Margate, change is possible

“It will always be the same. Nothing will change” 

This is something I’ve heard time and time again from residents in relation to Thanet Council. 
Which led me to wonder; why is this?

Why can’t things change? And change for the better?

I’ve heard that young people just aren’t interested in local politics. I don’t believe this is true. Young people play a valuable role in Margate and have proved themselves capable of working together to improve the place where they live. Their reward? Thanet Council smashed to bits the Little Oasis skate park  they built with their own hands and not followed through on their promise to restore Hartsdown Skate Park that was backed by a 1500 strong petition. [Sign the new petition here]

I’ve heard that the people of Margate settle for the status quo that merely passes from red to blue and back again over the years or else they would step forward themselves. I don’t believe this true. Good people with valuable experience to share and contribute find the current system of endless committees scheduled at times they can’t attend and back biting party rivalries, off putting.

I believe the people of Margate do care about Margate. But they’ve lost faith in the political system to listen to them.  They’ve lost faith in those in power to bring about change.
 

This is about Margate, not which colour party you stand for. We all walk the same streets, look out on the same seafront.  The place we live in is the thing that unites us as a town.

In the eight years I’ve lived in  Margate there has been incredible change. But not all for the better.  Those of us that live and work in Margate can see that our streets are still dirty, Margate High Street needs cleaning up, our young people still need places to go.  We can see in the news that Thanet Council needs to be more open and accountable to the people of Margate.

So, I’ve decided to take a step towards working to achieve positive change in Margate by accepting an invitation to stand as the Green Party candidate for  councillor for Margate Central.  I believe the people of Margate can change Margate for the better.

I’m registering to stand up for Margate. I can only encourage others to do the same. At the least, register to vote, it takes 5 minutes and you can do itonline.  You have until April 20th to register to vote. If you want to help with the campaign, get in touch (contact form to the right!). We've got one month to get the word out. 

Optomen TV briefed that Margate people were mostly interested in seeing Mary and not their town

Serious questions were raised in a Parliamentary debate yesterday by Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, where he referred to the Optomen Television produced series, Mary Queen of the High Street as 'tawdry'. The Gazette have a feature on it on their shiny new website. Well done those at Gazette Towers for the new site. View the online debate.

The FOI released email that Mr Danczuk refers to is an email sent on June 29th 2012 that was sent from Mary Portas' then business partner, to a Government Officer, forwarding feedback from Optomen Television regarding a meeting they'd attended in the Portas Pilot TV Town of Liskeard. Optomen state that the people of Liskeard are 'genuinely interested citizens, unlike in Margate where the people there were mostly interested in seeing Mary'.

From: [OPTOMEN1] [mailto:Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 04:43 PM
To: [OPTOMEN2]; [MP1]
Cc: Mary; [MP3]; [OPTOMEN3]
Subject: RE: liskeard
Hi [MP1]
This happened before we went to Liskeard and [DCLG3] mentioned it to us on the day. I think it’s all good. Here’s why:
- The councillors walked out of the meeting because 300 people turned up and were given the opportunity to vote (amazing. These were genuinely interested citizens, unlike in margate where the people there were mostly interested in seeing Mary). The councillors were upset because normally only people who have come to town forum meetinga twice before have the right to vote. (ie the councillors didn’t want 300 people to vote, only the usual bureaucrats)
- In tv terms the fight between the bureaucrats and the passionate citizens could be great.
- the mayor, who led the walk out, wants to redevelop the town to an inch of his life. He wants to turn the cattle market (c.a. 1260) into a supermarket.
This article is cleverly written to involve us but ultimately it’s not about us. It’s about two liskeard groups who want control over 100k. in addition to this: the retailers association voted unanimously to have the tv crews and Mary there.
The town team are over the moon about us being there. The mayor also welcomes us there (but may cause trouble when we don’t do what he wants us to do) Everyone is on board.
It’s going to be great!
[OPTOMEN1] x
From: [OPTOMEN2]
Sent: 29 June 2012 16:08
To: [MP1] Cc: [OPTOMEN1]; Mary; [MP3][OPTOMEN3]
Subject: Re: liskeard
Keep us posted.

