Agenda item

(Mr C Hart and Mrs E M Tweed were present and spoke to this Item)

(1)       In support of Turner Contemporary and the adjacent Rendezvous site the intention was to de-dual Fort Hill.  The purpose of the report was to explain the background, programme and funding and to present the scheme proposal for recommendation to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste for formal approval.

(2)       Fort Hill was a short section of local dualling constructed many years ago that sits out of context with the rest of the B2051 coastal route between Margate and Cliftonville.  The coastal side of Fort Hill was the site of Turner Contemporary and to the east beyond the RNLI Lifeboat Station, the Rendezvous development site.

(3)       From the very inception of Turner Contemporary, the idea had been to return Fort Hill to a single carriageway.  This would reduce the perception of severance and integrate Turner Contemporary and the Rendezvous development with the Town and particularly the old town.  It would also free up surplus land that would contribute to the two developments either directly or in the context of improving the setting.  It was as much about perception as reality but the single carriageway and associated improved street scene should help strike a better balance between the needs of pedestrians and drivers.

(4)       The scheme would utilise the southern westbound carriageway which was the original alignment of Fort Hill.  The junction with Turner Contemporary would remain signal controlled.  The signals were mainly to cater for pedestrian movements and in particular to close the junction down in the event of the launch or recovery of the lifeboat that had to manoeuvre within the junction to access the slipway.  Towards the top of Fort Hill, a right turn lane protected by island refuges would maintain good access to the Police Station.  This area of the scheme might be subject to change post construction depending on the future access arrangements to the Rendezvous site.  This was unfortunate but the difficulty was that the Rendezvous proposals were not yet defined and there was an obligation to commence the Fort Hill de-dualling in April 2008 to complement the Turner Contemporary programme.  While the carriageway would be conventional asphalt, higher quality materials would be used for the kerbing and footway paving to raise the standard of the public realm.

(5)       Outside of the basic scheme there was the opportunity to carry out complementary improvements to improve general pedestrian access and ambience.  The pedestrian area between the Promenade running into the Turner Contemporary entrance and towards the Pier could benefit from improvement.  King Street was also a key pedestrian route between the town and Turner but was dominated by two traffic lanes at the expense of narrow footways.  Thanet District Council had proposals to revert to just one lane of traffic and widen the footways.

(6)       The scheme was a lessening of highway and within the highway boundary and did not require planning consent.  The nature of the scheme was such that specific public consultation had not been appropriate although the proposals had been implicit within the various submissions, exhibitions and recent public meeting related to Turner Contemporary.  The intention would be to inform the residents and business that front the works and in the area prior to construction and to erect a Notice Board on the site with a plan of the scheme.

(7)       Kent Highway Services had given a commitment to commence the scheme construction in April 2008.  The works would be carried out by the term contractor Ringway and were expected to take 6 months and be completed by October.

(8)       The estimated cost of the de-dualling scheme was £0.750m.  The available funding was £0.750m composed of £0.550m underspend on the capital programme and £0.200m Cabinet Member allocation for footway improvements.

(9)       A bid for Objective 2 funding had been successful with £0.850m awarded for ‘Opening of the Eastern Seafront’ and some of the funding should be available for top-up funding of the enhanced public realm.  While the priority was the de-dualling, the objective was to carry out the more wider regeneration improvements to the adjacent King Street and the Promenade entrance to Turner Contemporary subject to funding availability.

(10)     The Board agreed that the scheme for the de-dualling of Fort Hill and associated works on The Promenade and King Street shown on Drawing No. B0647400/20 be referred to the Thanet Joint Transportation Board.