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Thanet District
Shown within Kent
Geography
Status:	District
Region:	South East England
Admin. County:	Kent
Area: - Total	Ranked 241st 103.30 km²
Admin. HQ:	Margate
ONS code:	29UN
Demographics
Population: - Total (2006 est.) - Density	Ranked 149th 128,600 1245 / km²
Ethnicity:	97.7% White
Politics
Thanet District Council http://www.thanet.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:	Conservative
MPs:	Roger Gale, Stephen Ladyman

Thanet is a local government district of Kent, England which was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, and came into being on 1 April 1974. It occupies the area known as the Isle of Thanet and is governed by Thanet District Council. The main towns in the district are Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs.

The district is located on the north eastern tip of Kent, and is predominantly coastal, with north, east and south facing coastline. The district is bordered by the City of Canterbury district to west, and the Dover district to the south.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Toponymy 2 Governance 3 Geography 3.1 Origins 3.2 Transport links 4 Economy 4.1 Retail and commerce 5 Health 6 Media 7 The future 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

The earliest known reference to Thanet is in Ptolemy's geography of the second century.It refers to an island east of the Triovantes region as Toliapis. The name "Tenet" was listed in the Domesday book of 1086, whereas in the 18th century classical dictionary of John Lemprise it is states "Tane'tus, a small island of Albion. Ptolemy calls it Tolianis. It is now Thanet."

The word Tanatus may come from the Celtic work "teine", meaning "fire" or "bonfire" and "arth" meaning "height" and would make Thanet the Bright Island. It could well be that a lighthouse or beacon was situated on Telegraph Hill, west of Manston, one of the highest points on the island. There isn't any evidence of this on the ground, and it may have been that there were several beacons arranged along the coast. For example, Beacon Road, Kingsgate, leads from the ancient town of St Peter's to the promontory upon which is now the North Foreland lighthouse.

The district was formed by the merger of Margate and Ramsgate municipal boroughs with Broadstairs and St Peter's urban district and part of Eastry Rural District. An Isle of Thanet Rural District had existed from 1894 and the Local Government Act 1894 until it was abolished in 1935 to form part of Eastry RD.

The district is divided into 23 wards, some of which are included in the three traditional coastal resorts of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. The civil parishes located in the district are:

• Acol
• Birchington
• Broadstairs and St Peter's (village)
• Cliffsend
• Manston
• Minster
• Monkton
• St Nicholas at Wade and Sarre

Margate and Ramsgate are unparished areas, though there are attempts to parish Ramsgate.^[1]

Thanet District Council is held by a Conservative majority, who hold 33 seats, compared to the 19 seats held by Labour, who are the second party.^[2]Thanet is in county council control by Kent County Council.

There are two MPs for Thanet:

• Roger Gale, Conservative for North Thanet,
• Stephen Ladyman, Labour MP for South Thanet.

The main seafront ares in the towns are highly developed: from Birchington, via Westgate-on-Sea, Margate, Cliftonville, Broadstairs to Ramsgate. Where it is not built upon, the coastline is slightly higher - for example at North Foreland where the North Foreland lighthouse stands. Thanet has a 26 mile sandy coastline and many fine bays. The coastline suffers erosion as the base rock is chalk.

When the English Channel was formed by the sea breaking through, an island of chalk was left on the east side of the county. It was separated from the rest of Kent by the Wantsum Channel. The Wantsum Channel was originally up to two miles wide, and as you drive towards the peninsular you can see where it once was. The Channel was protected by Richborough Castle at the western end (built by the Romans) and Reculver Fort guarded the other. The first bridge across to the island was built in 1485 and even as late as the mid 1700s there was a ferry from Sandwich.

Thanet as it was when the Romans were in Kent. Over the course of the last millennium, the channel became silted up with silt from the River Stour and the shingle which was building up along the coast helped join Thanet to the rest of Kent.

The land, where the Wantsum Channel once was, is still only a few feet above sea level, and in 1953 the island was cut off once more. The sea defences have since been strengthened since, but if you walk along the sea walls from Reculver you will see just how low the land lies.

Even today there are remains of the small harbours and quays in the villages that bordered Wantsum Channel.

The Wantsum Channel still exists and is today little more than a stream.

Railway lines enter the district from three directions:^[3]

• Coastal route through Whitstable and Chatham to London
• Land route through Canterbury and Ashford (international station for Eurostar) to London
• Coastal route to Dover and Folkestone

The key road links are:^[4]

• The A299 Thanet Way, which approaches from the North Kent coast, and eventually joins with the M2(1 hour from the M25)
• The A28 Canterbury Road, which links with the city of Canterbury through to Ashford
• The A256 which links the district to Dover

• There is an airport at Manston, formerly RAF Manston, but since renamed by its commercial operators as Kent International Airport.

• Ferry services (predominantly freight and car with passengers) are operated by Transeuropa ferries to the Continent from Port Ramsgate.^[5]

The whole district suffers from seasonal unemployment, in spite of its proximity to London.^[6] Contributory factors are:

• inward migration
• high numbers of old people
• low numbers of affluent people

• People on means-tested benefits: 21,400
• Children in low-income households: 6,800
• Violent crime is more frequent in Thanet than in England

Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs each have shopping centres with a mix of local and national retailers complimented by Northdown Road, Cliftonville, Westgate and Birchington.

