« Back to List  |  View Comments...
  Comment
The Front Page.
 
Viewed 613408 times
3 September 2010

Something of a slight holdup here on the frontpage, but a new feature will follow along in due course. Please enjoy our chatty forum and all our other exciting features and blogs in the meantime. If you have something to add to the debates and discussions you can join up and become a member by emailing me PaulB on dover7@msn.com.

Previous Frontpage Features are in All Recent Features.
Leave your comment in box below. All Welcome.
  Add your comment...

  Your Name:
 
Location:
 
Email Address (optional):
 
Page: 1 2 3 ... 132 133 134 135 136 ... 138 139 140  |   Add your comment
Your Comments (Newest First):
 
  Vic Matchamhere..., River:
Sorry about some of the wording on my last post,I have just looked at it again it was not that good.
Vic M

31 August 2008 at 10:14 am
 
  Vic Matcham, River:
The Town Centre and London Road.
I hav been in Dovor all my life and never, never have I seen the Town center and London roadso bad as it is today. it is true ure to say that other town centres are not that good to.
But Dovor is the Gate to the U.K. from the sea and is the first place seen by millions each year.
We neen new faces with new ideas and lots,lots of fundinG.
We also need to pull down not do up most of London Rd and even some of the Town centre the buildings are far to old.
But I am sorry to sat this but all we get is talk and flats from the D.D.C.
When are to see things happing in a big way with our town, not in my life time I feel.
Yes I do talk alot about it but that is all I can do.
But the Councils also talk alot About what is going to be done but it never, never happens.
You can not keep puting plasterboards over old walls pull the old buildings down but please let as all see it going on NOW.
Stop the talking and get on with it or move over and lets get new faces to do the work we do not need more talk from politicians who are just manoeuvring for power on both councils what we need is persons with the passions to move on and get the work on the way.

I will stop there for now but you will be hearing alot more from me over the next few weeks I was hoping to pack it all in but seeing the Town E,T,C, like it is today I must keep going.

Vic Matcham


31 August 2008 at 10:10 am
 
  bern, dover:
Just to be clear then Barry, you are not overly concerned with encouraging, or more pertinently not discouraging, the more timid voters and citizens to voice their opinions or concerns? I would be a little concerned that I might miss some decent views and suggestions that way............

30 August 2008 at 5:55 pm
 
  Barry Williams (advice@regency-ifa.co.uk), Dover:
Bern if we worried excessivley about 'timid souls' we would not have any debate and it would be utterly boring. Dave is no timid soul any more than I am....

Placing it in context (and without this being any kind of dig at Dave) do you think it OK for someone to have a go at just about any councillor and officer who have served Dover since 1945 and not get an equal response?

Perhaps you think it is OK because councillors are not timid souls and if you put your head above the pararpet you expect to get shot at. That is exactly my point, councillors, ex-councillors and others should be perfectly free to respond in a 'robust way'.

Back to DT who makes some good points.

The WCE was a decision that I was involved in directly. The design was partly dictated by the archaeology and if memory serves me right it won design awards. Dave's critisism there was primarily aimed at the design and that is merely a matter of taste.

The Gateway flats were built by the old (pre-District) Town Council. They were never meant to be social housing but premium housing because of the location. I remember back in the 70's if you wanted to upset someone who lived in the Gateway you would describe them as council flats, factually correct, but not an image they valued! DT is right to question that location, however. But as he infers hindsight is a wonderful thing.

In the current society would it be better to instead have that area as part of a vibrant waterfront development to include the seasports, marina, restaurants, shops cafe's and so on (Gunwharf Quay in Portsmouth as an example). But that was not the world we had back in the 50's when these flats were developed. There were different priorities and needs with a much lower level of discetionary spending than we have now.

30 August 2008 at 9:53 am
 
  bern, dover:
I have to say I prefer straight speaking myself: clear, unambigous. One has to be careful, though, that it doesn't topple into being off-putting, because then we lose the opportunity to hear the more timid voices, and they are as valuable as the confident or stroppy ones.

30 August 2008 at 9:00 am
 
  Barry Williams (advice@regency-ifa.co.uk), Dover:
Bern - Dave got it right, a robust reply. I have been the 'man in the pub' myself, in exactly the same position as Dave. But I have also been the elected councillor in my time making one or two of the decisions so critisised by Dave.

I really detest excessive sensitivity towards straight speaking. I simply will not walk on egg shells.

My comment was directed at such an absurdely sweeping statement that got the reply it warranted.

