A Gardening Strategy for Ramsgate

Looking back at old photographs of the Eastcliff Promenade or Eastcliff Chine, as some call it, there is a stark contrast between the beautiful lawns and flowerbeds created by the Victorians compared to the condition of the Promenade today. Even fairly recently, Thanet District Council (TDC) maintained the gardens and open spaces along the Promenade in a much better condition compared to now. Why is that? Up to about seven years ago, for example, Albion Gardens had its own full-time gardener employed by TDC. Now 99% of the gardening work is done by local volunteers. TDC’s Open Spaces team used to grow their own plants in an in-house nursery for use in Thanet’s parks and open spaces. Now, this no longer happens.

While it is great that volunteers are happy to do the gardening on the Promenade, and we congratulate them on all the work they do, surely some of this should be done by the council? After all, we pay our council tax to enable this to happen.

Over the last couple of years, in response to requests from residents, Councillor Albon, Councillor Crittenden and I have repeatedly lobbied TDC’s Open Spaces team to try and get more regular gardening maintenance carried out along the Eastcliff Promenade, as well as repairs to the bandstand and listed monuments such as the Destiny statue and the two stone lions. Nothing has come of these requests. All Open Spaces seem capable of doing now is the mowing! The flower beds aren’t maintained, no new flowers or plants have been added, the concrete on the steps and paths is breaking up and there are weeds everywhere. Apart from the magnificent gardening work done by volunteers at Albion Gardens and Winterstoke Gardens, as well as the one-off gardening project by Saga Insurance volunteers recently at the bandstand, the Promenade in general looks empty and unloved.

Why has this happened? Basically because of the ongoing funding cuts to local government budgets since 2010. The reduction or complete cuts to maintenance of parks and open spaces has occurred throughout England, despite research showing that access to green spaces and parks in urban areas helps with people’s mental health and wellbeing, something which became even more important with the Covid lockdowns. Indeed, research by The Guardian newspaper recently found that local authorities in England are spending almost £330m less a year in real terms on maintenance of parks and open spaces compared to a decade ago. The most deprived areas (like Thanet), of course, suffer the deepest cuts. This means fewer staff, less Green Flag Award accreditations and decay of our parks, open spaces, playgrounds and band stands as public facilities.

So, we have decided to do something about this unacceptable situation in Ramsgate. We presented a motion to Ramsgate Town Council (RTC) full council recently to form an Open Public Spaces Strategy Group for the whole of the town, and we are now working with RTC technicians and staff to set this up and develop it. The aims of the strategy are to support and increase the number of volunteer gardening groups, especially in parts of the town which don’t have any; join with other local organisations to drive this forward and share knowledge and resources; carry out an audit and map all our parks and open spaces in the town; develop pocket parks around Ramsgate and look after our town centre flower beds; and create an RTC apprenticeship scheme so that, in future, we have a professional gardener employed by RTC who can advise residents’ groups and the wider community about the town’s open spaces and parks and use their knowledge to purchase and plant water resistant plants and trees which suit the local area.

Surely our Victorian and Georgian ancestors who lived in Ramsgate would approve?

Written by:
Councillor Corinna Huxley (Eastcliff Ward)