The £8.5m Green Campus development at Ramsgate Port, due to be discussed by Thanet council’s planning committee next week, “may not be a demand or immediate port-related need,” a report to councillors says.
The project, part of £19.8m Ramsgate’s Levelling Up scheme, had been expected to gain match-funding from the private sector but this has also not been forthcoming.
The original funding allocation for the scheme was £6.1 million. However it was allocated extra funding due to rising costs in April last year and then received another £2m in June 2025 after a decision to scrap the project to revive ferry operations and spread that funding to other schemes.
The design is now for a phased scheme with a budget of £8,558,461. However, £1,792,244 of the funding has either been spent or is contractually committed leaving approximately £7m for completion of the scheme.
The aim is to provide training, education and business opportunities for the marine and maritime sector.
A design statement says: “The proposed development will provide new workspaces, generating 30 employment opportunities, together with dedicated training facilities designed to equip local residents with the skills required to access these roles and other opportunities within the maritime sector.”
The site will consist of two workplace blocks (A and B), and an office building, (Block C), which includes flexible co-working spaces and conference rooms and is expected to be built in two phases, with two buildings in phase one, and the third one coming later “potentially in collaboration with a third party,” according to the planning application.
Only the first two of those buildings will be funded with the LUF money with the third needing external investment.
The current proposal would include a raised table with a zebra crossing linking to the pedestrian entrance to the site and connecting on to Block C.
A number of buildouts are proposed between the eastern and western parts of Military Road adjacent to the site and a new 20mph speed limit, reducing from the current 30mph limit is proposed.
There are 45 proposed car parking spaces for the scheme
Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd was appointed in late 2024 to deliver the Ramsgate Green Campus scheme, along with the Clock House project, but issues with rising costs means a new contractor will be sought for the Campus scheme. The contract is currently being offered on the Bid Stats site with delivery listed to take place between 27 July 2026 to 31 January 2027.
Money from the government’s Levelling-Up Fund is time-limited – so local authorities which receive it must spend it within a deadline. Thanet council’s deadline was March 2026 but following a request to the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), this now been extended by a year to 31 March 2028.
A recent report to councillors said: “From discussions with the application team, it appears that whilst the hope is to secure tenants and prospective users from within the green and maritime industries, and the funding for the site aims to engage with such opportunities, there are no agreed tenants at the time of writing.
“The phased nature of works further indicates that there may not be a demand or immediate port-related need for the proposed development at this time. That is not to say that this will be the position in perpetuity, however for the purposes of assessing compliance with the requirements of Policy SP11, it has not currently been shown or evidenced that there is a demonstrable port-related need for a land-based facility in this location.
“However, it is recognised that the above policy is somewhat outdated in terms of its wording and that the overall aim, along with Policy SP04, is to bring forward some kind of active use with an economic benefit that compliments the port location.
“This is previously developed land and a flexible approach to the use of the site would allow a more active port with the potential for further growth and investment.”
In January 2026, TDC Cabinet gave agreement in principle to secure a third party operator for the Green Campus Blocks A and C – and that Block B is also marketed as part of the third-party operator opportunity.
Officers are due to initiate new marketing and engagement activities to secure an operator.
A recent council update on progress says the aim is to start work on site this Summer with project completion by Summer 2027.
The application will be discussed by the council’s planning committee on April 22.
So the present TDC will leave with themselves or the next council after the elections with an even bigger debt for residents to clear before making any improvements to the area.
The first question to T.D.C. is, “Which Thanetians ever requested that such an edifice be created?”
I suspect that the answer would be a resounding, “NOBODY!”
Head bowed, return the money to the central government issuing body with a grovelling apology for your ineptitude and incompetence.
The “Green Economy” is a myth.
The marine industry is anything but Green and is in a constant state of global flux. Without a commercial maritime purpose, training future maritime professionals in Ramsgate Port is idiocy.
The only wealth generators within Thanet are to be found within its industrial estates and on its farms. Maybe the members and officers of the Council ought to systematically visit every farm and every industrial unit within the borough to ask entrepreneurs what Thanet really needs with regard to training and capital investment? Talk to some people who actually live business, economics and employment? As the members of both Legislative and Executive within the Council are obviously clueless as to how commerce, etc. works.
Totally agree
They don’t answer anything-they occasionally put up somebody to spout off the party line & do the Everett attack thing.
But they give no reason as to why they keep trying to close local shops while producing zero evidence of the anti-social behaviour they claim at court, no reason as to why they & the police cannot sort out local hooligans & instead just remove the seating at Cecil Square instead-punishing the majority, why they have hired bouncers to patrol Ramsgate & keep order-when the police, PSCO’s & Town Wardens are already being paid to do that job, why the Turner loses nearly three quarters of a million every year, yet is still open & getting vast funding etc.
