Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
7 September 2008
11:295733The more I learn, the more I think about Dover District Council, the more I come to the conclusion that it is simply not fit for purpose. Or to be more specific, while it seems to do a competent enough job of handling the day-to-do mundane business of running the district, it is COMPLETELY OUT OF ITS DEPTH when it comes to making strategic economic decisions.
I would go further and say that the whole structure of local government in this country needs to be looked at and certain powers stripped away from district councils if they prove incapable of using them properly.
For an example of their woolly-mindedness, take a look at this piece of nonsense on a blog by Stephen Mannion, DDC member for Eastry Ward:
"The decision by the post office limited to close some post offices across the district must be hailed as a success by the whitfield action group which seems intent on running down services for residents in the district. Their approach to stifle development will see more services be withdrawn as residents are increasingly isolated from services enjoyed by urban dwellers."
Where do I start in demolishing this nonsense? For one thing, a comment to make is that the house building is still years away - so whatever WAG has done it could not have influenced Post Office closure decisons. Secondly, Whitfield's Post Office is alive and kicking. Thirdly, I fail to see how the proposed massive development could have saved the facilities several miles away in Mongeham and elsewhere.
Fourthly, I think it is pretty offensive to suggest that WAG actually rejoices at Post Office closures.
Moreover, I make the broader point that massive development at Whitfield will do nothing to enhance services in outlying villages, unless DDC is planning to amalgamate Dover and Deal into a giant coastal conurbation and absorb the villages in between.
Finally, those such as myself opposed to the Madness of King Paul and his Soviet-style 20 year plan do not want to stifle development, we want to see it done correctly. i.e. by regenerating the town centre and embracing the town and sea, not creating a mega-village at Whitfield, with its back to Dover.
Dover District Council seems to me to be an overgrown school debating society more interested in personal power and party loyalty than the true well being of the area.
As a democratically elected council, let's turn things round and ask a question.
Given your track record of failed and misguided projects to revitalise the district's economy (eg the White Cliffs Experience), why should we, the people you are elected to serve, have any confidence in your plans to revitalise the town of Dover by developing Whitfield?
It seems to me you are not listening and have already made up your minds - go on, prove me wrong.
Disclaimer: While I am sympathetic to WAG's views, opinions expressed here are my own.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
7 September 2008
15:155734Very powerful post there Andrew...and I have a lot of sympathy for various aspects of it. You are clearly not a fan of DDC although the councillors themselves seem very positive that change for the better is afoot. But I recognise people have been waiting so long for that change that frustration is spreading.
I am also in sympathy with the WAG( Whitfield Action Group rather than wives and girlfriends!!lol) in their reluctance to accommodate new housing. I am against that myself and have said so before. The area's personality could be destroyed forever by housing on such a scale. The government of course are massively leaning on local councils in the southheast to build and there may be incentives to do so.
Perhaps Stephen Mannion might like to make a reply. I bumped into him the other day at the Memorial Day celebration ..hadnt seen him for a long time prior to that...so if you are out there Steve and want to respond contact me on
dover7@msn.com
or indeed leave a message on our
Open Letters Page which is open to all.
PaulW himself of course is one of our members and may like to say something in response.
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
7 September 2008
15:575737I have met one or two councillors personally - John G for example comes across as knowledgeable and passionate about the town.
Just questioning whether these incredibly far reaching proposals have been fully thought through and whether the individuals concerned have the experience and know-how to make such historic strategic decisions - nothing less than a near-doubling of Dover's size, surely the biggest housing growth spurt in over 2000 years of history.
I am sure they are under pressure to tick boxes put there by the government - whose own planning is open to question.
No one is questioning the need for growth and new housing - the debate is over where to put it, how much, and what, we should build. Sure, develop some more land at Whitfield, but not on the scale proposed, and make more imaginative use of brown field land in ther town, especially flats and houses within walking distance of the Priory Station to attract high speed rail commuters.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
7 September 2008
16:205738I have often, and will continue to do so, questioned the idea that massive house buildings can be carried out without thought for the infrastructure that needs to go with. The glib answer I have recieved so often, particularly from DDC, is that, "once the housing is there the rest will follow". This is clearly a nonsense and our infrastructure continues to decline. Normal public services such as litter bins, public toilets and even benches are being removed by DDC at an alarming rate and whole threads have been run on the decline in schools, medical facilities, post pffices etc. Building homes is one thing but who will buy them if there is nowhere to send the kids to school, you can't get hospital care without travelling across the county, the streets are filling up with litter and if you do find somewhere to go in the evening woe betide you if you want to spend a penny. DDC's 'big ideas' for the town (a cheap supermarket and a cable car to rush any visitors out of the town and up to the castle) look set to make things worse rather than better. And lets not start on what it means to our already congested roads.
This is a great and historic town that should be treated as such not as somewhere to send the goods lorries while retiring to Deal.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 663- Registered: 20 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,136
7 September 2008
19:005741I to dispair sometimes and I'm one of those district councillors that when sitting in the council chamber, maybe think a classroom would be more fitting.
7 September 2008
19:275743I am speechless that local reps could even intimate that "the rest will follow" when planning a new build.....clearly nonsense it verges on the reckless and negligent, especially given the evidence of decline in public facilities mentioned by Chris P. It beggars belief that the people we trust to manage our town can be so - I hate to use the word - stupid! Where are the Project Managers and Town experts? Where are the skilled impartial advisers? Please note the word Impartial, which is as important as the word Skilled!!!!
