Thanet District

The Isle of Thanet is the major part of the district. This was formerly an island separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel. The channel gradually closed between the 12th and 16th centuries through a combination of natural silting and artificial land reclamation. An Isle of Thanet Rural District covering the rural parts of the isle had existed from 1894 until it was abolished in 1935 to form part of Eastry Rural District.^[2]

The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 covering the whole area of three former districts and part of a fourth, which were all abolished at the same time:^[3]

• Margate Municipal Borough
• Ramsgate Municipal Borough
• Broadstairs and St Peter's Urban District
• Eastry Rural District (parishes of Acol, Minster, Monkton, St Nicholas-at-Wade and Sarre only, rest went to Dover District)

The new district was named Thanet, after the isle which covered approximately the same area.^[4]

Under current local government reorganisation plans, all district councils in Kent, as well as the county council, will be abolished in 2028, with the district becoming part of a new East Kent unitary authority.^[5]

Quick facts Type, History ...

Thanet District Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Chair	Debra Owen-Hughes, Labour since 9 May 2024[6]
Leader	Rick Everitt, Labour since 18 May 2023
Chief Executive	Colin Carmichael since 20 July 2022[7]
Structure
Seats	56 councillors
Political groups	Administration (29)   Labour (29) Other parties (27)   Conservative (13)   Green (6)   Reform UK (5)   Independent (2)
Elections
Last election	4 May 2023
Meeting place
Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, CT9 1XZ
Website
www.thanet.gov.uk

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Thanet District Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council. Much of the district is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[8][9]

The district contains 11 civil parishes, covering most of the area. The parish councils for Broadstairs and St Peter's, Ramsgate, and Westgate-on-Sea have declared their parishes to be towns, allowing them to take the title "town council". The two parishes of Sarre and St Nicholas-at-Wade share a grouped parish council.^[39]

• Acol
• Birchington
• Broadstairs and St Peter's
• Cliffsend
• Manston
• Minster
• Monkton
• Ramsgate
• Sarre
• St Nicholas-at-Wade
• Westgate-on-Sea

The town of Margate comprises an unparished area. The Thanet councillors representing the wards covering Margate act as charter trustees, choosing one of their number to be the mayor of Margate each year.^[40]

According to the 2011 census, the population of Thanet was 134,186, an increase of about 6000 in the ten years since the previous census.^[41]

The whole district suffers from seasonal unemployment, in spite of its proximity to London, because of various factors, among them being inward migration, high numbers of old people, and low numbers of affluent people. It is not helped by poor overall indicators for health.^[42] In a study of resilience to economic downturns, Thanet was poorly rated at 295th out of 324 districts.^[43] Unemployment levels are nearly twice the South East of England as a whole, and as a result a great deal of planning is being done to encourage more businesses to relocate to the District.^[44] The Thanet & East Kent Chamber produces a weekly business digest, the Thanet & East Kent Insider, which reports on economic activity in the private and public sectors.

Redevelopment projects had included in Margate from 2003 onwards amusement park development at Dreamland and the Turner Contemporary which was opened by Tracey Emin in April 2011.^[45][46] These projects created 300 new jobs, 19% tourism grown between 2013-15 and in case of the Turner Contemporary gallery one million new visitors to Margate.^[45] However the designation in 2011 of Margate as a Mary Portas retail town has by 2017 been described as a failure.^[47] After a saga with initial ground work starting in 2004 the seafront Ramsgate Royal Sands development resumed in June 2020 and by 2023 its luxury apartments were being sold, even if beyond the means of most locals.^[48] In 2026 plans exist to restore the Margate Winter Gardens theatre which had been built in 1910, rebuilt after damage in World War II and closed in 2022.^[49] A project has long existed to reopen Manston Airport near Ramsgate which closed in 2014 but the earliest this would happen would be 2029.^[50]

In addition, the District Council has introduced an empty property initiative and has compulsorily purchased empty and derelict buildings with the objective of bringing them back into use.

The Thanet Offshore Wind Project, near North Foreland, began operating in September 2010. The project is expected to have a total capacity of up to 300 MW which, on average, is sufficient to supply approximately 240,000 homes with green energy. The project will thus make a significant contribution to the government's national and regional renewable energy targets. Thanet Earth is the largest greenhouse development in the UK, covering an area of 91 hectares with 7 greenhouses each the size of 10 football pitches producing cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers all year.^[51]

Westwood at the centre of Thanet has seen the building of Westwood Cross shopping centre. Associated development has taken place around the shopping centre spawning other retail parks. Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs each have traditional town centre shopping centres. Northdown Road, Cliftonville, Westgate and Birchington-on-Sea have smaller shopping areas.^[52]

The rail connections are via the Chatham Main Line through Margate to Ramsgate, and the Ashford to Ramsgate (via Canterbury West) line. New high-speed rail links from London to Thanet began in December 2009, and it is now possible to travel from Margate to St Pancras railway station at up to 140 mph (230 km/h).^[53] Main road links are the A28 which brings traffic from Canterbury and Ashford; and the A299, north coast route. The Saxon Shore Way Long distance footpath skirts the coast.

There is an airport, now closed, at Manston,^[54] formerly RAF Manston, but later renamed by its commercial operators as Kent International Airport. The airport closed permanently on 15 May, 2014. Because it was used as a U.S. airbase during the Second World War it has one of the longest runways in the UK, and while open it was designated by the United Nations as an emergency landing site for aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

Ferry services are no longer running from the Port of Ramsgate, and the council was in dispute with the former operators over the payment of £3.3 million^[55]

Thanet's major hospital is the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, known as the QEQM.^[56]

A new community hub was opened near Westwood Cross in 2025.^[57]

As of February 2026, overall indicators of health were poor for Thanet:^[58]

Local newspapers are the Thanet Extra, part of the KM Group; Isle of Thanet Gazette owned by Northcliffe Media; and the midweek Your Thanet published online by KOS Media.

Local radio stations are;

• KMFM Thanet (previously known as Thanet Local Radio) owned by the KM Group.
• Community non-commercial station Academy FM Thanet on 107.8FM and online and via mobile app it broadcasts from within Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate.
• The county-wide Heart South
• BBC Radio Kent

National TV stations carry regional news: The ITV1 service is provided currently by Meridian Broadcasting; and the BBC South East Today.

Thanet has a wide variety of local schools. The community learning within the district is varied and wide, including charitable training organisations such as East Kent ITeC Ltd, and organisations such as Margate Adult Education Centre, Thanet Skills Studio and Thanet Stage School. East Kent College is a provider of further education in Thanet and a Training Provider that works with local businesses to raise the level of education across the region. In 2023, Nelson College London took over the former Canterbury Christ Church University campus in Broadstairs, offering HND courses in Business and Hospitality Management.

Thanet enjoys a maritime climate, being surrounded on three sides by the sea. This generally results in mild winters and warm, dry summers.