Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
13 August 2009
05:0527065The govt has announced plans of a £5 million fund to help regenerate high streets hit by the recession.
The money will be shared by some of Englands hardest hit areas and will allow councils to replace boarded up shops with projects such as art galleries or community learning centres.
A total of 57 local authorities have been given grants worth more than £50k each to help prevent their high streets becoming ghost towns.
A great idea but has Dover applied for one of these grants and if not why not?.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
13 August 2009
06:0727069Peanuts, gesture politics, £50k goes nowhere these days.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
13 August 2009
06:2927074I am not sure that some of the shops struggling on Dovers High St would agree with you BarryW..mnd you I suppose you fully endorse Duncans comments that MsP (Members of Parliament...never understood why we put Member of Parliament's MPs
) have to live on rations and eat s***.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
13 August 2009
06:3927076Poor little lovelies.........weren't we awful for picking on them so....?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
13 August 2009
07:0627084I have no idea if Dover applied; maybe because we are having so much money for regeneration, they thought we'd got enough.
I have to agree with BarryW; £50,000 is peanuts.
It could be put to good use though, even if it wouldn't go very far.
When you think that Dover-Pride spent £20,000 looking for two artists to decorate the hoarding around the old Stagecoach area and other DTIZ areas as and when they are knocked down, then you'll see that it won't go far. Incidentally I got repremanded for calling this artwork, "fly-posting".
If there were £5 million for each of them, that would make a difference.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
13 August 2009
16:5427130i would have thought that the phrase "flyposting" would have got you full marks for observation roger?
i think barry is right on this one, 50 grand to a few areas just sounds like a bit of good publicity stuff.
i wonder how much of the 50 grand was spent on admin in each area?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
13 August 2009
18:0027141Yes, you're right Howard, admin. does (usually) soak up a lot of money.
Roger
13 August 2009
19:5527154Roger
If you are seriously saying that someone spent money on those daubings that no one can read on the stagecoach site then I do wonder.
I know that art has many facets but they are unreadable unrepresentative and do nothing other than make it look untidy.
What an opportunity was lost to put there something that could be viewed from the car park by our many visitors and tell them that moves were afoot- art would have been nice but what is there is lost - on the pavement you cant read it and from across the road you cant see it - it just does look like graffiti.
I would be most grateful for someone to admit to wasting money on that.... when I cant even get the flower baskets watered.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
13 August 2009
20:3527155dover pride must know what they are doing!!!!!!
they always have a mission statement to prove it.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
13 August 2009
21:2927160thats a combind joke sheet howard.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
14 August 2009
06:3427174Maybe the view is that those who don't appreciate fly-poster size artistry, or what's in it, don't really appreciate art.
I think it's awful, I also think that as David said, if you can't see it/read it from the car-park opposite, it'll look like fly-posting and that £20,000 will have been truly wasted.
The kind of "public" artwork that I favour, is representations of our historic sites and attractions - the Castle - and views with the Castle grounds, views of and from the White Cliffs, Crabble Corn Mill, the Bronze Age Boat, Roman Painted House, Kearsney and Bushy Ruff, Samphire Hoe etc. and some of our notable buildings.
These would not only look better (to me), but also show the kind of wonderful sites we do have.
The £20,00 could have gone to a local company to pay for blown-up photos or paintings of the above - much better use of OUR money, to my mind that is.
Roger
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
14 August 2009
06:3627176I heard that Margate and Hastings are the only two "Southern" Towns to receive this money.
Roger
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
14 August 2009
07:5127191Did Dover apply
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
14 August 2009
11:1827201probably not,to scared to.
Sid Pollitt
14 August 2009
11:2127203Probably thought the amount on offer was peanuts, like the pay of the Tory Mayor of London or that poor Alan Duncan creep.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
14 August 2009
17:5027224I did reply in an earlier posting (number 5) that I thought perhaps not, as we are being given all this regeneration money, but I don't actually know.
Roger
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
16 August 2009
06:5827311It never ceases to amaze me...here we have a govt that is willing to give the ever bleating hard done cash strapped councils £50k in an attempt to help the High St and all we hear is cries of "peanuts or not sure if Dover applied" did they even know about these grants would be closer to the point.
Give me £50k and the first thing I would do is is obtain enlarged vintage photos of Dover that could be displayed in paper lined empty shop windows illustrating how Dover once looked or when it was snowbound or in the midst of a Royal visit or through the war years.The possibilities are endless. I would advertise that market stall holders could pitch their stalls for free on Fri/Sat for a month therefore hopefully making the market sq a market aq again. I would sponsor local bands even the Sally Army to come down and play on Saturdays. I would allow those talented pavement artists to come down to chalk their very imaginative drawings perhaps running through the summer leading to a seasons winner etc.There is so much that I, a pleb with no training in attending council meetings and delaying decisions could do with that money for Dovers High St it just baffles me that we don't even know whether our bloody council applied for the grant.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
16 August 2009
07:3827320Have you been reading my paper on how to improve Dover, Marek ?
Many "high-brow" things are being done, but very little it seems on the ground-floor, which is where most of it needs working on.
Roger
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
16 August 2009
07:4427323Sorry but we still do not have thre answer
Did this District counciil apply for the grant?
If they didn't why didn't they?
If this council turned there nose up at £50,000 then its no good complaining Thanet or Hastings got it when only they applied.
I think its serious question time now, wheres the answers?
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
16 August 2009
07:5827327Keith
I agree look at my original posting and as yet the silence from officials has been deafening...lol.
Did Dover apply for this grant Yes or No and if not why not? Over to you Watty.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)