More renewal help for Margate & Cliftonville
Further phases of the Council’s Renewal
programme have been formally declared in parts of Margate Central
and Cliftonville West to help improve the physical and
environmental regeneration of the area.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Thanet
District Council’s Cabinet last night (Thursday 11 December) and
now Renewal Areas will be created to cover the town centre of
Margate, including the Old Town, Grotto Hill, Poets Corner and an
additional area of Cliftonville West, which is to the east of
Wilderness Hill, up to and including Madeira Road.
This decision was made after Renewal Officers
consulted with local residents about the idea by distributing
leaflets and surveys to every home in the area, displaying posters,
and advertising on the Council’s website and in local papers. Three
Open Days, at the Margate Media Centre, Holy Trinity and St. John’s
CE Primary School and St. Paul’s Community Centre, were also held
and around 250 people attended to give their views.
The existing Renewal Area was declared in Cliftonville West in
May 2005 and since then, nearly 200 grants of up to £2,000 have
been given out to property owners in the area for projects such as
repainting the exterior of their houses, repairs to windows, doors
and guttering, minor roof repairs and damp proofing of properties.
This has made a positive visual impact to the area.
A number of community projects have also been supported by the
Renewal Area team, including improvements to Dalby Square, the
lighting scheme at St. Paul’s Church, introducing hanging basket
trees and new litter bins along Northdown Road, alleygates, and
providing maintenance work in Trinity Gardens. They have also
helped community groups with a number of clear-ups in the area and
were instrumental in the crackdown on anti-social issues by the
Council which took place in October.
Cllr. Zita Wiltshire, Cabinet Member for
Housing, said: “The Renewal Area has helped to significantly
improve people’s lives in Cliftonville West and that’s why we were
keen to expand it to other parts of Margate Central and
Cliftonville West that suffer from similar deprivation problems.
The response from people living in those areas has been
overwhelmingly positive and, as a result of their feedback, we will
be doing more work to help clean up and improve these areas. That’s
their number one priority and that’s what we’ll be addressing.
Already our operation in Cliftonville West in the existing Renewal
Area has been a huge success and we will be looking at how we can
extend that work into these areas in the future.”
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