KCC rediscovers Turner Contemporary's value when someone else is paying
Fresh money for Margate gallery, plus South East Water scrutiny, Costco’s Kent plans, and a huge housing decision near Dover
Today's Current leads with Kent County Council’s sudden enthusiasm for Turner Contemporary after Arts Council England awarded the Margate gallery £865,000 for essential works, despite one cabinet member having floated the idea of pulling its funding just weeks earlier. We also cover council meetings across the county, planning decisions, fresh scrutiny of South East Water, and the rest of the politics, development and local stories shaping Kent this week.
KCC rediscovers Turner Contemporary's value when someone else is paying
Kent County Council has welcomed an £865,000 Arts Council England award for Turner Contemporary, hailing the Margate gallery as a “vital” part of Kent and an “important public asset” that deserves protecting for the future.
Which is a funny way to talk about an institution when one of your own cabinet members was publicly floating the idea of pulling its funding barely two months ago.
The new grant, announced this week, will fund essential building works at Turner Contemporary, including upgrades to the mechanical and electrical systems, accessibility improvements, enhancements to the gallery environment, and solar panels. The funding comes through Arts Council England’s Creative Foundations Fund as part of the government’s wider Arts Everywhere Fund, and is specifically intended to help safeguard the building and keep it operational in the years ahead.
All of that is plainly good news. Turner Contemporary is one of Kent’s biggest cultural institutions, a major draw for Margate, and one of the few public venues in the county that can plausibly claim both national profile and serious local impact. If public money from elsewhere is available to improve the building without dumping future costs onto local budgets, that is hard to argue with.
KCC certainly is not arguing with it now.
In a press release issued this week, Cabinet Member for Communities and Regulatory Services Georgia Foster said Turner Contemporary “plays a vital role in Kent” through its exhibitions, education work and contribution to the regeneration of coastal communities. She said the award was about “protecting an important public asset” and ensuring people can continue to access high-quality arts and cultural experiences long into the future.
That is an entirely sensible thing to say about Turner Contemporary.
It is also not obviously compatible with how one of Foster’s cabinet colleagues was talking about the gallery in February.
Back then, cabinet member David Wimble responded to criticism from East Thanet MP Polly Billington not by defending KCC’s numbers, clarifying the council’s position, or doing any of the dull but necessary work of local government argument. Instead, he suggested the council could “pull funding” for Turner Contemporary.
Ed Jennings
The row at the time was about Reform’s claims around council savings. Billington had challenged KCC’s boast that it had delivered £39.5m of savings, saying the number was based on “fantasy economics” and writing to Chief Executive Amanda Beer to argue there was “nothing to support the assertion” that Reform had actually saved that sum. It was the sort of dispute local politics produces all the time. Inflated claims, hostile letters, bruised egos, and everyone insisting the numbers are on their side.
Wimble’s contribution was to imply that Turner Contemporary’s funding might be on the table because the MP for East Thanet had annoyed him.
When pressed on whether this was serious, a joke, or simply the online equivalent of throwing a chair across the room, he did not exactly calm things down. Instead, he leaned into the idea that KCC puts “hundreds of thousands” of pounds into the Turner and perhaps Billington “should be a little more grateful.”
At no point did there seem to be much appetite to draw a neat line under the episode and clarify that this is not how public funding decisions are meant to work.
There is a real difference between openly reviewing spending priorities and casually using a cultural institution’s budget as a prop in a political spat. If KCC wants to cut funding for Turner Contemporary, it can formally propose the cuts, present its case, and defend them through the proper channels. That would be a legitimate political argument, even if plenty of people would disagree with it.
What it should not be is an improvised threat in the replies to a social media thread.
That is why this week’s press release lands with a thud.
The council now wants to present itself as the sober custodian of one of Kent’s key cultural assets. It is leaning into Turner Contemporary’s role in creativity, wellbeing, regeneration, accessibility and long-term resilience. It is happy to celebrate outside investment landing in Margate.
This is arguably positive, but it is difficult to ignore the contrast. In February, the Turner Contemporary was apparently the sort of thing a senior cabinet member could wave around when he was in a mood. In April, it is a vital civic asset central to Kent’s cultural life.
Both cannot really be true in the same way at the same time.
The defence, presumably, would be that Wimble was freelancing online and the current official line is the one that counts. There is something in that. Governments and councils are full of people saying rash things in public and more careful things in formal statements. That is hardly unique to Reform, or to County Hall.
Even so, the episode says something about instinct.
When the mood was combative, Turner’s funding was treated as expendable enough to invoke for effect. Now that there is a ribbon to cut, or at least a press release to issue, the gallery is once again a treasured part of Kent’s public life.
The grant itself is still good news. The gallery will be better off for receiving it, Margate will be better off for the building remaining in decent shape, and there is no obvious downside to Arts Council money covering works that would otherwise become someone else’s problem later.
But KCC’s enthusiasm now inevitably raises a question about where the council really stands on culture.
Is Turner Contemporary genuinely valued because it contributes to the county’s civic, cultural and economic life? Or is it valued when there is good news to bask in, and treated as fair game when someone at County Hall wants to score a petty political point?