Guest 652- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 595
7 September 2008
20:505746Andrew
Leave the Priory Station area out of it, we have enough of these so called flats and houses, to accomondate the high speed rail link, and all they are attracting, is undesirables, we have enough in this area, and no infrastucture to go with it, the Priory area seems to be the dumping ground of not only this country but every other one as well, in some places, it seems we are living on a refuse tip, if it goes on like it is doing, we will be the first area to have an outburst of the plague, thats how bad it is. People that live round here, dispair, at what we have to put up with, and still no one listens
Sheila
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
7 September 2008
21:165748you got in before me sheila.
maybe andrew does not know the area well.
i believe that you are not exaggerating the health situation, food and assorted refuse festers on the streets for months at a time.
i witnessed a "local resident" dumping some unwanted furniture in an alleyway last week.
i did not even bother to e mail or ring the council, i am still awaiting a reply from 2 months ago from the ASBO unit.
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
7 September 2008
22:015751Seems my last post got lost in cyberspace.
I have lived in Priory Ward for the last four years! Though I originate from Whitfield.
I hardly think London commuters qualify as undesirables - quite the opposite as they would bring London salaries and improve the area. They are exactly what we need, instead of the deadheads we seem to get. I'm talking about decent accommodation for sale, not rent, and not necessarily right on the station's doorstep but within 15 minutes' walk.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
7 September 2008
22:115752andrew
as you live in the ward, you will know that there is no more room for building.
all that would happen is that any houses left would be converted into more cellblock accommodation.
the way things are, no londoner in their right mind would consider moving here.
when i moved here, we had two attractive hotels, the mildmay and the captain webb, both are now residential.
2 more pubs have closed, to be coverted into more flats.
everyone around here knows that the drainage is not up to par.
i will await the comments from other residents regarding parking, sewerage and water.
Guest 652- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 595
7 September 2008
23:595753Andrew
You say you live in the Ward, as Howard says no more room for building, which is right, the undesirables that torment the older generation, that are not cultured in the way we live, and destroy peoples property, people that have worked hard all their lives, and respect what they have, to have to tolerate this kind of behavior, is not on.
Take the Folkestone Road, once a centre piece of desirable properties, that the likes of me, or the poorer class of person could not afford, looked after property, now turned into unsightly flats and multi-occupied housing, each in turn accumilating more rubbish that I put out in a month, they put out in one day, and then left to rot and encourage vermin for a week, sometimes longer, is that the way you like to live, or see the area, I have lived in the Tower Hamlets and Clarendon area all my life, and to see it as it is now, breaks my heart.
The generation of people taking these properties now, do not help the situation, it seems as though some of them were brought up in a pig-sty, they do not know how to even put a curtain up to a window.
Sheila
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
8 September 2008
12:425758Sheila
I think if you read what I have written you will see I am talking about attracting monied people by building decent homes for SALE within walking distance of the station - cf Canterbury with the Whitefriars and Rheims Way/Tannery developments.
They don't have to be in the Priory Ward - I would suggest the SKC site could be turned into an urban village, using the Dour as a centre piece. Meanwhile SKC would relocate to new premises, maybe on the old barracks site and hopefully be affiliated to Christchurch, this boosting the town's education.
8 September 2008
13:015759Well said, as ever, Andrew - powerful stuff, indeed - and absolutely spot-on.
The petty-politicking parochial timeservers who indulge in their playground prattling while purporting to run the town are not fit for purpose. And all the while poor old Dover rots from within and becomes an unliveable scum-bucket that must break the hearts of the decent older generation and those fine Dovorians who came before them.
My grandparents and my dear dad - all proud Dovorians - must be spinning in their graves.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
8 September 2008
14:015762Talking of Connaught Barracks the public consultation should be imminent around the future of the site. I accidentally came across this site
http://connaughtbarracks.wordpress.com/Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 652- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 595
10 September 2008
21:335912Something else they are seeking to put into Priory, not far from us Howard. there is a proposal going forward for a mobile base station at 1 Westbury Rd, (what used to be the pub), the proposal is for 3 atennas on the gables. people that I have spoken to are against the idea
Sheila
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
10 September 2008
21:515919I have looked at those plans Sheila and did not think that they looked that intrusive. Some effort has been made to blend it in with the current building.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
10 September 2008
23:405929this looks like a debate that should be opened.
i have read various stuff about mobile phone masts,
are there any scientific reports available yet?
i do not mean internet rubbish, but serious stuff from people in the know.
Guest 652- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 595
11 September 2008
23:466003Chris
The plans may not look intrusive to you, but would you want a mast right above your window, I certainly would'nt, a good few residents feel the same, its like everything else, dump it in Priory Ward, we dump everything else there, so why not dump a mobile phone base station as well. Why not put it on Military Road, or the Borstal, up there at least its away from a built up residential area, they should also get a good reception.
Sheila
12 September 2008
05:186004didnt realise we still had a Borstal up here with us it was changed to an Immigration Removal Centre about 3yrs ago Sheila.we wouldnt want to infringe on their human rights would we now
having worked there for 26years (now thankfully retired) and living on the western heights for the same time that we might not be such a built up area but there are still residents living here quite a few of us actually who tend to be forgotten about at times .Its used as a rat run when townwall street and snargate is busy with freight traffic even the buses use it ,the way some of the cars race up and over the brow of the hill is like a rally sure some of them leave the ground and as the turning up to the citadal is concealed from them as they approach it its a wonder there are so few accidents
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
12 September 2008
13:036024Sorry Sheila, but there is no mast on those plans. The 'Antennas on the plan are adjacent to the brickwork and painted in to match.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour