A progress report on regeneration projects in Margate and Ramsgate will be made to Thanet council Cabinet members next week.
The Simplification Pathfinder Pilot Programme projects all come under a £51m scheme across the Margate Town Deal £22.2m; Ramsgate Levelling Up £19.8m; Margate Levelling Up £6.3m and Future High Street Fund £2.7m.
In March 2021, Margate was allocated up to £22.2m of government funding through the Town Deal. The funding has been allocated to projects in the town with a focus on creating jobs, supporting the town centre, boosting businesses and connecting people to where they live and work either through infrastructure or digital technologies.
In October 2021, the government confirmed two bids to the Levelling Up Fund had been successful; one bid for Ramsgate (£19.8m) and one bid for Margate (£6.3m).
The bid for Ramsgate was made up of three components: the Port, the Royal Harbour and Assets to Connect with Opportunities. The bid for Margate focused on the MargateDigital project.
In 2023 the council was invited to be part of a new Simplification Pathfinder Pilot which allows the authority to move money between projects up to the value of £5,000,000. A commitment was made by the council’s Cabinet to keep the funding within each of the towns – Margate and Ramsgate – as it was awarded.
The Cabinet meeting on July 24 will discuss details for each of the projects in terms of their progress, timeline and spend to date.
Following a request to the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the deadline for completion of the schemes has now been extended by a year to 31 March 2027.
Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Property, Cllr Ruth Duckworth said: “We’re proud to deliver such a comprehensive programme of projects in our district. Securing this level of funding is significant and will bring much needed opportunities to enhance skills, boost employment and improve our public spaces and buildings too.
“This detailed progress report provides an open and transparent overview of the programme and sets out the range of complexities and challenges that we have faced with delivering such a broad range of property, construction, planning, service delivery and partnership activity. Especially when factoring in the required criteria and tight timescales set by the government.
“External factors such as a significant increase in inflation (post-Covid) – in the region of 20-30% – and soaring costs of materials and labour have meant the re-evaluation and adjustment of project designs throughout this process.
“This rescoping has in turn required the reallocation of funding across the programme to ensure the projects we’ve committed to, can be delivered. All of this takes time to complete and is something councils across the country, working on similarly funded projects, have needed to tackle.
“As the report sets out, we’re now getting to the critical delivery of the programme and residents will already have started to see the building out of schemes such as Margate Digital, Newington Community Centre and the Margate Creative Land Trust’s first building. We will continue to work hard to see all the projects through to completion for the benefit of our residents.“
Margate Digital
Margate Digital gained a £6.3million allocation to create a digital and education campus with studios, gallery, café and workshops at the former M&S building in Margate.
The Margate Digital project will include 2,000 sq m of industry-relevant training space which will focus on digital technology.
The bid involved using £6,306,078 Levelling Up funding with EKC Group ‘match-funding’ £720,000 plus an additional further education budget for programme delivery and student support.
The M&S building, owned in a joint venture between Thanet council and Homes England, is let to EKC Group on a 125-year, peppercorn rent lease.
The project is led by EKC Group, in partnership with Thanet District Council.
The property, formerly occupied by Marks & Spencer, has been empty since 2017. So far, work has been completed to remove asbestos and repair the roof, shop front and glass installed, scaffolding removed, lift shaft construction ongoing, partitions being constructed, along with 1st fix mechanical and electrical works. Final decisions are being made on furniture, fixtures and equipment. IT items have been ordered.
Jenner Contractors Ltd were selected to deliver the refurbishments.
Completion is expected by November this year with students and adult learners migrating to Margate Digital from November 11. Full occupation is expected from Jan 2026.
Margate Creative Land Trust
The Margate Creative Land Trust was set up in 2022, with £6.9m funding from the Margate Town Deal. The Trust aims to tackle the challenges that the local property market presents to creative businesses, and to people looking to take their first steps into a creative career.
