The crux of the problem here though is to find a solution to the problem that property developers and big chain retailers stand to gain enormous sums of money from the destruction of our towns.Had Dreamland Pleasurama our shops the protection afforded to any field of cabbages i.e. whatever the owner would like to build on it, it stays a field of cabbages or some other crop, there would be no problem.
As it is our towns, the human environment, are turning to architecturally attractive housing estates, with all the social problems of housing estates.
At the moment the value of residential accommodation is much greater than that of the same space being used for shops and leisure facilities and car parking, the only solution is government legislation protecting the non residential parts of our towns.
I urge you all to write to your MPs asking for legislation to protect what we have left, at the moment if a local authority turns down plans to turn any of our facilities into more residential accommodation, the developer can go on appealing until the local authority runs out of money to defend the appeals.
However the legislation needs to be strong enough and so heavily weighted towards the maintenance of such facilities that still exist as to overcome the problem where corruption exists at a local level.
The dreamland site as an amusement park and car park, is probably worth about £1,000,000 with 400 apartments on it at £200,000 each this figure rises to £80,000,000 it’s a game of Monopoly and we are all losing.
Couldn't agree less.
ReplyDeleteIf the town as we know it is being "destroyed", have you ever considered why?
I'd much prefer a strictly residential/leisure town with all commercial activity outside. That way we can concentrate on our towns as places to enjoy living in rather than decrepit alternatives to Westwood Cross.
This comes across as rather narrow and self-serving, which I'm sure it's not meant to be. Your idea has merit but it runs contrary to the evidence about sustainable communities and the various pieces of reserch done by CABE and others. Yes we need a balance, no that balance hasn't been reached yet - certainly not in Ramsgate - so sensible development should be encouraged. Look at the improvements in King Street over the last few years.
ReplyDeleteJethro
ReplyDeleteYour ideas are all very well if you are getting on in life and haven’t any children, small towns with no shops was a rather outdated notion that happened in America over the last 30 years or so. In many towns there now it is necessary to drive many miles to get a pint of milk or a loaf of bread.
In practice however a lot of these small towns redundant shopping centres have become areas for low life to gather, producing much drug and gun related crime.
However in the light of expected global warming making some sort of motorised journey for all shopping is environmentally unsustainable, I have children and would like them to be able to breathe and enjoy living in years to come.
One way or another we have to persuade the big chain retailers to operate in centres of population where the majority of people can walk to them. There is no sense in looking at what is easiest for the next 20 years or so and damming the next 200.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your take on this.
We have to act within the law, if we are unhappy, lets try to change the law
Thanks for the support Ken I am still trying to work out exactly both what my take on this one is and what could be done about the situation. There certainly is no hard and fast line between what is a leisure facility, arts facility or shop. If you take Ramsgate cinema, theatre, library, museum, bookshop, record shop, commercial art gallery, hairdresser, restaurant and so on there is a sort of coexistence between all these things that makes what we perceive as a town.
ReplyDeleteLooking at Margate recently it would appear that there is a sort of implosion point where the whole thing collapses, how much of this collapse could have been prevented by some sort of legislation I don’t know. The fire probably wouldn’t have happened if Dreamland hadn’t been asset stripped and run down, however I am not sure that Dreamland was viable enough to produce the continued investment in new rides to keep it competitive on a national scale.
I don't know of any urban environment that's called a "Town" in commonly understood parlance where you need to "drive many miles" to get some milk and bread. Did you have to drive to Iceland (the shop) to take the picture in your post on rising prices of milk and butter?
ReplyDeleteEven villages have access to small convenience stores that sell this kind of thing. Alternatively, since you have access to the internet, it's perfectly possible to make a "green decision" and arrange for your shopping to be delivered. Bagless, naturally.
"We" don't have to persaude anyone to do anything. Crime is a social phenomenon, and it's not related to post office closures, or the fact the shops have been moved out of towns. If anything, that kind of removal of commercial space is a liberating force, and could encourage young people to realise that the endless insistence on material things isn't necessary for a good life, not to mention the fact that they won't be feeling disenfranchised walking among shops full of things they can't afford and that look with them with suspicion every time they walk in.
An insistence on flogging this dead horse of "town centres" just sounds like reactionary Daily Mail hysteria to a problem that doesn't actually exist.
I am not a proponent of having "no shops" in towns. I am merely a proponent of alternatives. Instead of berating consumers for wanting an air-conditioned shopping experience full of cheap choice, and urging them to somehow deny their preferences in that way, maybe the answer is to offer a real alternative. What Westwood Cross has in choice and comfort, it completely lacks in character, product expertise and personality. That's the kind of real-estate that the high streets should be looking to exploit.
Again, it's not up to us, the consumers, to subsidise the income of failing shopkeepers. It's up to the shopkeepers to come up with more inventive ways to get us spending our cash.