Westwood at the centre of Thanet has seen much major development in recent years with the building of Westwood Cross shopping centre which is the home of national retailers and several restaurant chains including a Travelodge hotel. Associated development has taken place around the shopping centre spawning other retail parks.

Thanet has a large hospital: the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, known as the QEQM.

Overall indicators of health are poor for Thanet.^[7]

• Life expectancy is increasing but on average is less than for England
• Teenage pregnancies are high compared to the England average
• Estimated smoking rates are high as are death rates from smoking
• Early deaths from cancer are higher than the England average
• Healthy eating, physical activity, and adult obseity are similar to the national average
• Binge drinking is below the national average
• Higher than average number of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-specific conditions
• Higher than average rate of diabetes
• Higher than average rate of mental health problems

• Local newspapers are the Thanet Extra, part of the Kent Messenger group, Thanet Adscene, Isle of Thanet Gazette and Thanet Times, all owned by Trinity Mirror. The area is also covered by three Kent on Sunday, KOS titles on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday Your Thanet.

• Local radio stations are Kmfm previously known as (Thanet Local Radio) owned by Kent Messenger group, the county-wide Invicta FM, and BBC Radio Kent.

• Local regional ITV1 service is provided currently by Meridian broadcasting.

• The Regional news programme from the BBC is called South East Today

• The area has recently seen massive development at Westwood with the construction of a shopping centre, Westwood Cross, with associated retail development including accommodation, restaurants, a casino and entertainment venues. This has spawned additional retail development on its fringe with the construction of additional retail parks.

• Plans have been prepared to build an art centre in Margate, the Turner Contemporary, as part of a regeneration of the entire town.

• The London Array offshore windfarm is expected to be completed by 2009 near to North Foreland, Margate. 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 per year with green energy. The project will thus make a significant contribution to the Government’s national and regional renewable energy targets.

• Dreamland Margate on the seafront is currently in consultation and a Heritage Amusement Park is hoped to be developed around The Scenic Railway which is the oldest roller coaster in the UK and the third oldest in the world. In 2002 the ride became a Grade II listed building - the first UK amusement park attraction to achieve this status.

• Thanet District Council has introduced an empty property initiative and has compulsory purchased empty and derelict buildings with the objective of bringing them back into use.

• Building starts on Ramsgate seafront on the former Ramsgate Pleasure Park site in 2008. The new development will mix residential with leisure and retail.

• The Lido site in Cliftonville is due to be redeveloped in 2008 by the same company that has redeveloped the former Sea Bathing Hospital in Westbrook.

• A new community centre is planned for Broadstairs.

• Plans have been submitted to relocate Thanet College to a new purpose built campus at Westwood, Broadstairs.

• The Prospect Inn site at Monkton is currently being redeveloped into a new hotel.

• High speed rail links to Thanet will be started in 2009.

• Thanet Earth will see the largest greenhouse development in the uk covering an area of 91 hectares with 7 greenhouses each the size of 7 football pitches.

• List of people from Thanet

1. ^ Parish and town Council function. Ramsgate First Group. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
2. ^ 2007 Election Results. Thanet District Council. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
3. ^ National Rail Network London and South East. Network Rail. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
4. ^ Map of Thanet key road links. Multimap.
5. ^ TransEuropa Ferries. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ [2]

• Local Maritime Volunteer Service
• District website

v • d • e Towns and villages in the Thanet district of Kent, England
Acol • Birchington-on-Sea • Broadstairs • Brooks End • Cliffsend • Cliftonville • Flete • Garlinge • Manston • Margate • Minster • Monkton • Newington • Palm Bay • Ramsgate • Sarre • Sevenscore • St Nicholas at Wade • St Peter's • Westbrook • Westwood • Westgate-on-Sea
List of places in Kent

v • d • e Districts of South East England

Adur • Arun • Ashford • Aylesbury Vale • Basingstoke and Deane • Bracknell Forest • Brighton & Hove • Canterbury • Cherwell • Chichester • Chiltern • Crawley • Dartford • Dover • Eastbourne • East Hampshire • Eastleigh • Elmbridge • Epsom and Ewell • Fareham • Gosport • Gravesham • Guildford • Hart • Hastings • Havant • Horsham • Isle of Wight • Lewes • Maidstone • Medway • Mid Sussex • Milton Keynes • Mole Valley • New Forest • Oxford • Portsmouth • Reading • Reigate and Banstead • Rother • Runnymede • Rushmoor • Sevenoaks • Shepway • Slough • Southampton • South Bucks • South Oxfordshire • Spelthorne • Surrey Heath • Swale • Tandridge • Test Valley • Thanet • Tonbridge and Malling • Tunbridge Wells • Vale of White Horse • Waverley • Wealden • West Berkshire • West Oxfordshire • Winchester • Windsor and Maidenhead • Woking • Wokingham • Worthing • Wycombe Counties with multiple districts: Berkshire • Buckinghamshire • East Sussex • Hampshire • Kent • Oxfordshire • Surrey • West Sussex

Coordinates: 51°22′08″N 1°25′08″E / 51.36889, 1.41889