The Land Trust, which was the first project to receive funding under the Town Deal scheme- was set up to provide physical workspace at affordable rates for creative individuals and businesses, such as those working in design, music, publishing, architecture, film, gaming, crafts, visual arts, fashion, TV and radio, advertising, literature, computer games and the performing arts.
In February it bought the former St George’s Garage site in Cliftonville which is being transformed into a mixed-use studio space with the first tenant due to move in imminently.
The garage has a footprint of over 30,000 square feet. The site includes three industrial units and forecourt, with a two-storey street facing building.
Last month the Trust bought an second building in Grosvenor Place, a 2400 sq ft property. It is due to be open to tenants by end of March 2026.
It has also allocated £60,000 of property support to 10 local, creative organisations through the Emergency Support Fund for urgent repairs, training for young creatives and business planning and support office space renovation / improvement.
Margate Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal Margate, which is included in this year’s Theatres at Risk Register, was allocated £2.2m in March 2021 from Margate Town Deal’s £22.2m funding.
Since then, a new plan to create a nationally significant performing arts hub in Margate has been created, focusing on the Theatre Royal’s 245 years of history.
Last year it was agreed to reallocate £2.8m of Margate Town Deal funding from a highways and public realm project to the refurbishment of the theatre. The current total project budget is £5m.
Initial designs presented by Nick Lee Evans, a Specialist Conservation Architect from Lee Evans Partnership, showed an extension to the Addington Street theatre building, widened pavement, reinstated signage and a new box office entrance.
For the five floor building in Hawley Square designs show rehearsal space in the basement; on the ground floor plans show a studio theatre for 50 people, sound studio, green room, bar and coffee area; first floor plan show offices, meeting spaces and a roof garden and, on the two upper floors, accommodation for the theatre companies.
The 19 Hawley Square venue, which was believed to have historically been The London Hotel, will also have offices and accommodation for touring theatre companies.
Minor roof works to make sure the building is water tight were completed in March 2025
Construction is expected to begin next Summer.
Walpole Bay
Walpole Bay is set for a makeover including a new café as part of the Margate Town Deal.
A key part of this is the restoration of the “Cliff Lift” from Queen’s Promenade at the top of the cliffs down to the beach.
The Grade II-listed art deco lift was originally built by the Ministry of Health in 1934 to encourage people to use the beach.
But the ailing installation has been closed and left to wrack and ruin for about six years, Thanet District Council’s (TDC) documents say.
Last October TDC’s planning committee gave permission to allow the renovation works to begin.
The carriage and handrails will be replaced and the top entrance will be refurbished to “enable the reopening of the lift.”
A new light is also to be installed at the sea level, near the Walpole Bay tidal pool.
The Access Walpole scheme also includes a pavilion and café at the beach level, hosting facilities including changing rooms, outdoor showers, lockers, store rooms, toilets and a bookable “wellbeing space”.
This includes improvements to the tidal pool.
A budget of £1.1m is allocated.
A Pre-planning application is due this week with a planning application anticipated to be submitted mid August for discussion at the October Planning Committee meeting.
The scheme is earmarked for completion ahead of Summer 2026.
Margate skatepark
The conversion of a former crazy golf course into a £1.3 million skatepark
Thanet District Council (TDC) plans to build a new £1.3m skatepark in Cliftonville on the site of a disused crazy golf course on Ethelbert Crescent.
Covering almost an acre, the park could boast various-sized bowls, ramps and ledges, capable of catering for 100 users.
TDC is now seeking a private firm to design and construct the sports facility, posting the contract on the Kent Business Portal.
The project, which is part of the £22.2m Margate Town Deal, originally had funding of £750k but last March an additional £175,000 was reallocated after £500,000 was withdrawn from the Oval Bandstand and Lawns project. Last October TDC agreed to add a further £350,000, moved from a Town Deal highways and signage scheme. The total sum includes £59,000 match funding from the council and £100,000 from artist Tracey Emin.
An entry on Kent Business Portal says, “The contract is anticipated to commence upon October 2025 for a duration of 12 months.”
There is an estimated completion date of Autumn 2026.
Margate Main Sands new public toilet facilities
Plans have been approved for the construction of two new buildings to house accessible toilet and baby changing facilities at Margate Main Sands. The development will link to the existing underground toilets on Marine Drive, which have been closed for a number of years.
The new buildings will be located at promenade level. They will be constructed above the existing toilets, which will be refurbished. The buildings will be finished to match the nearby beachside kiosk. The new buildings will be fully accessible.
Cabinet approved the proposal in September 2024. The contract for these works has an estimated value of £358k. It is anticipated that works will start this year and the new toilets are expected to open ahead of the summer season in 2026.
Margate Winter Gardens
In March this year Thanet council announced Westwood One Theatre – the owners of The Granville Theatre in Ramsgate- as the preferred partner to take on Margate Winter Gardens.
Westwood One Ltd, which also operates Under 1 Roof Thanet in Pysons Road, bought The Granville in October 2022 and opened the venue in May 2023.
The company, run by Ramsgate sisters Zahra and Parisa Tarjomani and Pyramid Martial Arts & Just Kids Parties owner Matt Milchard, now heads the scheme to bring the venue back into use under a 999 year lease.
Margate’s Grade II listed Winter Gardens has been shut since August 2022, when Your Leisure – the company which managed it – handed its lease back to the council.
Westwood One Theatre, has put forward a vision for the Winter Gardens which aims to create a sustainable and profitable multi-use space. Primarily it would operate as a theatre and live music venue, with scope to accommodate conference, corporate events and weddings. These activities would be bolstered by a rooftop bar with panoramic sea views.
The building would also house a drama school, vocational learning centre and registered day nursery.
The costs are estimated at between £8m and £11m.
Thanet council allocated up to £80,000 to Westwood One Theatre to support the cost of more detailed work on design, construction costs and business planning.
Funding will be drawn from the Winter Gardens’ original £300,000 which was allocated to the project from the Margate Town Deal. A further £4m in ‘seed money,’ also from the Margate Town Deal fund, will follow. Westwood One Theatre’s proposal commits pound for pound match funding to the council’s £4m Town Deal grant. This would increase the total funds available for the refurbishment and reopening of the Winter Gardens to £8m.
Lease and grant confirmation is expected this Autumn with planning consent and a start on site earmarked for Spring 2026 and completion estimated for Spring 2027.
Broad Street
The 5a Broad Street property – the former haberdashery shop- will be refurbished to provide workspace in Ramsgate town centre that is tailored for creative and third sector businesses. The facility will also be home to a new skills and careers hub.
Planning permission was granted in November 2023,. A procurement process to appoint a main contractor concluded in Januray 2025. The returns were above the estimated contract value and non-compliant. Following the failed procurement the council entered into negotiations with Willmott Dixon with a view to include this project into the Pathfinder contract already in place. Negotiations aim to conclude this month.
A budget of £585,000 has been allocated. The core works aim start from early autumn 2025, following the end of bird nesting season.
An operational management model (post construction) is being reviewed, a recommendation will go to Cabinet by Winter 2025 for a decision.
There is an estimated completion date of Summer 2026.
Pier Yard and Highway Improvements
The Pier Yard scheme was part of the original Ramsgate Levelling Up Fund submission and the Highways works was part of the Future High Street Fund bid.
The two schemes have been combined to benefit from one construction contractor and programme
In the Pier Yard car park, the scheme aims to remove the parking and create a public square to host markets, events and to become a focal point for social activity in the town..
The final design proposal should be completed by Autumn 2025. Planning and Listed Building Consent determination is expected in Winter 2025 Site with completion earmarked for Summer 2026
The aim of the highway works is for a junction reconfiguration and highways improvements along Harbour Parade between York Street / Military Road junction and Harbour Street junction. This includes resurfacing, alteration to junction geometry and introduction of a raised table to create an area suitable for a 20mph zone.
Completion date is Spring 2027.
