Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
12 August 2009
07:0227011I agree BarryW that the initiative has to be business-led, but good co-operation from the Planning Department and Conservation.
The closed shops in the Square need opening and using; businesses need to be encouraged to be brave and imaginative, but they also need assurances that they won't be screwed - on the rent and rates and pavement issues.
With a proper market in the Market Square on Saturdays and full cafe usage too, everyone would be a winner - including Dover.
It's not all cut and dried and as Keith said, there'll be a few problems to overcome, but over come they can be.
Roger
12 August 2009
07:1127013It's exactly that kind of "can do" attitude we all need. It can be a challenge to maintain a positive drive, but Roger manages it! I only hope it is contagious!!
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
12 August 2009
10:0527026Is there a reason why the market stalls don't use the Market Square? That might start a change of thinking about the use of the place.
Mark
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
12 August 2009
10:5327030I'll give you one reason: There's a road in the middle of it! Whenever there is any kind of event there you only have to see the awkwardness of how things are arranged. Why is this not part of the plans for regeneration I don't know. We have the chance to right some of the post war mess that defines our town centre, yet still we cling to 'one line' projects.
After seeing Mr Aziz's presentation at the Kings Hall, in 2035 even if all the projects are realised, we will still have a mess of a town, defined by poor planning. My visting friends may well be delighted by the landbridge (something they felt was in the wrong position) or enjoy a ride on the cable car. However their perception of the town itself will not change!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
12 August 2009
11:1427031"We have the chance to right some of the post war mess that defines our town centre"
I think you will find that other than York Street and Townwall Street, the centre of the town is pretty much the same since the 1800s. The main issues with the 'high street' is that it is semi-pedestrianised and nearly all of it has no rear delivery areas.
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
12 August 2009
11:2927032Yet again Roger and Bern exemplify exactly the type of positive, imaginative, open-to-fresh-ideas thinking the town so desperately needs to repair years of civic planning cock-ups. A proper market in the Market Square. Yes! It's a no-brainer really. So let's encourage it (think of the Place Dalton in Boulogne).
Roger and Bern - long may you reign!
PS: Dover Market Hall RIP - used to love it there when I was a kid - the sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere...like 'The Lanes' of York Street and Queen Street, it should never have fallen victim to civic vandalism and destruction.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
12 August 2009
12:0327033I have raised the issue of the high street and it's 'neither one thing or another' existance before. Paul you may be able to look at the layout of the town as possessing the same mass/layout but it's the post war inconsistancies that provide some of the most awkward points. Behind Rooks being a classic example. As well as that, by saying the plan has not changed since 1800 just exposes how unfit for purpose it probably is. Dover, like most towns, did not have the benefit of Inigo Jones or Ebeneeza Howard to produce a wonderfully planned town in it's industrial booms. Most places however used the post war years (and even up to more recent years eg Portsmouth) to change for purpose, using town planning effectively. We still have the organic pre-war town with extra infrastucture problems tacked on....not good and not addressed.
Yes I'd like to see a functioning market square but it's a balance of definition and usage not just one or the other. Andrew, I cannot help but feel you see my negativity as non-productive. My negativity is to the current and not to the prospect of a better town. How clinging to twee concepts of the past is fresh I'm not sure? I would dearly love to see some imagination applied to our town. It's interesting you mention the market hall something that I would almost define as an arcade and fits very well with the 'market square as piazza' idea. However it is the absense of that kind of element, along with the roads, that really stops the market square having any real feel!
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
12 August 2009
13:0227034Hi DT1,
I think you may have misconstrued me there - I generally agree with where you're coming from and your positive approach. I don't think the inference that I'm clinging to twee concepts of the past is terribly constructive nor in any way accurate. What's more 'now' than a market, for heaven's sake! Anyway, I'm fully supportive of all suggestions to create a better town.
Cheers,
Andy
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
12 August 2009
14:5527038markets always attract people, once people numbers grow, so will stall numbers.
i cannot see a downside to it.