30 August 2008 at 8:33 am
 
  DT, Dover:
I don’t think we can deny areas of incompetence of Councilors that have served in Dover since 1945, or more appropriately in 1947. But this same incompetence can be seen in all colours of local and central government across the whole of post-war Britain. Unfortunately these decisions have had a longer legacy in Dover due to a continued attitude of isolated town planning, dealing with singular elements. I think good choices have been made at times as have so many bad ones. Ronan Point is a classic example of local authorities competence in all things planning based.

Barry you are right ‘the bloke down the pub’ always knows best is laughable at times with these people rarely doing anything to implement their grand designs. However what happen in pubs and any public forum (such as this) is the sharing of views reshaping and reforming of opinion. An idea at first ‘the bloke down the pub’ didn’t really understand becomes the assimilated opinions of other individuals. What happens on occasion si that a consensus is formed that is actually quite well reasoned. This kind of process appears to have been overlooked by so many of the decisions made in the town in favour of a more ‘if you’ve got the cash’ attitude. This isn’t about having more expertise or knowledge than the people that have gone before, we just simply have what they didn’t, hindsight! And Hindsight tells us that our representatives for Dover and their highly paid professional advisors make mistakes, leading us to a logical and realistic outcome that perhaps they are making another!

Burlington house was designed by professional Architects and passed by the professional Town Planners in the council, as was the not so architecturally offensive White Cliffs Experience. Dave if you are talking about the Gateway flats in your post, I think the only thing that is questionable there is perhaps the positioning; they are all occupied, beautifully design and built to a specification we won’t see again! The one thing they all have in common is their lack of dialogue with context. The wonderful lesson that hindsight has informed contemporary, competent town planning is that ‘object building’ that is not part of a master planned infrastructure is not sustainable, which is exactly the approach we are seeing with St. James’

Now the standard line is well you find the investors, but the investors for what? A piece of land? Much of the town planning that has sought to rid town and city centres of post war planning mistakes; is a plan that highlight and addresses the problems providing the capacity for investment. This plan is then populated by investment. I’ve asked before, what are the problems with Dover town centre and how are they being addressed?


30 August 2008 at 8:18 am
 
  max headroom, dover:
the only council to build anything usefull were the romans and tudors.at least they wernt afrayed to get of there backsides to do somthing for dover.

30 August 2008 at 7:51 am
 
  Dave, Whitfield:
A robust reply Barry, I am simply asking what have successive councils achieved since the end of WW2.
Perhaps you ought to visit some of the pubs in the town and then you will find out what people really think.

29 August 2008 at 11:15 pm
 
  bern, dover:
And how, exactly, does offending the electorate and fellow posters encourage debate? It really is true that there have been 63 years since the last World War in which to set a standard for Dover............we are entitled to comment.

29 August 2008 at 11:13 pm
 
  Barry Williams (advice@regency-ifa.co.uk), Dover:
Clearly Dave with your expertise and knowledge, with a competence far greater than all the councillors that have served Dover since 1945 put together, not to mention your superiority over all those highly paid professionals who have worked for the Councils, we should simply put you in charge and let you get on with sorting the whole thing out!!!!!

You know, even then you will have some smart alec, maybe even called Dave, making inane posts about how useless you are.

Such is life when you get into office. Everybody, just about everbody down the pub knows better than you do.

29 August 2008 at 10:51 pm
 
  Dave, Whitfield:
Barry, the second world war ended in1945, the Council has only had 63 years to try and improve Dover, you can't blame one particular council they've all been incompotent.
What exactly has the town achieved, a multi-storey car park built on prime land and from the day it was opened never paid. A discovery centre whose architecture is akin to a gas works even down to the rounded part which resembles a gasometer. Again this was built on prime land.
Thenwe have the infamous Burlington House which again never paid.
To cap it all on the best land of all they built a block of what were then Council Flats and which your average person could not afford.
What is there to look forward to and get excited, only the Councillors are getting excited the rest of us have heard it all before.


29 August 2008 at 8:25 pm
 
  howard mcsweeney, dover:
more than a rumour max, the co-op bought somerfields a month or two ago.
it was the headlines on business breakfast one morning.

29 August 2008 at 7:37 pm
 
  max headroom, dover:
sue would this be sommerfield by any chance,theres a strong rumor that the coop are buying them out.

29 August 2008 at 5:27 pm
 
  bern, dover:
Barry, I wasn't particularly referring to businesses locally - I think I was aiming mainly at elected reps etc who, as we know, sometimes seek a peg on which to hang ineffectual or inactive behaviour. Businesses are often at the mercy of the tides of fortune, I know.

29 August 2008 at 4:13 pm
 
  Barry Williams (advice@regency-ifa.co.uk), Dover:
Recession Bern is not an excuse for struggling businesses, its a real challenge, its a matter of survival right now.