The Pier Yard and highways budget is £4,955,264.
Green Campus
The Green Campus scheme was awarded funding as part of the Levelling Up Fund. The original scheme anticipated a level of match-funding from the private sector. This has not been forthcoming.
The design is now for a phased scheme with a budget of £8,558,461
The first phase includes two buildings; a public-facing central core for the Green Campus, with café, conference and meeting facilities, and the first workspace block, to support small and new maritime businesses, as well as provide education opportunities.
The project is at RIBA Stage 3. Planning is expected to be granted in Autumn 2025 with work on site from this winter and completion expected in Spring 2027.
Ramsgate Clock House
The refurbishment of the Ramsgate Clock House was included as part of the original Ramsgate Levelling Up Fund submission. The scheme aims to refurbish the Grade II* Listed structure, creating a heritage centre for the town and a new café.
The original project was based on a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid. As this was ultimately unsuccessful, the scheme has undergone a number of changes. It will include a café to the side of the Clock House. The ambition is for it to support the sustainability of the Heritage Hub, by providing a small income for the maintenance of the building.
The project had £3.95m allocated to refurbishing the building and creating a heritage hub for the town.
Since the Clock House building was returned to the council in November 2023, the electrical wiring has been upgraded and made safe, and urgent repairs to the stonework facades completed.
The Grade II* Listed building will be refurbished to provide the heritage and community space and new café. Officers submitted a funding application to Historic England in May for the Heritage at Risk grant. If successful, an outcome will be known this month, with works associated with the grant to be delivered by March 2026.
Phase 1 to decant of artefacts has been completed. The project is at RIBA Stage 4 and forms part of the Wilmott Dixon Pathfinder contract. Planning was approved in June 2025. The project is programmed to mobilise (hoarding and site set up) this summer with completion estimated for Autumn 2026.
Fishing Facilities
The original proposal for the Fishing Facilities was a large two storey building housing chillers, freezers, grading and processing rooms, along with workshops for the fishing fleet on the ground floor and a space on the first floor for hospitality use.
The proposals have been scaled back to refrigerated and frozen storage only, with the possibility of a grading room if there is sufficient budget in place.
In the autumn of 2023, the Thanet Fishermen’s Association (TFA) stated its members’ financial inability to maintain and operate a new facility and create the jobs required. On that basis the council committed to providing a basic facility to support the fishing sector’s ability to continue, which was originally set at £100,000 for construction.
Following a review of the TFA’s requirements in 2024/25 on the basis of what would be achievable, a request for further funding was agreed by Cabinet in June 2025 for another £100,000. In all it has now been allocated £464,316.29.
The project is at RIBA Stage 1, and a small level of design work will be required to ensure planning and listed building consent are in place before the units are procured and installed. Officers aim to submit a planning application in Winter 2025.
A expects planning to be granted by Summer 2026 and for the project to be complete by Spring 2027.
Newington Community Centre
The Newington Community Centre is being extended, modernised and refurbished, and will have new toilets, refurbished hall and meeting space and a new teaching kitchen. Total budget is listed as £1,146,250.
A contractor was appointed in April to undertake the physical delivery works and a ground breaking ceremony took place on 21 May.
Works are progressing on site, with ground floor slab work complete and works to the superstructure starting in June 2025. Completion date is listed as October this year.
Deadline dates
Despite many of the projects having an estimated 2026 completion date delays have been noted in the report and the granted extension to March 31, 2027 could seen those dates moved back.
Increased costs and a lack of third party operator/tenant have also been noted for some projects.
Ramsgate Port
Plans for a £7.6m project aimed at bringing ferry operations back to Ramsgate Port as part of the town’s £19.8m Levelling Up programme were shelved last month.
There are also updates on a Margate Wayfinding (signs) scheme and Coastal Wellbeing activities.