Optomen couldn't have been more wrong. Here's our video from the June 12th public meeting event, which I think shows just how much Margate people were engaged and how different to the image portrayed in the Mary Portas programme of May 14th.

The Grocer on Mary Portas', Margate and what the FOIs reveal - The high-street circus continues

Fresh in from the Grocer Magazine:

"The Mary Portas road show continues: this week the Queen of the High Street’s Channel 4 show touched down in Margate, featuring yet more cockneys, market traders and claims of TV trickery. 
After last week’s episode in the Roman Road, which was not even a Portas Pilot, at least Mary was in the right place - although the jury is well and truly out about whether her presence has had the desired impact.
Within hours of broadcast, members of the original Margate town team – who walked out in protest last year, accusing Portas of being more interested in TV than in saving their shops – had announced they would be complaining to Ofcom about the show ‘fabricating’ events.
This came hours after Portas went on Radio Five to explain how she felt she had been misadvised in her handling of the ‘Tsar’ role and had inadvertently ended up as public enemy number one. You couldn’t really make it up if you were to sit down and write a guide of how not to run a government programme to save the High Street.
The sad fact is all the good ideas Portas and her review had in 2011are in danger of being drowned out by this side show, while so little has actually been done on the ground.
In the case of Margate, a freedom of information (FOI) request seen by The Grocer shows just £2,156.21 of the £100,000 of taxpayers’ money given to the town had been spent as of the end of March.
This isn’t even the biggest tragedy. The solution to the High Street isn’t a quick fix, solved by throwing money around. It needs strategic thinking at government level, adapted by well co-ordinated local initiatives. Instead, information in FOIs seen by The Grocer is painful to behold. It reveals the incredible extent to which the government – and especially former local government minister Grant Shapps and his team – allowed its policy on the high street to be dictated by Portas and her TV crew.
In one email from Portas’ team to the minister’s cronies, the plight of Liskeard, next week’s chosen subject for the show, is highlighted. The scene, we discover, is perfect. Local councillors and residents are at each other’s throats, not least over plans for an out-of-town supermarket. “In TV terms the fight between the bureaucrats and the passionate citizens could be great,” says the email.
This is an email to the government department supposed to be helping rescue the High Street. It’s beyond belief almost that this sort of nonsense was the way the department was being run.
It gets even worse: in other correspondence between the two camps, the government team was asked to advise the Queen of Shops on a small problem. She had been contacted by the Welsh Assembly for help in tackling ailing shops. “Pls could you ask Grant for his advice on engaging or not,” says the Portas team. “We haven’t really got the time but would like your help with how to deal with this.”
The government’s advice: “It really is up to you. But if you are too busy, I would suggest you just say that Mary is very busy at the moment - and not currently engaged by Her Majesty's Government - but is keeping in touch with Department of Local Government (DCLG) officials as we implement our response to her report.” So not just one government but two have been drawn into this circus, with the DCLG acting virtually as her new political adviser to fend off the Welsh. It would all be funny – a bit like some of the scenes from the TV show – if it weren’t so tragic."
Ian Quinn

Press Release - Former Margate Town Team Members response to Mary Queen of the High Street, May 14th 2013

Press Release
Wednesday May 15th 2013

Last night's screening of Mary Portas' Mary Queen of the High Street produced by Optomen Television (May 14th 2013, Channel 4) told a story which is contradicted by the records we hold as former members of Margate Town Team.

We will be publishing full details of our concerns with the programme today and taking forward an official complaint to OFCOM. In particular, we will be making a complaint under Section 7 of the Broadcasting Code, about fairness.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/fairness/

As we were concerned prior to transmission with the direction of the programme, we have asked Optomen Television for a right of reply. This was refused on April 30th:

"we do not feel that this is required as we make no allegations or criticisms of you in the Programme."

Far from being an accurate record of events surrounding Margate Town Team, Optomen has created, and Channel4, broadcast a fabricated a storyline against early members of the Town Team which runs contrary to what actually happened.

There are several key differences between the programme that aired last night and what actually happened. We believe that the facts show that Optomen Television's behaviour was a key influence in the story playing out in the way that it did.

