Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
27 January 2010
19:0638939Word on the street is that Whitfield New Town has been approved.
The government inspector upheld the DDC case and swallowed their computer generated panacea for the town's ills, i.e. concreting over all the land around Whitfield for people to head off more easily to Canterbury to do their shopping.
Wrong, wrong, wrong but there is too much pride and money at stake now.
I've made the points over and over before and the whole concept is badly flawed but hey, money talks and we have created a housing crisis with excessive immigration and social collapse.
So bulldoze away while the town centre continues to rot.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
27 January 2010
19:2438948Andrew, while I have a great deal of sympathy for those in Whitfield who are opposing this I do believe that for Dover Town Centre overall it would be positive.
Remember this does not mean that suddenly all that green land will turn into housing estates over night. This is just the planning that will enable landowners and developers to build on the land gradually over a period of decades as the market, demand and jobs allow. It creates the potential for a growing local community instead of one declining in size and spending power. If we are to get shops in Dover town centre we need to have a programme that will grow the potential customers in the local catchment.
I do not believe that this means they will all just shoot off to Canterbury. It will allow some room to expand the Dover Town Centre offering to attract some of this trade into the town.
I believe that this will be good for local business and the overall prosperity of Dover over the medium to long term.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,698
27 January 2010
19:5638954Whilst I understand and agree with the broad thrust of your argument Barry, without some form of parallel incentive and plan to grow jobs in the locality then will the town overall and the town centre in particular see any benefit?
"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
27 January 2010
20:5338959Dreadful news and totally unnecessary. We have the highest bedroom to person ratio in this country since the Black Death.
Unfortunately we don't like each other very much and refuse to share bedrooms. Kids refuse to share bedrooms in the 'family home' as I certainly did until I went to University. Families fall apart whereupon 'dad' needs not only another house but spare rooms for the weekends when his kids visit.
BarryW for once has got it wrong with his management consultant jargon of 'growing customers'. Customers of what??
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
27 January 2010
20:5738960i notice that the boys and girls grammar schools will be relocating to whitfield.
looks like it could all end up being two towns, one with tesco to cater for all its needs and no recreational facilties, the other with asda and morrisons to do likewise with marginally more leisure things.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
27 January 2010
20:5838962Interesting when you look at the Neighbourhood Statistics - the the Dover district is:
87.3% green space
4.7% domestic gardens
2.3% water
2.1% road
1.0% domestic buildings
0.6% non-domestic building
Been nice knowing you :)
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,304
27 January 2010
20:5938963Barry states:- "I do not believe that this means they will all just shoot off to Canterbury."
Let's face it, most of the occupants will be car owners and they will do their shopping where the petrol is cheapest and that's not Dover.
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
27 January 2010
21:0238966Whitfield is part of Dover like River they already have there own parish council with all the ex cost of making it a Town and Why-----?
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,698
27 January 2010
23:5338991What will keep people in the town is creating jobs in and around the town and then providing the workers with a wide range of interesting shops and cafes to frequent during their breaks etc.
"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
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
27 January 2010
23:5738993having the district council offices in or near our town centre would have filled the criteria.
a bit too late now for any change though.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
28 January 2010
09:3639003We have a chicken and egg situation and this is a difficult one to resolve. We need more businesses to relocate in Dover District, not just Dover Town and not just retail.
We need planning to provide both sufficient housing accomodation and commercial development potential. They go hand in glove. The houses will only be built as a response to demand and that demand will only grow if their are jobs.
There is little that a Local Authority can do beyond the zoning of land and ensuring business friendly planning, the rest will be up to the private sector. Of course there are the regeneration schemes, transport links and so on. We have the fast rail link and in time that may well help in the long term. We need the A2 dualled of course and with the likely demise of Boris estuary airport idea maybe Manston will be developed more as a regional airport.
At the end of the day, however, we are at the mercy of the economic situation and we will depend on private businesses and their decisions. We can see that in the Dover Express today where it seems that DDC have decided that it is time to play hardball with Asda. let us not kid ourselves, DDC know, as I am sure they do, that there is a lot of bluff there. If Asda pull out then the whole scheme will be blighted. It could be a long time before that scheme is completed, unless DDC know something I (and Asda) dont....
Bob. You are right but we need to deal with society as it really is today and not what we would like it to be.
Ross - those things of course are provided by private businesses in response to customer demand, not by Councils. That is why we need population growth and the housing that goes with it.
Howard - one option at the time when the offices in Whitfield were considered was Burlington House (the only town centre option and more expensive long term than the Whitfield offices). It was discussed. 'Nough said....
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
28 January 2010
11:3039015So, Barry, if green fields aren't to be bulldozed, where are 30,000 new houses going to be built? I've seen the plans in Paul Watkins' office, and it looks rather like plenty of green fields are going to be bulldozed, right up to Church Whitfield. Plus a new Whitfield bypass that skirts the village and flanks the Waldershare estate.
I'm getting a distinct sense of we're alright Jack, Whitfield can stew......I hope not. This development is about creating a dormitory town, not regenerating Dover. If the high speed rail link is withdrawn because the line to Folkestone is dangerous, as I have read in the press, this development might as well be dumped in the Channel. Good thing, too, if it were.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
28 January 2010
11:4039016Andy - please read both my posts a bit more carefully. Where have I said that green fields are not going to be bulldozed? Of course the sites will be developed but it will not happen overnight is the point I made. This is zoning for planning only, the houses will be built over a 30 year period subject to demand.
I did say that I have sympathy for Whitfield residents who are affected but at the end of the day I believe that this will be good for Dover. You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
28 January 2010
11:4439017I hear the real reason for the relocation is that so many new schools have to be provided per so many thousand new homes.
Allegedly this is a way of getting round that ruling. Utterly pointless, a waste of land and sucking more life out of the town.
What will happen to DGSB - left to rot like Westmount writ large?
I had better be careful how I word this, but one would like to know who or what is benefiting financially from all these decisions.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,698
28 January 2010
23:0139059Barry I agree that it is private enterprise that will provide employment (on the whole) and also develop residential sites - my post did not suggest otherwise and frankly cannot be construed to have done so.
I also agree that local authorities need to think and act carefully to ensure that they create the right opportunities for private enterprise to provide those jobs, facilities, housing etc.
"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
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
29 January 2010
12:3539071will this meen that whitfield will have there own mp,possably a tory one to counteract the main towns labour one.
Matt Bristow- Location: Whitfield, Dover
9 February 2010
13:3940093I cannot believe some of the short sighted views posted in this thread.
Building houses themselves will simply not encourage business to the area. If and thats a big IF theres infrastructure to match the proposed 'New Town' all that its going to do move every last bit of goodness away from Dover town centre.
I think that Andrew has a very, very valid point. I wonder quite how much the powers that made this decision have benifitted financially!
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
9 February 2010
14:2640094I am sorry if this upsets some of you,but I think that Whitfied should stay a parish with its own council and there should not be anymore housing Developments done there,I have said this before we are building to many house,s in our local parish,s they are now on about building more at the Bay.
It is wrong we need our village,s in the country.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
9 February 2010
14:4940096Unusual for me to post on these subjects, but with you all the way here Vic.
This is nothing to do with business`s or jobs. It`s money, money, money and stinks.!!!!!!!!! Anybody who`s walked round the open field`s,country lanes and hedgerows of Whitfield will know what Vic is talking about above. This is England, YOUR England, and city planners who don`t give a sh.. are taking yet another piece away.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
9 February 2010
14:5540099No one at the DDC seems quite able to tell us where these thousands of extra people are going to work. Given the job pages of the locals, they won't be employed in Dover.
True friends stab you in the front.