It was good to see that nearly half a million people visited Turner Contemporary in its first year.

It was always a gamble going ahead with the £17m project but Kent County Council and arts funders recognised that culture can contribute to economic regeneration.

They looked at the example of the Guggenheim in Bilbao and hoped to replicate that transformation in Margate and East Kent.

Despite the cynicism of many locals, the early signs are encouraging. While the town centre may still leave something to be desired, there is evidence that new businesses are moving in, that restaurants are busier.

It’s early days, but you sense a greater buzz around the place.

Turner was not an instant success, and the big numbers may slightly flatter to deceive.

There will always be a strong interest in something new, and the fact that admission is free can only help. But the initial show was disappointing.

It was not uncommon to hear first-time visitors declare it would be the last time. Nice building and great seaside location, shame about the content, was a typical response. A single Turner was not enough to get the pulses racing. No wonder some London commentators were dismissive.

But The Kiss, the current exhibition of Turner drawings and sketches - Turner and the Elements - and the Hamish Fulton’s Walk gave the gallery a real artistic reason for visiting.

Turner C turned a corner with Turner J M W and the next big one - Tracey Emin - will bring even more national and international prominence.

The latest numbers for economic benefit to East Kent - £13.8m - are arguable as they contain £7.6m of publicity value derived from media coverage.

It is an uncertain valuation, but nevertheless, there is no doubt that coverage has brought, and will bring, visitors to Margate. This year, the international visitor numbers are relatively low - just 2% - and Guggenheim can surely beat that tiny proportion. But it’s a start. And trains will speed up after a £5m upgrade of the Ashford - Thanet track.

Cultural regeneration is a slow burn. There is srtill a long way to go but the early signs for the economy Margate and East Kent are encouraging.

It is indisputably good news that east Kent is to get high speed trains although there will be some who do not think local councils - in this case KCC - should be subsidising the costs.

KCC has some form in this area, having been involved in a few spectacularly unsuccessful ventures subsidising various initiatives with airlines at Manston airport that cost the taxpayer a considerable sum.

It is on rather more secure ground with its decision to pay £151,000 subsidy to get the High Speed services running to Sandwich and Deal and is on balance, probably right to do so - especially given the fact that it is clearly a service that could genuinely enhance the prospects for the Pfizer plant after it closes in 2012.

The tricky issue is whether there is enough commuter demand from the two areas to make the planned rush-hour services commercially viable. Clearly, Southeastern hadn't thought so otherwise it would have introduced them itself. But the rail operator is fully on board and not just because KCC is underwriting the service.

It has one eye on the next franchise and its willingness to give the idea a try is good PR, particularly given the justified hammering it has had from disgruntled passengers across Kent over the winter. (Indeed, at the KCC rail summit at County Hall, I was struck by just how co-operative a tone Southeastern was adopting to suggestions about how it might improve things).

But the message from all involved is a familiar one: use it or lose it. If insufficient numbers are travelling on these trains from October, neither Southeastern or KCC will want to make open-ended commitments given that the former cannot be seen to be propping up services that don't make enough money for shareholders; the latter because hard-pressed council taxpayers will inevitably begin to question whether it is the sort of thing the authority should be paying for.

But both KCC and Southeastern deserve some credit for taking a calculated gamble.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mind you, I was intrigued by the  timing of the announcement. KCC is not having an election so it is perhaps not bound by the purdah strictures quite as tightly as those councils who are. (Purdah effectively prevents councils announcing anything in the run-up to an election that could be construed as politically helpful to any party).

Thanet and Dover councils are having elections and they are both areas likely to benefit most from this news. Both are currently Conservative controlled and facing a challenge by Labour, which has hopes of wresting control. No wonder some Conservative councillors and the area's MPs appeared so delighted by the news.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I had never heard of Payan Tamiz until yesterday and I'm prepared to bet that not many voters in Thanet had either.

But Payan became the centre of attention for 24 hours after postings he put on Facebook landed him in trouble with party chiefs because of their derogatory and offensive nature. He won't be the last would-be politician to unwittingly land in trouble over unguarded comments on a social networking site.

Having seen the comments, I can see why he chose to quit the Conservative party. There's no doubt that he would have been pushed had he not done so. I also understand why those who masterminded the sting chose to release the incriminating evidence now rather than after May 5 - there was no real prospect of him getting elected.

Will it make any real difference to the results next week? Labour evidently hope so but I'm not so sure. There are bad apples in every party and every now and then, they get found out and it is good that they are.

But while undeniably an acute embarrassment for the Conservatives, I doubt it will swing many votes.

It's often said that the only time that politicians really understand issues facing ordinary people is when they experience them themselves. So, it was interesting to hear the science minister David Willetts recount his "painfully slow" train journey from London to east Kent recently in the wake of the Pfizer announcement.

Council leaders, MPs and businesses have been banging on about the poor rail and road connections to this part of the county for years and governments have been - in Willetts' own words - painfully slow responding to them. True, the East Kent Access road is slowly edging towards completion and did get a decent slice of government cash to the tune of £85m under the previous  government for the last stage but the project has hardly been a model of efficient procurement.

So, it will be intriguing to see if Pfizer's departure from its Sandwich site will focus the government's mind on doing something to make sure that connections - particularly by rail - are beefed up.

The Pfizer taskforce headed by KCC leader Paul Carter is expected to deliver its first report to the government within days and I've every expectation that recommendations for improving transport connections will feature significantly.

David Willetts chose his words carefully when addressing the issue in the Adjounment Debate on Pfizer's decision this week but said enough, in my view, to indicate that he recognised there was a genuine problem. If the government is to appear credible about its determination to limit the damage to the Kent economy caused by Pfizer's departure, then doing something to bring rail services within an hour of London has to be a priority. And it has to be done sooner rather than later.

As Laura Sandys, the local MP, has warned there are potentially 7,000 jobs at risk because of Pfizer's decision and action needs to be swift.