an architect with taste and a bit of class could do better for the club, the environment and the local residents? Looks like a back of an envelope design, done on the cheap by some local outfit that has no idea about creative building but can see a few quid further down the line by doing a favour for a mate.

      • They would take decades to grow to the top of a 3rd floor roof, and even if they did I suspect they’d be cut back as they’d block the light and view…

        I’ve no idea just why you’re so obsessively protective of this development (please tell us!), but your replies are getting more and more ludicrous.

  11. You’re missing the point – yes, let’s make the football ground a place to be proud of but not at the expense of the surrounding environment. Surely a decent architect could come up with a more pleasing and sensitive design.

  12. Is Tivoli wood a place to be proud of or the tunnel or the defunct pitch and putt or the skateboard park and where are the tennis courts in a mess. Oh and don’t forget the outdated swimming pool.All places to be proud of then there is the ex allotment that the football club cleaned up and was let go again by the council.

    • So Fred, you agree? Two wrongs do not make a right?
      You’re saying te same as many of us, that it’s about time TDC got it’s act together, stopped approving poor design and takes steps to care properly for the assets that we have.

      • Not at all I am saying that the council should bring our derelict town out of the dark ages and create a healthy sporty clean and modern environment and Hartsdown should be part of it. The facilities at the club are for all to use. The young of Margate need more than arcades and pubs. The hotel will help fund a sporting hub.

        • Not against the hotel or all the other things you mention but wouldn’t it be better if the design were fitting for the location and the future instead of the bland (so 1960’s) ugly boxes that are proposed?

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