The Labour administration at Thanet council has added a £120,000 investment to its upcoming budget to restore Ramsgate’s Grade II listed Eastcliff lift to working order.
The Edwardian lift, which provides a link between the upper promenade and the main sands area, has been out of action since the Covid pandemic and requires significant works.
It was recently added to the council’s asset disposal list and interest has previously been shown by Ramsgate Town Council, but funding has been an obstacle. A sum of £120,000 has now been allocated in the district council’s draft budget.
Thanet council leader, Cllr Rick Everitt, said: “I have said several times at council meetings that bringing this lift back into working order was something this administration would deliver for Ramsgate, alongside restoring the town’s Friday market, repairing the Madeira Walk waterfall and replacing the lifts at Royal Harbour Car Park.
“We have delivered on all these Labour promises and now we have an opportunity to resolve the longstanding issue of the Eastcliff lift too. We will have to go through a procurement process and cannot confirm a timeline yet, but I am delighted we have found a way to put it forward for the next financial year.”
The latest version of Thanet’s draft budget report also confirms that funding has been identified for a beach boardwalk in Ramsgate, as well as one in Margate, which was added in January.
Better Care Funding, which can be used to support schemes to improve public accessibility, will fund the proposed boardwalks for both Margate and Ramsgate and the Eastcliff lift.
Another scheme, to introduce new lighting at St Peter’s Rec in Broadstairs, also remains in the draft budget, as does additional litter picking on the A299.
Alternative funding sources had to be found after the council was notified on Monday that its final Fair Funding settlement from government for 2026/27 is £185,000 lower than the provisional settlement announced in December.
The government grant was provisionally announced as £10,776,000 in January but that figure is now £10,591,000.
Only two other district councils nationally have been similarly affected, but their losses, at £80k and £35k, are significantly lower than the impact on Thanet. T
A formal request for clarity over how this figure has been reached has been made by the council’s Section 151 Officer to the government.
Cllr Everitt said: “We are very disappointed to have lost such a sum of money midway through the final approval of the council’s budget, given the issues we face as an area.
“We are currently challenging the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government over the basis for this, as it is highly unusual. In the meantime, the good news is that we can still deliver what we have already proposed as an administration.”
The council’s cabinet will consider the revised proposals on Monday (February 16) and make a recommendation to full council for its meeting on February 26th, when the final decision will be taken.
Yes! Glad people have been listening to me.
Stick to reopening Andrews passage.
What’s happening with Ramsgate Maritime museum, Margate museum and the Tudor house?
The maritime museum is currently being worked on , front covered with scaffolding as of yesterday. Maybe next windows and roof repairs ! Old shipping container to the right has gone too, really looking forward to visiting when it reopens.
Excellent! Thanet needs more indoor attractions that aren’t art.
Certainly right Peter , not everyone wants to go down the pub all the time, that’s the only thing to do here out of season currently!
Peter Checksfield, go to a history page on Facebook called Medieval Historia, there’s a week old post about Tudor House…no answers to your question but a lot of concern raised in the comments from what I see…
Will do!
The reduction will likely be a smack on the wrist for the councils dabbling in welfare policy and paying off people’s council tax liability. Such moves would suggest the council has too much money and can fritter it away.
Why are we paying for litter picking on the A299? Why not install extra cameras and impose heavy fines on the offenders?
How many cameras and operators do you think you need to sufficiently cover 15 miles of roads to hopefully catch someone and create a viable prosecution ??
More to the point, do you agree or disagree that people who chuck litter out of their vehicles are despicable and need to be named and shamed?
Even more to the point (as that’s what the article is about), do you support the renovation of the lift?
Yes I absolutely support the renovation of the historic lift. It’s an asset that needs to be promoted and preserved.
By the way, the article covered other topics apart from the lift
I really don’t understand why money is being spent on beach boardwalks at Ramsgate and Margate when we already have pavements alongside the beaches. Surely there are more important expenditures – eg. keeping toilets open all year.
Be nice to have some actual public seats down at Ramsgate beachfront. There is only one decent seating option there at the moment: the beach-facing bench at the far end of Wetherspoon. The bench at the pier-end by Wetherspoon is too vandalised for any kind of comfort. The bench halfway along the main wavy-blue-paved walkway area has disappeared. And the built-in seating along that walkway has had all the wooden batons removed leaving only the concrete under-supports: a now lower level of seating which is not good ergonomics … just another example of Ramsgate’s obliviousness to good design.
