Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
I had some interesting conversations with a shop in Dover today, and they don`t know who I am, so I should have some honest opinions from them. I`m told that the tourists who come to Dover love it, and she believe`s that the only people who complain about Dover are the people who live here. This was a shop, not an eating place. Bring some more pricey housing to Dover, with good views to bring the money in. All else will follow. Is she right?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Ah this is an old one. Who would buy the pricey housing?? There arent the jobs to support pricey housing. This was a question I put to Charlie Elphicke a while back...I asked him what was the chance of us getting more meaningful jobs if he was elected. Charlie talked earnestly but clearly there isnt an immediate solution to more jobs. He has plenty of ideas but he himself cant work miracles and its all long term talk. Jobs are the source of wealth...from jobs comes everything else. Dover is blighted eternally by low grade jobs that dont offer a future or a career to our younger ones who are all destined to depart. These are the ones who would be buying the pricey housing.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Dover's problems are not unique, and we should not lose sight of that. It's easy to become obsessed with the belief that we live in a backwater that's in the doldrums and nobody knows or cares about us. Not true. Almost everywhere in the UK - and elsewhere - is in the same boat: we are living the legacy of a Labour Government that seriously screwed up its own figures, but so is everyone else.
It could be worse; we could be living in Greece.
Look at Dover today bathed in glorious sunshine and remember what a stunningly beautiful town it is and thank your lucky stars that you don't live in Swanley or Newcastle Under Lyme.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
Ultimately, regeneration is dependent on creating new jobs. Improvements in infrastructure - such as the high speed rail link - will help but it's going to take time. I think it's true to say, however, that successive governments of all colours have failed to get to grips with the issues in East Kent. Nationally, we're viewed as being part of the prosperous "South East" so haven't been given the sort of attention that other areas have when key industries were lost.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
good point about the the high speed rail link kevin.
our former honourable member gwyn and our former forum member nigel worked their socks off to get it.
yes we are seen as part of the prosperous south east, a completely outdated concept.
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
Colin asks what can we do?Whilst Folkestone not perfect it has more going for it than Dover and more inviting.
Then Canterbury thriving in the main.
We need a planning dept with a CAN DO attitude
that would be a goos start
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
personly i would like to see the ditz area to take of sooner rather than later.going round on the busses between my home and hollis moters,there seems a lot of holes ie building sites with no activaty going on,crumberling overgrown buildings etc.if the ddc got there fingers out and made a start it might just start looking nice and start bringing more people into the town.they may evan linger a little longer if there was some where decent hotel/geust house accomerdation at a resonable price.
The heading is,
"Dovers problems is there a solution??
The answer is an emphatic "NO"
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,699
of course there are solutions.
What is needed is jobs preferably in Dover itself, or at least within a short distance, this in turn will create demand for housing (both existing and new) which in turn creates the potential market for retailers etc. to seek to attract, in turn creating more jobs and so on.
However it all starts with creating employment opportunities
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Unregistered User
Indeed Ross. Your analysis is spot on.
Watty
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Yes there is get rid of the D.D.C Planning DEPT as it is today get new faces who are pro/Dover.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
Vic
Whom would you recommend to takeover?
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
I could think of afew but myself is on the list and they would not have to pay me.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
You need to get elected first Victor
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
They have privatised Building Control about time they looked at Planning in the same way!!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
interesting point being made here, i think that council officers are put into a position of protecting their backs in the event of making a decision that could backfire on them.
the answer could be for outside agencies to be brought in to make assessments on the benefits for the district in a planning application.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
I'd like to see Sid Perkins, Ross Miller and Jeanette Harper in the planning department. Intelligent, forward thinking people, all of them - we need them, and more of their genre.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
But then they get faced with the rules and regulations, all the restrictions, limits and considerations that apply. Common sense then gets thrown out of the window and they are just the same as any other planners.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
I take what you're saying, Barry - but here in Dover we seem to be stuck in a rut with the planning department. There seems a genuine need for fresh blood, and the starting point has to be the DTIZ. I know you've been heavily involved with that particular white elephant since you had hair(!), but I get the feeling that those involved can no longer see the wood for the trees and that a clean sheet with fresh ideas is the place to start.
Vic's quite outspoken in calling for the lot of them to go, and tbh I have some sympathy with his sentiments - if the planning people at DDC were a political party, there would have been an outcry long since. If the stalling point is rules and regulations, how come other towns seem to find a way through them when Dover patently fails? I'm thinking in particular of Folkestone's town centre development and Westwood Cross in Thanet which has an amazing array of shops, restaurants, cinemas and a casino whilst Dover has the same car park the Luftwaffe built for us in the 1940s.
True friends stab you in the front.