Thanet District Council debated our petition on 26/3/26. Apologies for being slow to update you.
You can watch the whole thing on the TDC YouTube channel (link should start playing just after all the Broadstairs and St Peter's Town Council councillors were made to leave the room and the debate is introduced), or read about it on Isle of Thanet News.
We made all the obvious points you would expect, you can read the full introduction that I read out here, thanks to all the Friends of Pierremont Park and also people from Kent Gardens Trust that helped pull together all the information.
Several councillors kindly spoke in support of our position, but the leader of the council and some others denied the validity of our stance. We are considering how best to follow up on some of the claims that were made, since many were unreasonable, in our view. It would be interesting to hear what you think if you watch the video.
Ultimately the decision was made simply to acknowledge our petition rather than to agree with our request for TDC not to sell the site on the open market and instead to work towards a deal with the Town Council so that it can be brought back into use to benefit the park again - and be part of any regeneration plan.
However the leader of the council conceded that if no-one else bids for the site they may have no option but to sell it to the Town Council. The Town Council have now submitted their bid so we hope that will be accepted. We know that they have put a lot of work and careful thought into it which we thank them for and we wish them every success. It has been heartening to see politicians from across the political spectrum come together over this issue - the wellbeing, integrity and sustainability of our precious park of which the depot is an important part, despite its being excluded from the protected open space identified in the current Local Plan.
Thank you for all your support. Let us know if you've got any comments or ideas by responding to this email or joining the discussion on our Facebook group. We'll let you know when we can next organise a public meeting. If you'd like to help with that - please shout!
Photo by Rob Darg