Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,897
They have also reduced their stock which does not help, it is a great shame I have used Delmaine's a lot for cookers, washing machines and freezers plus the odd repair job.
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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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Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
and apart from that there washing mashines are reconditiond ones.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Maybe the Charlton Centre needs/needed to promote itself more and market the outlets it has.
Many people know about the Charlton Centre, but not necessarily what sort of unit are in there.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the cafe always seems to be busy in there but the shops other than the butcher not.
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
I thought the Charlton Centre had new owners recently who were promising lots of improvements? Sad to see yet more shop closures in Dover. Not a good sign.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
The town needs to be condensed to lower than the Eagle and upwards back to housing - this has happened quite a bit in Ramsgate...
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
They do have new owners Kevin and there's a planning application in for new flat conversions up stairs, so potentially more customers for all the units in there.
Roger
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
Until someone in authority grasps the concept of 21st century shopping habits we will continue to have these disjointed areas in the town. Out of interest is there any data for the shopping habits of Dovorians? I suspect that very few people will walk from the Market Square to The Charlton Centre or vice versa as they want everything in one place and, if a town can't provide that, then an out-of-town centre will as will the internet. We may think that's a bad thing but it is a fact of life today.
Close the Charlton Centre, which has never fulfilled its promise, and relocate the businesses to a purpose built shopping 'centre' somewhere like.........Pencester Gardens......or failing that the DTIZ site.
Just do it!!
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,897
Your idea is fine for those who shop using their car but I walk (with difficulty) and very seldom go past Pencester and the DTIZ site is well out of the way, I think it would be far better to get the old Sainsbury site back into use.
Maybe the powers that be should have the power to open up shop sites that are still empty after 9 months or a year for community use or to help new businesses get off the ground
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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 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
The stringing out of shops along London Road relates back to the days when many people did all their daily shopping on foot and so the numerous butchers, bakers, grocers, even fishmongers etc could all survive with their local customers and only major purchases required a trip into the town centre.
Now we're in-between these shops closing down because of supermarkets and shopping by car/internet, and a proper specialist and concentrated retail centre existing in the town. I don't think the DTIZ is going to be the answer to this but maybe I'll be proved wrong.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Mark - you are not wrong in what you are saying but who are you telling to close the Charlton Centre? Who are you telling to relocate their businesses? it is up to them not us. Market forces dictate this in the long run and nobody should have the right to tell these businesses to move. We certainly need a 'centre' in the town for shopping and the long high street is a known problem for Dover that is damaging to the town's retailing. A report obtained by DDC in the 80's told us as much and one recommendation was to develop a part of Pencester as a shopping area (where the skate boards and play area is). The report recommendation was not accepted although everyone agreed with the problem identified. It is to be hoped that the DTIZ provide that centre and that many specialised local businesses will gain if the locate or relocate in that area. Given ever changing shopping patterns I too am not sure it will work but it does offer hope for some kind of retailing in Dover.
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
Hear hear, Mark Robson - spot on, what you say below...
Until someone in authority grasps the concept of 21st century shopping habits we will continue to have these disjointed areas in the town. Out of interest is there any data for the shopping habits of Dovorians? I suspect that very few people will walk from the Market Square to The Charlton Centre or vice versa as they want everything in one place and, if a town can't provide that, then an out-of-town centre will as will the internet. We may think that's a bad thing but it is a fact of life today.
Close the Charlton Centre, which has never fulfilled its promise, and relocate the businesses to a purpose built shopping 'centre' somewhere like.........Pencester Gardens......or failing that the DTIZ site.
Just do it!!
A Dovorian voice of reason and sense from Deal's excellent Just Reproach.
Cheers,
Andy
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
'Just do it' Andy - once again I am afraid real life is not like that.
It is entirely a matter for the businesses themselves. Nobody quite rightly has the power to order them to do this or that as you suggest. We are not a centrally controlled, ordered, society thankfully where we all have to do the bidding of some elected dictatorship. Inconvenient perhaps but it is inherent in our freedoms and must be valued and treasured.
As I said before - we do need a central shopping centre and it would be better to have shops largely located to and around such a centre but it must be dictated by market forces and the wishes of the business owners not an all powerful authority.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
"it is inherent in our freedoms and must be valued and treasured"
Or, squandered and usurped by 'free market' cods-wallop. To be centrally controlled by clandestine lobby groups is perfectly OK, I presume?
Oft-times Barry, you seem to resort to some form of 'automatic writing'.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
i notised this morning that the thomas cook shop is now vacent,with a notice in window saying the nearist branch is in deal.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,707
Their lease came to an end and they choose not to renew it
You cannot force businesses to move to one location or another, the choice of location a business chooses is dictated by a number of things not least rent and rates; traditionally these are highest in town centres, precluding many independent retailers and leading to "me too" high streets with the same shops as other towns - not something we should aspire to in Dover.
"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
under standble ross but dosent look good for the town as such.with the closure of the shop it only leaves 3 places to get your money exchanged.and they are,the post office,thomsons,and the one down townwall street.
