DTIZ
- 29 April 2009 14:4320374All gone a bit quiet on the DTIZ front, hasn't it?
Any news, perchance? - Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
29 April 2009 15:3820375I was going to make this a seperate thread Andrew but it now seems appropriate here.
This is Jeanette's column in the Dover Express tomorrow:-
The regeneration of Dover is a subject on many of our lips. What is happening and, more to the point, when is it happening?
Dover Pride's website proclaims the future is just beginning, but is it really? They suggest that, by 2035, Dover will be one of the most prosperous towns on the South coast with around £1 billion having been invested, 6,000 jobs created and 14,000 new homes built. Judging by the promotional video on the website, it seems as though Dover will be unrecognisable from what it is today.
We have promises of an improved port, a hotel development at the Western Heights and a new land bridge between the seafront and town centre. Burlington House will have been replaced with a new retail and residential unit, Buckland Mill will have been converted into residential and commercial units and, with the regeneration of the Coombe Valley industrial area, we will have yet more high-quality housing.
The list goes on to say we will have a new, highly-efficient bus route, cable car and high-speed rail link. Large-scale housing at Whitfield, plus 500 Eco-homes will have popped up at Connaught Barracks and we will have new leisure facilities and schools at the White Cliffs Business Park. The quality of the town-centre environment will be improved with new homes, a community hospital and a new, mixed-use development on our seafront. There will also, of course, be a big screen in the Market Square.
The projects mentioned are all very emotive issues within the town and debates are ongoing about the hospital and Whitfield housing. Quite a vision has been laid out, but is it a realistic plan for the future, or wild fantasy? Is Dover District Counci building our hopes for something that may be impossible to deliver while we are in the midst of an economic recession?
Although many questions have been raised here, I'm sure you have plenty more. So who better to address them than the Chief Executive of Dover District Council, Nadeem Aziz, who will be guest speaker at the next London Road Community Forum meeting and will host a question and answer session purely on the regeneration of Dover.
If you would like to participate, please come and join us at 6.30pm on Tuesday 12th May at the King's Hall, London Road.
Questions can also be emailed to chairman@londonroad.info or sent by messaging from our website, www.londonroad.info
All are welcome.
TerryQuis custodiet ipsos custodes? - 29 April 2009 15:4920376Very interesting there Terry..good stuff from Jeanette.
Andrew I was out and about on my motorbike yesterday enjoying the warm sea breezes and took a run up to the new road, the new entrance to the Whitfield Business Park, and went in there for a general look around at the various businesses. I am beginning to wonder if the whole DTIZ thing is a fiction, a pipedream. The real money, real initative, real businnesses, are already up there in the business park and looking good too. B&Q opened a barn in a field a few weeks back, but my guess is in time the field wont be a field but will be filled with yet more businesses.
This is the old Tesco factor isnt it...out of town shopping centres/supermarkets killing off nearby towns, well its happening here right before our very eyes in animated slow motion.
Where would you open a business around here if you were a national chain?email: dover7@msn.com - 29 April 2009 17:0520377My point entirely Paul.
As my companion commented while visiting the new B&Q: this (i.e. Whitfield) IS Dover now.
Note the 'now'.
Certainly with development in the Dover side of the Honeywood Interchange, it feels as if a tipping point has been reached.
How DDC imagines that Whitfield will not fully supercede Dover if they build all the planned houses there is beyond me.
The process that began with the opening of Tesco is probably unstoppable but DDC should not be aiding and abetting it - unless they WANT to shift the town up the hill. - 29 April 2009 17:4320381I was informed today that the building work being carried out on the old BnQ site was to accommodate a Skating Rink....anyone know anything more?Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 29 April 2009 18:0420382That would be a positive, Marek.
- 29 April 2009 18:0520383That has to be one of those crazy local rumours Marek. No one in their right mind would put a skating rink in there. There was the Morrison application but I' like to know if that was still on the cards?!
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
29 April 2009 19:2220388i think morrisans still have it,but will have to wait and see. - 29 April 2009 20:1720390the skating rink is just a bad rumour.
morrison's are still the only people that have lodged a planning application. - 29 April 2009 20:2920391As most of you know I work n the pet shop next to Netto's. Today work started on the old B&Q's with lots of heavy plant type of equipment moving in, talking to one of the workmen in the yard I was told that it was Morrison's moving in and they would be opening in September.A dog is just not for christmas save some for boxing day
- 29 April 2009 20:5320393did you see anything that could be construed as a skating rink?
incidentally, when is your shop going to put whiskas tempations back on special offer?
i have to hunt all around dover to get the best price, the indoor market charge much the same as harrods pet dept. - 29 April 2009 21:0020394Didn't see a great deal they are digging out the outdoor garden area to expand the building. They have also closed most of the carpark off on the b&q side of the area to soon to see anything yet. as for the temptations no sign of an offer at the moment but just over £1.00 a pack isn't to bad anyway.A dog is just not for christmas save some for boxing day
- 30 April 2009 11:2820417The skating rink/bowling alley rumour comes up every few years whenever another major store closes to whack another rusty nail into the town's coffin.
I think I first started hearing such rumours when I was at River Primary School 30-plus years ago, and they generally resurface on a loop every five years or so - to no avail, natch. - 30 April 2009 13:0320420have i not said all along, a pipe dream
- 30 April 2009 19:4820435lost me there keith, do you mean the dtiz or the skating rink?
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
30 April 2009 21:0120444howard,both im afraid,it will never happen not in our lifetime not in your grandkids time not even this century. - 30 April 2009 21:0820445brian
i think that the dtiz will eventually come to fruition, there are clearly long standing problems.
i would like to know why compulsory purchase orders cannot be obtained for certain properties that are holding things up. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
30 April 2009 21:2020452something to do with sub letting i do believe,ie mutipul sub lettings. - 1 May 2009 11:1720518all replied to by brian
- 1 May 2009 18:1720540DTIZ is becoming a farce, if you remember ASDA had a marquee in Pencester Gardens at least 2 years ago explaining what they were bringing to Dover as far as employment was concerned. Look at the facts, ASDA have built a superstore in Folkestone which is doing rather well and in Dover nothing has moved forward. Why? It's never going to happen. At least Morrison's are doing something positive by moving onto the B & Q site.