The Portas Pilots were meant to bring communities together. The activities of the programme makers have brought conflict to a struggling community, leaving the original bid team that secured Government funding for their town disappointed and undermined. 

Optomen Television were uninterested in filming the Town Team's many efforts to bring their winning bid to the people of Margate, yet have presented a programme that seeks to show how Margate Town Team were unwelcoming and hostile to Mary Portas and Optomen Television. Margate Town Team were not invited to meet or speak with Mary Portas before they filmed the staged conflict scene on the steps of Woolworths on June 12th.

Robin Vaughan-Lyons (Former Chairman, Margate Town Team)
Roxana Tesla (Former Vice-Chairman, Margate Town Team)
Louise Oldfield (Former Secretary & Press Officer, Margate Town Team)

Contact: 

louise.oldfield@gmail.com
07932 713292

A peacock riding a toboggan

Image courtesy of @retrodan16

Today's Thanet Gazette has a feature on the latest departure of a key player from Margate Town Team. Wanda Rogers was Margate Town Team's Team Leader from September last year and took on the task of getting the flagship High Street multi-trader space of Poportunity up and running. 

Wanda states: 

"I am relieved to be out of the team. The essence of Portas Pilots has been lost. There's no project or action plan going forward. At least I had one for Poportunity. It was supposed to work with other elements of the bid like education, marketing and wi-fi but they haven't happened for one reason or another. "I feel let down for the people in there who are working hard."

Poportunity launched on October 20th as part of Mary Portas' 'Margate Relaunch' event for the Optomen Television produced upcoming series: Mary Queen of Shops. 

As far as we know, none of Margate's Portas Pilot funding has so far been spent on Poportunity. This was later clarified by retail expert, Paul Turner-Mitchell's series of FOI requests to the 27 winning Portas Pilot towns, where Margate was confirmed as having spent only £111.47 out of their £100,000 bid money. 

Richard Ash (centre)

Yet, Margate Town Team's Chairman, Richard Ash is quoted in today's article in the Gazette as saying: 

"I would like to thank Wanda publicly for all she has done in very difficult circumstances. The numbers have to add up. The graph plotting Poportunity's progress has been going downhill like a toboggan since October. The aim of Poportunity was always for start-up businesses to test ideas out but it cannot be treated like a bucket with holes in, with the town team endlessly filling it with money."

What an odd thing for Richard to say. Afterall, Richard has also been Chairman of Margate Town Team since last October, a full six months ago.

Back in November I blogged about an interview Richard had given to BBC Radio Kent, where he was keen to say how much of a success Poportunity was. Listen to the following section from 2:31 in:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/1081363-pt3-bbc-radio-kent-margate-town-team-27-11-2012#t=0m9s
In the same interview, Richard stated the only Portas Pilot funds spent so far was £800 on the annual checks of the High Street Christmas lights. The ones that in the end weren't working for Christmas. This was later clarified by TDC as being a Margate Town Partnership responsibility and the bill was covered by TDC not Margate Town Team. 

Then, in March Richard was quoted in the Sunday Times he was 'proud as a peacock' for the Town Team's progress so far in not spending any money. http://margatearchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sunday-times-queen-of-shops-all-pomp.html
 
So there we have it: The endearing image of a peacock, riding a toboggan down a dying High Street with £100k of winnings stashed in the bank at TDC. 

Sunday Times: Queen of Shops ‘all pomp and flop’

 

Georgia Graham Published 3 March 2013 

IN ITS heyday in the mid- 1800s, Margate would lure crowds of Victorians to stroll its shop-lined streets and bathe in the waters off the Kent coastal town.

Today, Margate's efforts to regenerate its now depressed high street with a £100,000 government grant and the help of Mary Portas, the self-styled Queen of Shops, have descended into a bitter war of words. 

In May last year Margate beat off stiff competition to become one of 12 towns to win part of £1.1m, the first wave of funding set aside by the government to help ailing high streets. It was much needed. The high street, littered with empty shops, had a 36.1% vacancy rate and even the Non-Stop Pound Shop store had moved out. 

The involvement of Portas, the initiative's figurehead, was an added boost, as was the arrival of a television crew to film her offering advice to grateful shop owners. 

However, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, just £111.47 of the £100,000 had been spent by December 2012 — on a combination of stationery and Land Registry searches. The quartet who led the original Town Team grant application have resigned, condemning what they describe as Portas's "gimmicks" and "silly pomp and ceremony" for leaving the high street in a worse state than when she arrived six months ago. Portas has dismissed the claims as "ridiculous". 

Among the disgruntled locals is Robin Vaughan-Lyons, the leader of the original bid, who was last week preparing to close one of his charity shops in the high street. 

"It has all been a huge waste of time," he said. "It is all gimmicks and no substance, there is nothing real that has been done, not for local people who want to shop in their local shops." 

Vaughan-Lyons claims Portas focused her energies on Margate's old town and seafront which have been far less ravaged by years of decline than the high street. He also believes her appearance at an empty branch of the now defunct Woolworths owed much to securing footage for her TV series. 

Other traders, such as Terry Silk, the owner of Yama's restaurant, are unimpressed by the notion advocated by Portas that initiatives such as art displays in abandoned shop fronts will arrest the decline. 

"Honestly, nothing has changed, nothing at all. What we have been hoping for is to get proper lighting on the street, and that's still not done, we wanted the shops painted, everything cleaned up, the litter," he said. "To be honest business is worse than ever." 

 

Margate shop owner Robin Vaughan-Lyons, with Roxanne Tesla (Julian Andrews)  

Another shopkeeper, who asked not to be named, described the rancour between Portas's critics and supporters as like "world war three". She added: "It's ridiculous — all that pomp and ceremony of the launch — and nothing actually changing." 

Those criticisms are dismissed by the council and the new Town Team who say half a dozen projects — ranging from community dance studios to steak houses — are planned for this spring. 

Richard Ash, who took over as chairman of the new Town Team in October, defended the decision to spend so little of the £100,000 fund and insisted that Portas's involvement had benefited the town. 

"Our position is to target where the money will be spent in a proper manner rather than rushing. I'm as proud as a peacock we haven't spent our money because it means we have it to use it where we want to use it," he said. "She [Portas] hasn't done it 100% right, I agree, but she has tried to promote Margate and has brought a lot of publicity." 

Margate is not alone in demonstrating a reluctance to spend its regeneration grant. According to freedom of information responses revealed by Paul Turner-Mitchell, a retail expert, from the 12 towns who secured funds, just £161,773 — or 14.5% — of the £1.11m handed out has been spent. Margate is the lowest (0.1%) but Bedford (4.6%) and Croydon (4.9%) have also spent less than 5%.

The crisis in the high street shows no sign of abating. According to a study of 500 UK town centres by the Local Data Company, there were 7,337 store closures in 2012 against 5,558 openings. 

 

Portas is unbowed by the criticism and insists part of her programme was filmed in Margate's old town to show what the high street could become. 

She said: "This is not a make-over, this is going to take years to change. To be judged after a month's work advising a community is just quite ridiculous. This is not about TV programming, this is about documenting something that is real and to suggest that this is all PR spin is just wrong. 

"There are people who comment, there are people who point and there are people who roll their sleeves up. In rolling my sleeves up, I come [in] for a knocking and I just have to take it but I can sleep at night. I am doing what I believe in."

Paul Turner-Mitchell's Margate Portas Pilot FOI Request to Thanet District Council