As for investment in Dover, DDC's reserves were wiped out when Labour ran the Council for 8-10 years and while the Council's finances have since been stabilised they still have some pretty big challenges largely due to unfunded responsibilities being placed upon them by the Government.

As for businesses and investment can only be based on commercial considerations.

Other quasi governmental authorities like SEEDA, well, these wheels grind very slowly as we can all see but, without going into the full list we all know about the regeneration projects planned. I just wish I knew when we will see action on the ground!

29 August 2008 at 2:09 pm
 
  max headroom, dover:
agreed the hard times come and go like most things.

29 August 2008 at 1:07 pm
 
  bern, dover:
That may be true now, but Dover has had years of poor management and poor investment with no valid excuse at all. I am keen not to allow people to use "recession" as an excuse not to do anything.

29 August 2008 at 11:35 am
 
  sue nicholas, river:
Barry ,due to commecial sensitivity no names however I know of another frm who are closing there doors in about five weeks time.They have been trading for many years.Very sad.

29 August 2008 at 11:03 am
 
  Barry Williams (advice@regency-ifa.co.uk), Dover:
I had my weekly business breakfast this morning in Canterbury and was speaking to an electrical wholesaler who travels all around the county.

He was speaking about how many shops have closed in Whitstable and how their town centre is being taken over by charity shops where they are not empty. Sounds a bit familiar....

He mentioned the same about Canterbury, two very long standing shops have closed and I mentioned one other I know well that also closed last week.

Everywhere is sufffering in this recession. Technically the economy is not yet in a recession but my 'feelers' are telling me that certainly, in retail and parts of the hospitality industry, there is very much in recession right now.

What hope for Dover in these circumstances? Sometimes we all post about Dover's problems as if all is well everywhere else but that is not the case, Canterbury might sneeze but when it does Dover can catch a real cold...

This is no comfort to us. Our businesses really do have their backs against the wall and are fighting for survival. I wish I knew the answer, the only thing I do know is that there is no instant fix and no one single pill to cure Dover's cold. The regeneration activity may well be hindered and slowed down by the economic conditions but hopefully things will pick up and regeneration will position Dover well for revival when the economy picks up.

29 August 2008 at 10:58 am
 
  sue nicholas, river:
Bern yes I do not hide away, my life is an open book .What you see is what you get .I recently had to have a photograph taken for Age Concern .The photographer is good at air brushing .For excample "i said where is my mole " He said "What mole "Lo and behold he had airbrushed it away .I refused his offer of further airbrushing .I have a well lived in face as I said what you see is what you get .Im very honest and to the point .I cannot suffer fools.
Pleased to see Sid is back .

Bern do I sound like a Tory .A lot of people think im a socialist.

28 August 2008 at 8:40 pm
 
  bern, dover:
Sue N - please keep posting - you reveal so much of yourself when you do.

28 August 2008 at 8:07 pm
 
  keith, Dover:
paulb
no im not coming from the wrong angle.
many posters on here have stated should ASDA come it will help to kickstart Dover.
I always said that would not be the case.

Paulb
I do realise its not ASDA's job to sort Dovers plight out, nor should it be, but when you have lived here all your life like little old me and see how desperate the situation is it does lead to frustration

i hope im wrong


28 August 2008 at 7:29 pm
 
  Marek, Dover:
Sid
Excellent posting.Like yourself I travel abroad a lot and when I return home I see Dover in a different light.I am always full of hope that something.. anything.. has changed hopefully for the better but Dover looks worse now than it did when I arrived in the summer of '78.

I think one of the problems seems to be that many Dovorians have lived with it longer than us and now no longer live in hope but live in despair.Voting in and changing councils and its leaders in the vain hope that they will fulfill their 'promises' to take Dover into the 21st C .Well we are in it and have been for 8 years and the only real changes I can see are the kids new playground in Pencester(but temper that by reading the letters page in todays DovExp) and brighter traffic signals.

28 August 2008 at 5:44 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
paul i saw that artical to read it with intresst and know the young lady well.did you see the other artical about the dhb and what lloyeds said about it.

28 August 2008 at 5:37 pm
 
  PaulB, Dover:
Sid an interesting post, there is a solid feature in todays Dover Express that you might like to look at, its about the difficulties for traders in the London Road...it features the London Road Community Forum and the lady who took over from fromer top man Terry Nunn...Jeanette Harper. She bemoans the fact that there are now 8 empty shops in the London Road alone. This is not creating the right trading circumstance there... to say the least.

28 August 2008 at 3:36 pm
 
  PaulB, Dover:
Keef its not up to ASDA, a private company, to change Dover's plight. In a way Dover's plight, as you put it, has nothing at all to do with them. So you may be looking at this from the wrong perspective. However they are prepared to open a large supermarket by way of a development that includes houses shops and a hotel, so the whole package may just work well in our favour.

