"IF IT weren't for the DFLs like me, who bought a cheap little house that had been on the market for nearly a year and nobody local wanted, this would be just another downtrodden British seaside town that smelt of wee."

So wrote the journalist and restaurant critic Marina O'Loughlin, on an online forum about Whitstable. I laughed out loud when she told me. But the good natives of what was then a newly golden postcode were not amused.

"The wrath of the internet heavens opened over my head and I was called things that even the Urban Dictionary couldn't translate," she recalls. Oh dear. How the truth hurts.

Marina now lives here in Thanet, where, I am frustrated to say, the them-and-us mentality seems still to prevail. There are dark mutterings about those who are Down From London, but let's take a look around. At Margate, at the flourishing harbour arm and most of the businesses in the Old Town, at the much-admired Reading Rooms and the Michelin-listed Ambrette. At Ramsgate and the acclaimed Age & Sons restaurant and the cuter shops.

Whether you like it or not, the brightest ideas have often originated from the influx of new blood. And I, for one, applaud their energy and vision. Hurrah, I say, for Stuart Turner, who thought up the delightful Thanet Guide, or Fiona Sherriff, who organises a big charity auction each year. The newbies have enriched Thanet for us all.

Come over to Broadstairs and see the Oscar Road café – rated No 1 in Broadstairs on Trip Advisor or the same review site's top choice of B&B, the beautifully restored Belvidere Place. Though, on second thoughts, do choose your day to view that one. Had you walked past a couple of Tuesdays ago, you'd have seen the carefully restored 18th-century brickwork covered in creosote. An act of sabotage bravely undertaken beneath cover of darkness, and the latest in a long line of such attacks, including superglue in the hotel locks, slashed tyres and smashed windows.

Jilly Sharpe, the proprietor, does not hail from Thanet – she moved from the capital to lovingly convert the boutique hotel, mostly with her own hands. But those who do, speak of an ongoing dispute that has led to reprisals. I do not know the full details and I have no intention of passing judgment on hearsay.

What I do know is this: there are very few matters that cannot be resolved by arbitration, mediation or simply by sitting down and having a mature, considered discussion, and nobody deserves to have nearly a dozen acts of criminal vandalism – this is a matter of police record – inflicted on their property.

But aside from the human element – this is a single mother with a young son who is being made to feel anxious and distressed in his own home ("Die" was painted on the front door on one occasion). What disturbs me most about this horrible situation is what it says about the demonisation of anyone not born here who dares to court success. I despair at the way bandwagons are jumped upon, and misinformation is fed.

I have heard Belvidere Place criticised – along with other new enterprise – for "advertising in The Times, not locally". The reality is that the accommodation has been featured in a national newspaper – more than once in fact – because a journalist stayed there and thought it was so jolly fantastic he or she wanted to write about it. This should be a matter of civic pride, not sniping! An increase in visitor numbers benefits every single one of us and anybody who can't see that is blind.

Local people – wherever they were bred – should support each other for the good of the whole. Whatever the rights and wrongs at the start – and there are two sides to every story – the damage to this beautiful, listed building leaves a blot on our landscape in more ways than one. Whoever is responsible is short-sighted and should be very deeply ashamed.