This week, at least, KCC would like everyone to believe it has always known Turner Contemporary’s worth. The awkward bit is that some people can still remember February.
Three big reads
1️⃣ The Big Issue has interviewed Mark Stevenson, a former homeless street trader who now sells the magazine outside of M&S in Canterbury.
2️⃣ The new Archbishop of Canterbury surprisingly chose the Church Times for her first big interview rather than the Current. In it, she says she wants to offer 'calm, non-anxious leadership.' Odd idea, but it might work.
3️⃣ The Port of Dover has become the UK's first net-zero port, 25 years ahead of government targets.
Council matters
Meetings this week:
- Canterbury: Cabinet meets tonight (Monday) to discuss a coastal public space protection order, a new cultural strategy, and net zero.
- Sevenoaks: Cabinet meets on Tuesday to discuss ownership of the Stag Theatre, community asset transfers, and the development of the town centre east of the High Street.
- Tonbridge & Malling: Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss planning matters, street trading, waste contracts, and changes to the constitution.
- Tunbridge Wells: Full Council meets on Wednesday to debate the state of the Pantiles, changes to the planning system, and more.
- Kent: Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel will discuss the recent inspection of Kent Police on Thursday.
- Medway: Council will meet on Thursday to debate buying hundreds of social homes, changes to the petition system, and motions on social care costs and political violence.
- Dartford: Cabinet will get together on Thursday to discuss HMOs, flood management, and where new homes should go.
- Dover: Planning Committee will decide whether or not to approve 800 homes south of Aylesham.
- Maidstone: Planning Committee will decide on 435 homes in Allington, a large commercial development in Hollingbourne, and lots more on Thursday.
New planning applications:
- Dover: Screening opinion for new distribution warehouse at White Cliffs Business Park.
- Maidstone: Conversion of office building on Albion Place into 16 flats.
- Medway: Outline application for 45 homes west of Formby Road in Halling.
- Swale: Proposed demolition of church to be replaced by six houses in Minster.
- Tunbridge Wells: Development of new health and fitness club with tennis court, swimming pools, padel courts, gym, and more.
Kent is large, messy and often faintly absurd. The Kent Current is backed by readers, which means we can report on it properly. An annual subscription costs £1.15 a week and helps make that possible.
In brief
💷 Kent saw an 11% increase in overseas visitors in 2024, injecting £374m into the local economy.
🫥 County disappearing champion and Chief Executive of South East Water, David Hinton, will graciously forgo his bonus this year following failures by the company. He will instead struggle on just his £400,000 salary.
🚰 The Drinking Water Inspectorate has concluded that South East Water's handling of supply disruption in Tunbridge Wells last year showed "systematic and repeated failings."
🔥 Arson is suspected after a large fire burned through a nature reserve at Pegwell Bay.
🚓 Arrests were made in Dover over the weekend after eggs were thrown at a lorry as part of an anti-immigration protest attended by 20 people.
🛒 Costco are consulting on opening its first Kent store, just off Junction 5 of the M20 at Aylesford.
🚂 The Spa Valley Railway has reopened following the installation of a new bridge.
🏗️ The demolition of Park Mall in Ashford has begun.
📚 Folkestone Library will open at its new location on Sandgate Road on 26 May.
👷 The first tranche of funding for the reopening of Margate Winter Gardens has been released.
🗳️ The Green Party are using their recent by-election win in Cliftonville as a reason they can win anywhere. We'll see how true that is next month.
🍺 Pub customers in the centre of Canterbury are unable to sit outside due to a council error.
🚽 Folkestone & Hythe District Council have thrown out plans to convert a set of toilets into a war memorial, calling them "insulting."
💩 Residents in Chestfield are being plagued by the smell of sewage.
🐴 Animal rights campaigners are planning to protest the introduction of horse-drawn carriage tours in Canterbury.
🏳️🌈 Recent interviewee Jordan Chan has been talking about the Invicta Icons, the UK's newest LGBT+ inclusive cricket club.
🏆 Whitstable Town have won the Kent Senior Trophy.
⚽ Ramsgate Football Club have sacked their manager after he saved them from relegation and, checks notes, didn't spend enough money.
🕐 Deal's Timeball Tower is seeking new volunteers to keep the historic structure running.
🧑⚖️ Maidstone Crown Court are holding an open day.
Property of the week
This week’s property is a Grade II listed townhouse in a private development on The Strand in Walmer, close enough to the beach that the listing can say 'coastal' without having to do any heavy lifting. The main selling point is on the first floor, where the big living and dining room has sea views, and the kitchen can either be part of the action or shut off behind bi-fold doors, depending on whether you want open-plan life or a bit of separation. It’s a three-storey layout with a loft room above, fully boarded, with heating and electrics, three double bedrooms, two en-suites, plus a family bathroom and a downstairs cloakroom. The property also sits within a managed development with communal gardens and visitor parking. Guide price £635,000.
Events this week
🎸 Sat 25 Apr - The Frank & Walters // Legendary Irish indie band. Ramsgate Music Hall. Tickets £22.50.
🔫 Sun 26 Apr - David Olusoga: A Gun Through Time // TV historian tells the story of four firearms that changed the world. Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets from £32.
Footnotes
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