Margate on Bank Holiday Weekend

[Sarah]

Much comment on the Birchington blog about the sorry state of dear old Margate this weekend. If this lot doesn't plunge you into mild depression, you're made of sterner stuff than me.

For views of our thriving High Street:

http://www.birchington.blogspot.com/

For more evidence of unbelievable lunacy from TDC:

http://birchington.blogspot.com/2006/05 ... l#comments

And for some truly grim views of Dreamland, guaranteed to pull the crowds in:

http://birchington.blogspot.com/2006/05 ... l#comments

Enjoy!

Sarah

[Bob]

Much comment on the Birchington blog about the sorry state of dear old Margate this weekend. If this lot doesn't plunge you into mild depression, you're made of sterner stuff than me.

For views of our thriving High Street:

http://www.birchington.blogspot.com/

For more evidence of unbelievable lunacy from TDC:

http://birchington.blogspot.com/2006/05 ... l#comments

And for some truly grim views of Dreamland, guaranteed to pull the crowds in:

http://birchington.blogspot.com/2006/05 ... l#comments

Enjoy!

Sarah

It's a good part of the reason why Dreamland is not having any investment put into it. The town's a dump. Would you want to come to visit Margate. Take the rose tinted glasses of and be honest. Is Margate an attractive place to visit. If you arrived in Margate would you think its a nice town or would you turn around and go else where. Does Margate have any real facilities for tourists ?

Compare the competition such as the major Theme Parks and places like Southend & Clacton. If you arrive in these places do scenes of deraliction hit you or do they look smart and inviting and have lots of facilities.

Margate needs to take a long and hard look at itself. Does it want to be a tourist town or does it want to be a dump. The answer at present is it wants to be a dump.

To attract tourist the whole town centre needs a major revamp. The town needs to smarten up. Well its in such a sorry state it needs rebuilding.
I really do not see it happening though. As each month goes by Margate steadilly declines. Something needs to be done about the disgusting state of the place you are not going to get tourist to come to a run down town full of boarded up shops, no facilities and filthy dirty.

[lanesra]

The town wouldn't be a dump if TDC and a certain someone else didn't have their grubby hands on it.

[Jim Douglas Jr.]

I made a comment on that blog.

I agree, Margat's waterfront shops are not attractive. The facades are old, and there's no consistancy, and the windows are plastered with unattractive bits of paper and posters.
The whole thing neads a facelift. Stucco, brich, faux stone, awnings.... and all on a common scale and theme.
Serious money needs to be invested in the town, but it's be worthless without (a restored) Dreamland.

Margate revamped will be a much, MUCH better investment long term in this manner.

[Sarah]

The old Bob's back! You haven't called Margate a dump for so long I was beginning to think you'd had an attack of positivity.

Those photos, and the general state of the seafront and the lower High Street, do depress me. You'd have to be on Prozac to find some of those views anything less than grim.

You miss the point though; without investment in Dreamland, empty shops and a boarded up seafront are what we have to look forward to. If the park hadn't been allowed to sit largely empty and slowly decaying the town wouldn't have half the problems it's currently experiencing.

Margate does have 'real tourist facilities' and it's not all terrible. The beach and the facilities on it are great. The couple of tourist attractions we have left are great (and mine has been very busy this weekend). I could go on listing all those little things about Margate that make it great: lovely shops and cafés hanging on in there and some undeniably good events coming up (the Air Show and the Jazz Festival for example).

But, but... the people I pay my council tax and business rates to have shown breathtaking ineptitude when it comes to securing the best future for my town. It breaks my heart that they have allowed the High Street to die in favour of a second-rate out of town shopping centre. They should have seen it coming. They clearly didn't and now they are trying to fight the fire by purchasing the old M&S building and making lots of big promises about "creating modern retail space". When? Soon? Oh, I doubt it.

In the meantime, the summer season is upon us and the only speedy action TDC seems able to take is ripping out what was left of our carpet bedding. The sight of council workmen removing hanging baskets in full bloom from Margate Old Town during a prolonged downpour pretty much tipped me over the edge. These people are STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.

I feel better for getting that off my chest.

Sarah

[dreamland]

hey bob , i have lived in thanet all my life and was proud to be born in margate , i love my home town and wouldent ever want to depart from margate , i would only leave margate if i was forced to , id have a holiday home in margate so i know ive got a good place in margate , i adore and love margate, i think its the most best and beutyfull town in the uk and i dont care what other people say or if they laugh at me because i love margate and allways will , margate and dreamland is my life !!

[Bob]

hey bob , i have lived in thanet all my life and was proud to be born in margate , i love my home town and wouldent ever want to depart from margate , i would only leave margate if i was forced to , id have a holiday home in margate so i know ive got a good place in margate , i adore and love margate, i think its the most best and beutyfull town in the uk and i dont care what other people say or if they laugh at me because i love margate and allways will , margate and dreamland is my life !!

Unfortunatley most people that visit Margate would not share that view. The current deralict state of the town and lack of facilities discourages visitors

[taffy]

Thankyou for you astute observations; yet again, however, you've missed the point as to why it's in a state. See Sarah's earlier post on this thread. It sums it all up nicely for you.

Taffy

[cliffc]

Thankyou for you astute observations; yet again, however, you've missed the point as to why it's in a state. See Sarah's earlier post on this thread. It sums it all up nicely for you.

Taffy

Hi all

As the pictures in that blog show parts of the town are in a bad state of repair and deriliction, but while the current administration is in charge of the TDC this situation is unlkly to change, as i have said in many previous posts the TDC just dont seem to beleve in tourisam and tourists at all.

The problem we have here is there is no attraction in Margate to bring in the visitors in larger numbers, there are some excelent small attractions such as the shell grotto, and the beach, but thease alone will not attract visitors to the town, what is needed is dreamkland turining into an attraction like Adventure Island, this will bring people back to the town, and make people more likly to want to invest in reopeing closed shops where there will see a return on the investmet thay would have to put in.

Lets be honest if i was i looking to open a buisness and had the choice of Margate, Southend, or Clacton to open up in, having looked at all of the towns i regetfully have to say that Margate would not be my choice of location for my buisness not because of the people in the town but becase of the lack of support for the town from them in charge at the local government level.

We have seen what has happend to the town now if the campain to save dreamland failes then one does not want to imagine what will happen to it then, but the works Whitly Bay spring to mind, since the council there closed Spanish City, the whole of the seafront area is very depressing and the town is not much better. Unfortunatly for Spanish City there was not a dedicated group of people determind to save it, luckly for Dreamland and the town of Margate there is.

CLiff C

[DaveD]

The Birchington Blogspot is an absolute whingfest from people who care very little about the area in which they live and take a morbid amount of pleasure in remorselessly slagging off everything without having a singular constructive argument amongst them.

Obvious Bob-ism no.394: "The Current direlict state of the town is unlikely to attract visitors" really? Social Deprivation not a catalyst for potential tourists? Knickers - Margate has a great many redeeming features, even in it's present state which need to be preserved in part, revamped and revitalised but certainly still has a strong enough base to attract people in it's current state and has a decent foundation for significant improvement. The sad fact of the matter is that TDC is lacking in basic common sense & drive for change; liberally overflowing with staid, tired "yes" men that could be a whole new proposition under Labour.

Jim, the English have a propensity for moaning quite a lot behind closed doors without actually getting off their behind and putting some weight behind their opinions sadly. I salute your assertiveness from across the pond.


Dave D

[Lou]

Thanet District Council and Tourism in Margate
Rearrange these words to make a sentence!
BRICK WALL OUR HEADS BANGING AGAINST A
Hey wait a minute, before I go...........
Herne Bay was a dump, their seafront is wonderful now, what happened, whoever sorted things out for them, can we have him/her (y'know someone with a bit of forward thinking)

[Cheryl]

Hello Bob. My family have a holiday home in Margate as we love it. As do two other families in the block we are in. There are 12 flats so a quarter of them are holiday homes.

We regularly meet people on holiday, down at our chalet, from Southampton, Birmingham, Coventry, York, Leicester, Slough the list goes on. Not everybody shares your view of Margate, Bob.

There is some nice regeneration going on in the old town, little cafe bars, nice restaurants etc, but surprisingly these don't get a mention!

[Neil]

It's interesting to note that I live in Banbury (North Oxfordshire) and my local coach company runs coaches all the way from Banbury so that people can spend a day in margate. Not that this is likely to happen for much longer if TDC don't buck their ideas up.