Levelling up… So when this is build we’ll all be as rich as Lord Ashcroft. Cool!
Somebody will-but one suspects like the 2013 Tory version of Levelling Up that was finally exposed yesterday it will be the filthy rich landowners, landlords & property companies that profit & the poor that suffer. All in it together again no doubt.
What a waste of money; better off giving Dover Port Authority
£8 million to run ferries out of Ramsgate . If not ; there are better ways to spend all that funding .
Dover Port have got absolutely no say in where ferries operate. Sure they could lease the Port but it’s totally down to the Ferry Operators whether they want to run services from there or not and they clearly don’t. Dover Port don’t own or operate ferries.
I rather suspect the Council have stitched themselves up with this one. If they decide not to proceed at this stage then the money they have already spent on the scheme to date can’t be taken from the grants which they have been given so they are an immediate revenue overspend in the new financial year. They had this to the tune of over £600k in 24/25 following their pigheaded pursuit of the fantasy ferry scheme. That’s money that could, and should, have been spent on local services.
There needs to be an independent review of all this grant funding and how it has, or hasn’t, been spent. It’s an absolute horror show and I’m just amazed that the opposition parties on the Council aren’t putting Labour under more scrutiny on it. It’s an absolute open goal for them.
Let’s hope the Greens can do better in a couple of years-because Labour, Tories & UKIP have all made a total disaster of TDC for decades. The only other option is Reform & we have seen their level of ‘competence’ at KCC & elsewhere around the country. Though by then doesn’t Starmer want to scrap local elections & merge us into so called unitary authorities?
Though he has just backed down again on cancelling the forthcoming local elections-he hasn’t worked out that to be a total dictator you need to ensure there is no democracy like Russia, North Korea, China etc. He has already eradicated socialism from Labour, yet U-Turns on pretty much everything else domestic & international-especially if the near dictator Trump changes his ‘mind’ for the umpteenth time over Chagos, in another pathetic attempt to appease the criminal man-child-which will never happen for more than a day or two anyway.
Another white elephant,1.7 million of the 8.5 already spent and probably wasted,if it was your money Tdc you would abandon the idea.Stop trying to be entrepreneurial and get back to basics, it’s what council should do.
Expect another forthcoming TDC soundbite to distract from their incompetence & latest bit of power hungry lunacy that they will try to close a couple more local shops for ‘anti-social’ behaviour & waste some more taxpayer money taking it to court with no evidence.
The Council cant even roll out the new national bin policy sucessfully, cant keep the streets clean or control parking. Learn to walk first TDC.
Perhaps Lisa Nandy should take a walk around Thanet to see how much pride people have in their towns.
She will like the rest of the party see how much faith the general public have in them over the next month or so. Will they stick with their useless, spineless, wannabe dictator of a leader & keep saying the nearly 2 years lie of people like us-but we need to do the stuff faster which is the problem-when clearly the problem is what you are doing, or as believed to be the likely outcome of using the results to blame him 100% & finally boot him out?
Labour politicians both national and local very quiet on this subject! Another monumental waste of money. At least these clowns are no longer electable
Another waste of money by TDC/KCC-an ‘art gallery’ that loses the best part of three quarters of a million per year, a funfair that was still being built while they were opening it & went bust a year after reopening, a port that has lost 25 million etc. Now wasting nearly half of Ramsgate’s ‘gift’ on something nobody is remotely interested in & having to find extra funding on top-shouldn’t there actually be demand for something before you green light it?
Just like yesterday to no surprise we found out the Tories 2013 scheme to supposedly help the poorest into housing actually profited the rich instead-Labour are the new Tories-incompetent & with their snouts in the trough.
Money from the government’s Levelling-Up Fund is time-limited – so local authorities which receive it must spend it within a deadline. Thanet council’s deadline was March 2026 but following a request to the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), this now been extended by a year to 31 March 2028.
Is this Rachel Reeves KMP Mathematics? 2026 plus 1 year does still equal 2027 I think, so why has it been extended for 2 years, while claiming it is just 1?
Looks amazing!
I do think there is a reasonable “if you build it, people may use it” argument here. Regeneration often needs the public sector to make the first move, because businesses and training providers do not always commit before there is a real, funded, usable space in front of them. Other towns have used public money to create creative, business and maritime innovation space precisely to build a cluster rather than wait for one to magically appear.
Ramsgate Port badly needs a future, and maritime training, green marine work, engineering, offshore wind support and small business space are not ridiculous ideas. If we want more than decline, car parks and empty promises, sometimes you do have to create the conditions for something better.
But that is not a blank cheque. The council still needs to show who the likely users are, how the space will be marketed, what education or business partners are lined up, what the running costs are, and what happens if tenants do not appear quickly enough. “Build it and hope” is not good enough. “Build it with a credible plan and proper scrutiny” might be.