Council to carry out ‘full review’ of Northdown Park, including Northdown House and Secret Jungle

ndownmainfl — Northdown House Photo Frank Leppard

Exclusive

Thanet council plans to carry out a review of Northdown Park, including the facilities and buildings within it.

The authority says until the review is complete there will be no decisions made about renewing leases at Northdown House or the Secret Jungle play area.

There are unconfirmed reports that tenants of Northdown House have been given notice to quit and will need to leave in three months’ time.

Thanet council owns the entire site. Your Leisure holds the lease for Northdown House although the company is now based at Discovery Park and has issued notice that it is terminating that lease.

A Thanet council spokesperson said: “Northdown House in Margate is owned by Thanet District Council. The building is leased entirely to Your Leisure. Your Leisure acts as landlord and is responsible for the tenants’ leases.

“There are currently no plans to sell Northdown House.”

In an updated (July 18) statement a council spokesperson added: ““The buildings and facilities at Northdown Park are due to be reviewed. This review will explore and identify ideas for the future use of the park’s buildings. It will involve an assessment of the existing structures to determine their condition and identify any necessary repairs.

“We’ll decide what improvements need to be made when we’re clearer about how the site will be used in the future. Responsibility for the renovations will be based on the types of leases we offer.”

Attempts to sell Northdown House, in the 1970s and in 2008, were thwarted following public campaigning and recognition that covenants on the site would make the sale unprofitable.

In 2008 Northdown House and environs were among a number of council properties earmarked for sale but the following year then-council leader Sandy Ezekiel admitted that legal advice revealed that due to restrictive covenants on the site the cost of compensation would outweigh the expected £2million sale price.

This followed a 1,800 signature petition against the sale as part of a campaign led by William Friend, grandson of benefactor Cpt. J Irvine H Friend of East Northdown Farm who donated the site to Margate Borough Council with the stipulation that it always remained in public leisure use.

The park is also home to the Coach House – the lease for which expired in 2021 – The Garden Gate Project, the Secret Jungle, Dell Gardens and Frank Mathews Memorial Garden.

The Secret Jungle was an inclusive play and activity area

The Secret Jungle has been shut to the public since July 2018.

The all-inclusive play area designed to allow disabled and able-bodied children to play alongside each other closed when Your Leisure announced it would no longer be responsible for the site.

Manor House Nursery was announced as the new operator from September 2018.

Several groups made enquiries about taking the play area over, including Tamara Rattigan of The Little Art Cart community interest company, who questioned why there had not been a public tender process.

The nursey originally took on the play area saying it would be made available for community use but it was not reopened due to a spate of vandalism at the park. The prolonged closure prompted questions over public access from former interested parties and families who had previously used the play area.

Manor House Nursery handed the site back to Thanet council in 2021 blaming the ongoing vandalism.

At that time Thanet council said work to clear and make repairs would begin followed by exploration of future options for the site to ensure it remained a community space.

The Secret Jungle play area had originally been funded by The Children’s Society and then the Big Lottery but cash ran out, spelling the end of special family events.

The Big Lottery grant of £350,000 was made in 2010 and ran until the end of 2016. The funds not only paid for maintenance but also activities for children of all abilities, such as an after-school nature club, and events for the community.

The area remains shut, overgrown and in a state of neglect, much to the frustration of Tamara Rattigan who has continually tried to secure agreement to take the site on.

Tamara says that in April this year the council verbally offered her company a seven year lease with an officer saying it would be drawn up.

This was then reversed several weeks later with the officer saying there had been other enquiries so the council would need to ask for expressions of interest.

This week Tamara contacted the council again to find the officer has left their role and a decision to review the park and its facilities meant the council no longer planned to market or lease the Secret Jungle ‘in the immediate future” and any lease discussion had only been “discussions in principle…(with) no legally binding obligations.”

Tamara said: “It is hugely disappointing and somewhat frustrating that this community space, which my company has offered to take on and reopen to the general public at absolutely no cost whatsoever to Thanet District Council, still lays abandoned, overgrown and closed!

“My company originally put forward an expression of interest for the site in July 2018, when it was subsequently given to a local nursery school who kept the site closed. This site was gifted to our town for the use and benefit of the community as set out in the 1937 covenants. This covenant will be breached if the community are unable to access and enjoy the site and my company’s proposal of use for this site will ensure that it remains open and accessible to our community.

“Everyone asks why I want to take on the stress of it but I remember just how beautiful it once was and my grandma loved taking us there. To me it’s like a little oasis and I’m determined to see it brought back to life and have it as a community space again.”

A Thanet council spokesperson said: “We plan to conduct a full review of the whole of Northdown Park. This review will look at existing leases and uses for the various facilities and buildings within the park.