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I was the youngest person there, and it was just what I expected.
There were many with their own agendas, a good example being the amount of scoffing every time the market square screen was mentioned. Mr Islam spoke very passionately about his experience of the decline over the past 25 years and as someone who is directly affected by some of the proposals it was good to have him there. There were many points and questions raised, very few of them to do with urban development. I think one of the most valid points raised (that actually had something to do with development and not just personal opinion) was about the emphasis on Whitfield and the effects of creating almost a second town that has more dialogue with Canterbury than Dover. Andrew Stuckden eloquently put Mr Aziz on the spot with this one, and it's something that has irritated for a long time. I think it's a fairly blatant agenda when even the district council even builds its offices there!
The presentation at the beginning was quite good, with the exception of the 'trance' soundtrack (very annoying). At the end there was an amusing disclaimer along the lines of "this is just a representation of possible projects "etc. It reminded me of being a kid and wanting 'Mr Frosty' something that looked brilliant on the TV commercial but the reality was just a bit crap! The other thing that was apparent was that it was just a load of 'one liner' developments, still no real cohesive master plan. There were lots of quotes flashing up about 'connection' (probably from American motivational speaker types, you know the ones that also talk about 'change management) but the schemes showed very little connection with the obvious exception of the cable car and land bridge.
I very much intend to still be around in 2035 and intend to raise this then, as many did on Tuesday that also experienced the rhetoric when they were my age. However when we look at how people sociological habits and use of towns has changed in the last 25 years, I find it fairly arrogant that we should be presenting this 'vision for the future' for the next 25 years, none of which is contemporary even now and is actually just a succession of single projects, none of which really addressing the real problems!
Well done to the organisers and Mr Aziz for coming, he has a hard job.