But they are not on some Christian Crusade to save the world from itself. Theyre just a shop after all!

28 August 2008 at 3:24 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
depressing isnt it sid sad but true.

28 August 2008 at 3:18 pm
 
  Sid Perkins (sidperkins@btinternet.com), Dover for a few weeks in the year, otherwise Lagos, Nigeria:
Well, I took a leisurely stroll from Whitfield Hill into town via London Road yesterday. I cannot understand how the London Road businesses make any money, there were no customers to help offset the crippling Business taxes and other costs. To be blunt, the London Road part of Dover is as dead as a dodo and is beyond rescuing.

Walking from the town hall down to Market Square and empty shops, charity shops and gambling dens abound. Even Pencester is looking run-down now.

Castle Street still suffers that interminable eyesore of an ex-nightclub. Why can't DDC do something about that?

The Townwall Street area looks like WWII ended last week! Everywhere is decay and eyesore.

My long held view is that ASDA will finally kill the town centre but I am also inclined to agree that something needs to be done to kickstart Dover. I would have preferred something to make people stay in the town, not a supermarket or a stupid cable car that will bypass everything! Only an idiot would fail to see the flaw in that idea.

TCM failed miserably under the new manager (although his brief was a little odd) and was rightly killed off, but what has taken it's place? Nothing!

Who is responsible for the regeneration of our town? No-one it seems.

I have no magic solution to offer except to suggest that maybe radical and/or brave thinking is called for; allied to a complete set of new people with fresh ideas to run the place.

Sadly, on this trip home I find myself seriously considering where else I might live because almost anywhere is better than Dover right now. After 22 years here, that saddens me quite a bit.

28 August 2008 at 3:09 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
or better still a wet weekend in bogner?

28 August 2008 at 2:41 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
kieth you got to start somewhere asda is a start.wot do you want harrods,fenwicks,house of fraser or a bomb site?

28 August 2008 at 2:39 pm
 
  keith, dover:
Im positive Asda wont change Dovers plight

28 August 2008 at 2:31 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
kieth keep your chin up and have faith instead of being negative all the time.

28 August 2008 at 2:26 pm
 
  keith, Dover:
Max
Why did I know you would say that

28 August 2008 at 2:26 pm
 
  max headromm, dover:
thankyou sue,if asda is willing to invest in a tired downtroden town like dover then other big companies might follow suit.all it takes is one big company to start the ball rolling.

28 August 2008 at 2:23 pm
 
  keith, Dover:
SUE
I find your last posting rather dissappointing,
If you talk to most sincere Dovorians they will tell you the town is Dieing
thats not a proud statement, its one that eats away at me every time im in town.

DOVER deserves better, and everyone hopes that things HAVE to get better.

We all have a role to play, and all want to see Dover prosper.
without trying to sound to negative Dover is looking very tired.
I recently popped over to Deal and saw how different things were there.

If Asda is going to be the start of Dover getting better, then bring it on, sadly I don't share that view.
But I do have the view that DOVER DESERVES BETTER.

28 August 2008 at 11:12 am
 
  sue nicholas, river:
I for one would have preferred Waitrose however as their prices are rather higher than TESCO and ASDA how many Dover District residents could afford to shop there?Judging from the number of people in NETTOs at the weekend not many .My first visit to the shop.Iceland is also very busy.If you have a family to feed and live on benefits some super markets are out of reach .Let us all live in a real world. It isnt all Pimms you know.

28 August 2008 at 10:54 am
 
  keith, Dover:
PAULB/MAX
You are correct I suppose, ASDA is better than nothing, but should we be aimimg so low?

just a point

28 August 2008 at 10:21 am
 
  max headromm, dover:
yes paul we need somthing there to make the town more appealing to visators and such like.once we got there attention who knows the skys the limit.

27 August 2008 at 8:43 am
 
  PaulB, Dover:
Yes Max I expect ASDA have done their homework and were enthusiastic for the development when they had their exhibition last year in Pencester. I wonder if they are still as enthusiastic today. Even though people dont like the sound of what Im saying next I guess I have to say it anyway, but it is really our only option at this point. I cant see anything else on offer.

I have to walk through the delapidation everyday...Im off out to do so again shortly, so rather than leave it in this awful state I am keen for ASDA to come and bring some life and money into the area.

Otherwise we will be left with the current wretchedness for the foreseeable future, which might as well be forever, as far as Im concerned anyway it will be forever.

27 August 2008 at 8:12 am
Page: 1 2 3 ... 132 133 134 135 136 ... 138 139 140  |   Add your comment