I agree totally Jane.
When you think how high the tide comes up in Ramsgate, I wonder how far away from the existing walkways a boardwalk could even be positioned?
Finally money well spent ive see hundreds of elderly people hanging on to the rails struggling families with pushchairs .wheelchairs .falling down the kent steps much needed it seems some people are so unaware by the situation or simply dont care .
It would be nice if Christine Tongue gave this her full support.
Well maybe, just maybe, the Labour Councillors do listen to public opinion. If they do, then keep the coastal toilets open over the winter period. I’m sure if you really tried you could find the money for this as well.
So,there you are,something you wanted, just when TDC will become an ex council.A sinner seeking redemption at the pearly gates eh!
Of course some of you will not be satisfied, but that is to be expected.Compare this to the smoke and mirrors at KCC where appearance triumphs over substance, and their cabinet adopts the politicians standby of “raiding the balances”, even when those balances are wafer thin, while prattling on about long term debt, which was secured at low interest rates,and which inflation will diminish in the coming years anyway.
Reserves are there for rainy days and emergencies, not for balancing budgets.TDC may have been badly lead for decades, but it has a reasonably strong balance sheet, where as KCC, Canterbury, and several other ex tory districts in Surrey like Woking, are living on borrowed time. I do hope for our sakes KCC does not go the same way as Northamptonshire.
Healthy balance sheet ? George, you need to read their committee reports. £8m of reserves burnt through by the current Labour Administration in two years. Their own Finance Chief telling them the only thing that will save them from going insolvent is the new Unitary being delivered on time. Any delay in the process then there are huge structural budget deficits coming their way which will finish them off. Tens of millions spent on Housing that no one can guarantee that current Thanet residents will actually benefit from or that Thanet taxpayers will ever see a return on investment from as the assets and debt (and perhaps a ROI) will be swallowed up by a much larger entity. There is nothing stopping a future Unitary Council placing Canterbury or Dover residents in these houses if they are deemed to be higher need.
It’s a financial horror show. And exactly what we expect from Labour. Spend first and think later.
So, how many of these lifts exist around the Thanet coast? I am sure I walked past one at the bottom of the cliff the other side of Ramsgate last week, near to the new development going up by the harbour. I think it would go up to where the motor museum used to be. Only the pigeons were using it to roost. Is that going to get money spent to get working again. How many are left out of action?
There’s 4: Eastcliff, Westcliff, Broadstairs and Walpole Bay. There was also a fernicular railway in Cliftonville, something else that should be reintroduced.
Not forgetting the now sealed up underground funicular at Broadstairs or the other East Cliff lift in Ramsgate that day on the 180 degree corner on Marina Esplanade
There has never been a fernicular (sic) railway in Cliftonville. I presume you’re talking about the Inclined Elevator at the Lido? This was taken of of service over 50 years ago! Have a look on Google Earth street view, you can still see the ramp there now. Why on earth do you think it should be reintroduced now?
Yes, that’s the one… and I don’t need Google Earth, I’ve walked or cycled past there many times (last time just a few days ago). And why not?
I believe the West Cliff lift is in private ownership, having been disposed of by TDC 2-3 years ago…heavens knows what you could do with it apart from using it as a lift, any rooms created by inserting floors would be tiny and that’s before you think about putting stairs in!
There was another,and by healthy I mean less debt laden than Canterbury.Thanet’s spending on social housing reduces long term spending on housing.Canterbury’ splurge on commercial property merely drives up liabilities except if there is an income.
I wouldn’t catastrophise over Thanet, they may be a delinquent organisation but they will make it to the end in some order, whereas some districts may not.
You have to wonder about the ineptitude of the TDC Property Dept. The staff time & cost spent progressing the lift’s disposal only for this very good news to be announced not much more than a matter of days later. But then they did take the offer of buying back the retort house in Broadstairs from the Town Council for £65,000 more than they sold it to them for! Then admit in the latest Council reports that they hadn’t had sight of the inside of the building where an asbestos ceiling has collapsed and that they know any potential redevelopment of the site by TDC would likely be too costly to progress because the likely cost of remediation if they broke ground and exposed any toxic material left over from the site’s historic use as a gasworks…so now that’s up for disposal too… Who makes these decisions!!!