I spotted an itneresting email in my inbox recently. The message was from a young man doing research and asking questions about the decline of Margate and what Thnaet District Council could and should be doing to make it better.

Hi Matt B,

I am currently doing some research for University College London on the future role of high streets given the high number of shop vacancies that are currently being recorded in many town centres.

Obviously the case of Margate is of great interest as it apparently has the highest number of shop vacancies in the country. I have just read your comments concerning Margate town centre and i am interested in some of you ideas and opinions.

What in particular do you think TDC could do to help reinvigorate/reinvent Margate. And what changes would you, as a local, like to see occur on Margate's high street in terms of retail and uses? And therefore what future role do you see the high street fulfilling?

I would be very interested to hear your opinions and it would be a great help with my research.

The best qualified people to answer this question is you the reader. I'll throw my opinion out there to kick the debate off and then leave you to give the definitive answer. Are you ready?

I think that the thing Thanet District Council did most badly wrong was to not consider the impact of an out of town shopping centre on a town centre with issues that have left them struggling with "regeneration" for parts of it for years.

The Margate "old town" has never exactly been the biggest success story and demonstrates that there is a very real danger of starving highstreet areas with very little changes. The Westwood Cross build combined with a bad economic situation has truely hurt Margate town centre.

But more than that the destruction of the town centre highlights what any decent analist could have told you - that the town centre was being propped up by the larger stores and had very little vitality in and of itself. Had it been self sufficient as Broadstairs and Ramsgate have been forced to be then the old town regeneration would have been a snap.

To breath life back in to the town centre the council needs to help it become competitive. It's being out competed by Westwood Cross so it must beat it at it's own game or focus on a different niche.

Both options are going to cost a fair amount just to make the properties attractive sites to do business from. Margate town centre lacks a compelling reason to visit without the likes of HSBC, WoolWorths and the other shops it has lost.

Yet if there was one thing that I would identify as a needed action would be - free parking. Why would people choose to pay to park at slightly inconvenient parts of Margate when they can get everything and free parking at Westwood Cross?

Well, that's my two pence worth now I'll throw it open to the readers.