A meeting will take place tonight on the Camelot campaign for Cliftonville West’s conservation areas.

The campaign was launched by South Thanet MP Laura Sandys, who will tonight host the meeting for residents at 7pm at Cliftonville Community Centre, St Paul’s Road, Cliftonville.

Last summer, Mrs Sandys distributed a petition for people to sign in a bid to make things better and to bring fresh ambition to the area.

Her aim was to gain enough support to push Thanet District Council to designate most of Cliftonville West a conservation area in order to protect the distinctive architecture and quality of housing for future generations.

Properties in Northdown Road, Eastern Esplanade, Ethelbert Road, Athelstan Road, Edgar Road, Sweyn Road, Grotto Gardens, Clifton Place, Warwick Road, Norfolk Road, Surrey Road, and roads between came under the Camelot campaign’s umbrella..

Mrs Sandys said the designation would provide new enforcement opportunities to address absent landlords and dilapidated buildings, enable funding for conservation projects and give a new branding for the town.

She dubbed the area Camelot because road names including Athelstan, Ethelbert, Edgar, Sweyn and Harold, were once those of ancient British kings. Camelot is also “a symbol of a time of promise, potential and vision”.

Upon launching the petition, she said: “I want people to come to the area to visit and to invest. One way that I believe that we can push this agenda forward is by campaigning to preserve Cliftonville’s heritage, providing a new and very exciting offering.”

She has been spurred on in her campaign by the area’s “wonderful” architecture and historic buildings which she felt were vulnerable without conservation orders. She felt there was a new exciting era on the horizon.