Below is the original FOI Request made by Paul Turner-Mitchell to Thanet District Council on January 7th 2012.  The FOI was the subject of two articles in the Independent newspaper yesterday and today, was covered on BBC Newsnight as well as last night's BBC South East Today and BBC Radio Kent's breakfast show. The topic being Thanet District Council's none reply to the FOI request. Thanet District Council's response finally published their response yesterday afternoon. When I learned the figures and content I was dumbfounded. However, it contains a degree of creative embellishment that is out of the remit of FOIs and certainly out of the jurisdiction of Thanet Council. They take it upon themselves to issue more of a press release than factual response and enter into discussion about the make up and history of the Margate Portas Pilot bid team, who are and independent community group.  I was a member of Margate's bid team and as Chair of Margate Independent Traders was not contacted by Thanet District Council prior to the release of this information.  Thanet District Council have delayed replying to my own FOI requests and I've had to log a complaint with the Information Commissioner. This is a lengthy, time consuming process. It's unlikely that I will get a resolution before the Optomen TV show goes out in March. Thanet Council have instead released information to a journalist under duress. If they had done so, I could have corrected their creative invention on the composition of the original bid team and how it certainly was not formed of two groups. Margate Independent Traders organise public meetings throughout the year that are free for anyone to come to. We invite guest speakers and it is a social event. We then have a mailing list that sends out information relevant to independent businesses across the Margate, Cliftonville and Westbrook area. The group had come together to fulfill the need for more access for small businesses to information. We've done all the work we have over the last 2 years with no funds.  The Town Team as it stood in August 2012 did not fail to see eye to eye or work together. The Margate Town Team Committee was undermined in by conflicting loyalties and informal meetings arranged with TDC and Mary Portas without the knowledge of the Margate Town Team committee. Thanet Council are well aware of the events surrounding a day of filming on August 20th. To date,  there have been no meetings of the newly reformed  Margate Town Team accessible to the public. The promise of a public AGM at 6 months was quashed. And as we see from yesterday's FOI release, only £111.47 of the available spend of £100,000 has been spent. Thanet District Council have acted outside of their remit to publish information in this manner. It is serving to prop up Margate Town team as it now stands, which is in the control of people who did not raise issues within the many minuted meetings. The real losers in this mess are the residents and traders of Margate High Street who have been treated with disdain and disregard. From: Paul Turner-Mitchell [mailto:XXXX@XXXX] Sent: 07 January 2013 12:07 To: 'foi@thanet.gov.uk' Subject: Freedom of Information Request On 26th May 2012, Margate was named as one of The 12 new Portas Pilots’ to enable the town team bring their high street back to life. In order to achieve this, a share of £1.2 million was awarded to put their winning plans into action. This money was paid through s31 unringfenced revenue grant, paid directly to the local authority.  Each partnership needed to identify an Accountable Body (local authority) to receive the grant, if they were not, themselves, a local authority.  It was expected that local authorities in receipt of grant to work constructively with their communities, through their Town Team, in using funding. The following request is, therefore, made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:- ·         The exact amount of government funding applied for and received for the Portas Pilot initiative ·         The exact amount of that funding that has physically been spent as a 31st December 2012 ·         Please provide a breakdown and summary of how that funding has been physically spent including date of payment, amount of payment and what exactly the payment was for. ·         Please provide details and evidence as to how the Local Authority is benchmarking the success of the Pilot. ·         Please provide details of the criteria and terms of reference for the monitoring and benchmarking as to the success of the Pilot. ·         Has the success or otherwise of the Pilot been assessed by the Local Authority to date? If so, please provide a copy of the relevant report and/or summary. Thank you. Paul Turner-Mitchell Director "FOI response to Mr Turner-Mitchell The Margate Independent Traders together with the Margate Town Partnership submitted a bid to the Ports Pilot Town Team scheme. The bid was successful and Thanet District Council agreed to act as the accountable body.  The initial bid, and subsequent award of funds, was for £100,000. Following a difficult time for the two groups who submitted the bid to form a cohesive management committee, this has now been established and meeting consistently for several months.  This has delayed the development of detailed project proposals and subsequent spend of project monies.  In addition, the in-kind support to the team has been far greater than originally expected. By 31st December 2012 the Team had made the following payments; 18-Dec-12    Stationery                                                                    £21.47 19-Dec-13    T Painter for Land Registry searches                         £90.00 Given the early stage of implementation of the project it is too early to assess the success of the Pilot scheme. However, one of the projects that has been sponsored by the Pilot has been a 'Pop-up shop' on the High Street.  This was part of the implementation plan for the Team but so far has been entirely funded by in kind support and revenue from renting space in this shop (consequently it has not required any of the Portas Pilot funding to support it).  The Pop-up shop has supported over 14 individuals to experience high street trading and test their business ideas, 12 of these are still trading. If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: Information Request Assessor, Thanet District Council, P O Box 9 Cecil Street, Margate Kent CT9 1XZ, or send an email to foi@thanet.gov.uk. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF"