Broadstairs campaigners rejoice as council press pause on auctioning abandoned depot

Campaign groups, like the Friends of Pierremont Park, were worried that trees in the park were danger of being cut down.    Meghan Shaw reports.

Transcript

00:00In the centre of Broadstairs lies Piermont Park, nestled between the High Street and

00:05the Town Hall. At just over 12,000 square metres, it has been the focus of discussion and dispute

00:11over the last few months.

00:13Danwick District Council, just last month, had their own planning application to create

00:18four properties rejected and just last night had further plans to the park shelved.

00:24The council have got a depot which has been unused for several years now and they wanted

00:30to sell it off. They need to sell assets to raise money. The trouble with this asset here

00:35is that it hasn't got its own access. So what they did was they put up part of our park as

00:39part of the access road which is completely, you know, not right.

00:43The intention here was to auction this land off, but that would also include the stretch

00:48of pavement accessing the depot. This raised the concern of campaigners and councillors

00:53who thought the access road would be at risk of being developed, disrupt wildlife or cost

00:58a small stretch of Precious Park.

01:01Just behind me is the abandoned council depot that last night, Thanwick District Council

01:07voted to decide not to sell.

01:09As an environmentalist, we're always trying to protect the environment and Thanwick has

01:15some of the lowest tree coverage in the whole country at between 4 and 5 percent. So every

01:20tree needs protection. The Facebook group, Friends of Piermont Park, has been a focal point

01:26of community rallying. I guess I was sort of influential in helping to bring everybody

01:31together and, you know, we designed some posters and we ran around and we talked to

01:34people and we put stuff out on social media and we wrote to all the councillors and, yeah,

01:39that's me. A spokesperson from Thanwick District Council confirmed the Cabinet's verdict with

01:46the decision subject to call in. Putting the depot on the disposal list does not mean however

01:51that the council intend to do so, but opens the possibility in the future. For campaigners,

01:58they are adamant the battle is not over. As it is still possible the depot could be disposed

02:03of in the future, the sights are set on what kind of facility the depot could become.

02:08I'd like it to come to the town council. The town council are the natural residents, representatives

02:15to own that. And I'd like it to be used by the community.

02:20Megan Shaw for KMTV in Broadstairs.