Fort Hill A Few Dollars More

Word on the Margate (soon to be half a) street is that the utterly pointless de-dualling of Fart Hill over in the Arsonists' Playground is currently something like 60 big ones over it's already considerable six figure budget. Lord knows what they've spent it on, as every time I go past there seems to be nothing happening. Still, it brings the cost of Turnip MkII ever closer to £20m. Any bets on the final figure being on the shiny side of that?

Meanwhile I see the Outfitters Gallery on the Old Town piazza (The Parade in old money) finally has a sold sign in the window. If you recall, this place was tarted up, with EU and arts funding, into a nice little seaside des res with a bit of an old gallery on the ground floor. Now it's netted its owners a tidy £415,000. Well, that was the asking price anyway. Arts regen at its best, eh!

Still, there's one recently relocated Margatonian who thinks we're all being far too negative. She writes: 'There are several blogs about Thanet and they are forums for a handful of negative people with nothing better to do than sit on their backsides and slag off anyone who seems like an appropriate target to blame for their plight. The council is a great target - like they are responsible for everything. I’ve seen the council blamed for all manner of things - not reducing business rates (actually that’s all to do with central government - dur), not doing anything with empty shops (actually isn’t that down to landlords and tenants?) and not providing jobs (actually the council are actively involved with lots of private sector collaborations to do just that.)' She adds: 'No I don’t work for the council - I just know a good one when I see one.'

Crikey! Well, she is an artist. Perhaps all that paint and glue has, er, gone to her head!

Political Football

Margate Architecture, one of the newer kids on the blog, has asked me to highlight the peculiar comings and goings over planning permission for the above building, close to Cliftonville Lido.

Locals will know that the place has been rotting away for many years, but now it seems Rams boss Jim Ward has come along and applied for permission to convert the place into flats. The lad done good, you might opine. Trouble is, it's in a Conservation Area, and is about to be spot listed by English Heritage. Yet Margate Architecture reports that planning notices - those yellow things you see appended to lamp posts - have been conspicuous by their absence. Not only that, but whilst awaiting a listed status inspection all the splendid old cabinets in the former pharmacy were stripped out - you can see before and after shots here. Presumably they've been recycled into trophy cabinets.

Personally I think it would be a crying shame to demolish the curvy, Victorian shop front and replace it with breeze blocks and one of those plastic portholes that pass for a door around here. But then I'm afraid the writing is already on the wall. Does anyone remember the Outfitters Gallery debacle last May? We were promised a full inquiry into that, since when not a sausage. Maybe it's gone into extra time.

Child's Play

Yet more news from the north side. My spies have spotted a group of school children conducting interviews in Margate under the auspices of the Margate Town Partnership. Apparently they've been tasked with writing essays about the future of the town, which will no doubt resurface at some point as detailed (and presumably free) 'research'.

Interestingly they've been warned of a couple of 'no go' areas. No mention of retail being converted into residential, and no mention of other boroughs shipping their unfortunates to the seaside.

Speaking of retail being converted to residential, whatever happened to the questions that were going to be asked about public money being used to tart up the Outfitters Gallery, which went on the market recently for £415,000? I see on the Lovetts website that the price has now dropped to £399,950. Perhaps the owners have decided to offer a 'controversy discount'?

Son Of Turnip?

Northsiders appear to be getting more than a little hot under the collar about the sale of one of the jewels in Margate's regeneration crown, the Outfitters Gallery in the Increasingly Less Creative Quarter.

Since I broke the news that it's up for sale for £415,000, there have been calls for an investigation into whether the £100,000+ funding from GOSE (the Government of the South East - who they???) and the Arts Council (via Kent Creative Partnerships) has been well spent. Oh yes, well and truly, I would say - the solid oak worktop in the kitchen is to die for! Lovetts' details certainly appear to put more emphasis on the place as a charming pied-a-mer than a thriving art gallery and place for the kiddies to come and make papier mache walruses.

Personally I can't see what all the fuss is about. After all, we're not talking about anything like the £8m that was wasted on the 'offshore' Turnip Centre, and anyway GOSE would surely have ensured the money could be clawed back from any profit from a sale within a certain time after the funding was handed out. They surely would have. Surely. They would. No, they would have, surely.

Outfitters Gallery on the GOSE website
Outfitters Gallery on the Lovetts website

Open And Shut Case

Here's a bit of an admission. I actually enjoyed a night out in Margate yesterday!

On the way to meet my chums for a gargle or two (yes, it's true, I do have friends on the north of the Ile), I noticed that something called The Flower Lab is due to open in what the Uranians insist on calling the 'creative quarter':

Nothing too creative about experimenting on poor, defenceless nasturtiums, but good luck to them anyway. Then I noticed one of the creative flagships of the creative quarter has creatively closed:

This is the place that those nice people at GOSE (Government of the South East) spent a substantial amount of money (or European Objective 2 Funding as they prefer to call it) on not so long ago. Now it's up for sale for a cool £415,000.

GOSE, you'll recall, is also the body that recently tipped the nod to 1300 new houses at Westworld Cross. I don't recall voting for them, but it's nevertheless reassuring to know that all the tax I give them is being put to such, um, profitable use.

Outfitters Gallery on the GOSE website
Outfitters Gallery on the Lovetts website
And if you fancy running an Italian restaurant, Soprano in Cliftonville is up for sale too!