Honestly having looked at the reports to cabinet this is all highly embarrassing for the council actually shocking
Yes, Shocking performance on every level. What’s worse is that TDC Leadership has failed to learn anything from previous failings so, in effect, are planning to fail again! Pay consultants (how much – really!) to tell you that a ferry can’t operate in the current conditions which local informed people said at the start, when TDC’s Tory leadership raised the idea.
The Clock House, the Heritage Funding failed, well of course it did because TDC aimed this application for the cafe, a new-build, not a heritage building! An the “electrical wiring upgraded and made safe” well what non-sense, the wiring is all over the place with the spiral staircase door pinching the cables to the extent the copper is exposed! A cafe to help sustain the building? Given the competition very near the cafe will not do well unless it has something special to offer. Also TDC talk about “the building” so has the museum idea been dropped? What will “the heritage centre” be and what is the fate for all the artifacts discovered, recorded, packed and boxed up by local volunteers to be? How will it fund itself, even with a successful, high-end, eating and drinking facility? The works don’t inlude repairs and tanking to the undercroft (basement) so how long before the constant water damage threatens the foundations?
The Fishing Facility – if you are planning to spend lots of public money to support a local industry surely the first thing you do is ask its members what they can and can’t do! TFA could have told TDC from the start that this ridiculous proposal was just that, worthy only of ridicule.
The Green Campus – whare are the new maritime businesses that TDC aim to have taking up spaces? We have exisiting boat building and the off-shore wind turbine businesses but were they consulted at the start, probably not. So we’ll have two buildings with the obligitory cafe, to moulder into disuse so a fututre TDC will have to fundraise to demolish or repair.
The Pier Yard, a raised table suitable for a 20mph zone. Have TDC ever had their eyes open when leaving the office? I see 20mph zones already in Margate without raised tables, in many of the Villages and still no raised tables. Or is this related to the fixation on cafe’s?
I’m sure there is much more to say but overall the management of this has been a disaster. Blaming COVID and inflation is silly to say the least, neither caused the delays in implementing the plans, nor did they cause TDC leaders to come up with such unrealistic plans and refuse to listen to informed people who knew better.
If they had a semblance of hnour they would resign.
Pirate Jenny, you want to go back to your source of information. Tanking the Clock House basement would have added an additional £2M to the cost and would have covered up valuable historic architecture that’s covered by its listing, its you’d deigned to bother to read the planning application you’d see there is a drainage scheme to keep the area dry including pumps, the space is suitable for storage & display purposes due to the flood risk from high tides. The ‘all over the place wiring’, is completely temporary festoon lighting and power, the original wiring being disconnected and new distribution boards installed. Yes the temporary cabling was chaffed, that was sleeved months ago at the same time a new intruder alarm was installed and fire detection systems overhauled and successfully put through their six-monthly tests… As for the unsuccessful HLF bid, the original consultancy report and overinflated/over optimistic development plan commissioned by Ramsgate Society really didn’t help…
Get your facts straight!
That should have said the space ISN’T suitable for storage & display purposes due to the flood risk from high tides…apologies
Surely if COVID and inflation were to blame then every similar project in the country would have been cut back and postponed. Surprised they haven’t blamed the wicked Tories for all the problems.
Watch this space.
Apart from The Winter Gardens, all the rest are a total waste of money. Can I suggest that they use the money to build proper parking, and then pedestrianise the three towns. There is no need for any vehicles to be driven along the three main seafronts! Maybe then, it would encourage more businesses to invest! We already have enough “cultural spaces” thanks. We need decent shops.
Would be very difficult to (say) drive from Westbrook to Northdown Road without going along the seafront.
“Inflation” really, what a surprise. If you sit on cash for 4 years without actually starting anything then yes inflation is going to lead to cost increases. It’s hardly surprising given previous maladministration of this council but it still makes me angry. There’s no way you’d be able to fet away with this in the private sector, someone would have gotten the sack for this. So delivery has now slipped from 2026 to 2027. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of these schemes aren’t completed before 2030 given the council’s previous record. It’ll then be hushed up under the local council reorganisation.