Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Last night took quite a pleasant stroll along the Leas and down to the seafront at Folkestone and towards the harbour......
..there is where it started to go wrong....
Derelict Station
Derelict Pier
Derelict Port
Lorry park with drivers shouting abusing in my direction (and less said about the other activity that I stumbed upon the better)
Car breakers yard
Tarmac where an amusement park used to be
New (empty) shops up the Old High Street
More boarded up/closed shops than in Dover
They may have so called 'art' but Dover is 100 times better than what I saw on that short walk....
Been nice knowing you :)
Thank you for that. We needed it!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
'Construction site'
Towards the harbour
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
Oh dear !!!
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Dover Town is bucking the trend with more shops opening than most others.
The problem (as I see it) is that there is no one working on driving Dover forward - on any level. The regeneration plans are all set and will come to fruition, but there is no one working on the Town Centre from the Market Square to the Town Hall.
There is no one working on making Dover a destination instead of the to-it-and-through-it Town it is now.
There is no one helping the businesses, helping them move from surviving to thriving.
There is no one pushing the Shop Local view - for Dover to grow and prosper as a Town, it has to be supported by local people.
I could go on and I have done so for a long time, but no one listens.
Roger
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
The mother with young children and the elderly with no car will always use the town to shop in as it is more convenient.
Drivers are using their cars less because of petrol prices so they are shopping in town.
We have a very good food shopping area Iceland, Morrisons and as from Monday Asda so no need to go out of town.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Dover has a lot of potential which is something a lot of places don't have... time to start a thread that only has positive things and photos.....
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Some good points there said by both Paul and Jan. I use the pound shop alot.
Guest 708- Registered: 22 Dec 2010
- Posts: 102
I made be speaking out of turn, but I feel that the final decision on what Dover wants and gets, are more interested where they live and it's is not Dover. When you look at Deal, Sandwich and surrounding areas.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
I have to say without giving to much negative vibes, folkestone towards asda has many shops open and thriving,
like dover fokestone has the prob of trying to stretch over a wide area.
roger;
i thought you was the paid tourism guru for dover?
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
paul in post 9 makes the point that i hear from dovorians on a regular basis.
the air of neglect would not occur in deal or sandwich, on the plus side i posted recently(roger agreed earlier) that we have less empty shops than most comparable towns.
business do want to invest here but the town has to look more inviting.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
agree with most of your post howard
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
Roger,
Your post #5 is pretty depressing coming from a district councillor for a town ward, what you gonna do about it?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the established order at the council will frustrate any attempts by roger to remedy the basics.
maybe he should have stayed in his job at the channel chamber and tried to do something via them?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
I didn't have a choice Howard, otherwise I would have.
The Channel Chamber did not support my initiatives and projects; I was given four weeks to get funding for my own salary otherwise I was out, showed the level of support for what I wanted to do.
I contacted all the main stake-holders but couldn't get firm pledges from any of them, so in early June my Chamber email address was taken away - without telling me for three days; very professional.
So Keith, I am not a paid tourism guru, not a paid anything, although I was half-way through a tourism strategy for Dover Town and half-way through a Plan of Action for Dover Town, both half-completed documents are on my laptop gathering dust.
Being independant-minded and knowing what needs to be done, doesn't suit some people, especially it seems, Chambers of Commerce.
Roger
Which might at a pinch be acceptable (it isn't!) if there appeared to be a cohesive strategy and drive to improve. There is little evidence of that.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
The Channel Chamber are very strong on getting young people back to work and with apprenticeships - very laudable.
They are also keen on business start-ups (small manufacturing, not retail) and renting out business-incubation units - also very laudable.
They are also very interested in membership and membership-dues, but less so on tourism, moving the Town forward and actually (proactively) helping the businesses "they'll come to us when they want help" to me is not good enough.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the title "channel chamber" would suggest that tourism should be high on the agenda.
i agree with their thinking on small manufacuring start ups though.
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
Iv'e just been over to Folkestone to get something.
The place is heaving with people, kids playing in the fountains many enjoying the eateries around the harbour. left my car on double yellows for 10 minutes, not a traffic warden in sight.
Coming back to Dover stopped off at the sea front and compared to where I had just been our sea front looked deserted, also the obligatory traffic wardens scaring every one away.
Depressing init.
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
It's a different approach and we don't have it right. Folkestone has benefitted from a significant business support - someone who knows a great deal about marketing and real business.
Been nice knowing you :)
