This petition is being submitted to Thanet District Council on 17/2/26

If you've been following the news on the Pierremont Park Depot you'll know that Thanet District Council (TDC) have now put it up for sale on the open market, see Isle of Thanet News. 

The leader of the  TDC, Cllr Rick Everitt, has told us that there is no timescale for the sale and they will consider an offer from the Town Council to take it on, which the Town Council are working on now, having finally been permitted access to view the site last week.  

However TDC have also said that they don't believe the covenant on the land (view transcript here) should limit who they can sell it to and they've put a guide price on it of £475k!  The research some of our volunteers have been able to undertake  so far highlights a number of issues we think may be significant. 

Now the site is on the market, we have been advised there is a lot of interest from developers. We envisage it would be quite a risk for a developer to take on, given that planning permission has already been refused and the access issues along with the covenant status would surely make it challenging to overcome that. But someone might decide to take that risk and we remain extremely concerned that this asset which has belonged to the public for more than 100 years and is supposed to benefit and be part of the park may end up being sold off for a paltry short term profit rather than sold to the Town Council for a fair price so that they can make good use of it to benefit the park as a whole and the community. 

We have held productive meetings with the Town Council and fed in the social value rationale for them to acquire it which it seems they agree with and they are now progressing to put a bid together. 

The sticking point is perhaps going to be the legality of a sale to a third party - do you know any lawyers who would give an opinion on this? And the sales price, as TDC are insistent that they need to raise "best value" to plug a hole in their finances. 

We think that the covenant means it cannot be commercially developed, certainly, morally, it should not be but we are by no means secure of victory yet. 

We are submitting the petition to TDC tomorrow, 17/2/26, at midday.  

That should then trigger a debate at the full council meeting on 26/3/26 so we will ask everyone in the meantime to please keep emailing councillors, logging official complaints, and doing whatever you can to keep making a noise about this situation in the meantime - and come along to TDC for that evening's debate to show the strength of local feelings about our park and its need for a working service area so that over time the park itself can be improved and the asset can be used to benefit the community once again.  

If you'd like to keep in touch once the petition is submitted, please email us your contact details so we can add you to our mailing list. friendsofpierremontpark@gmail.com 

Thank you for your support! 

Photo shows the inside of the depot - we were able to attend a viewing last week.  See our FB and instagram accounts for more photos and video and to join the conversation.