Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#1
DDC info just through.....
*****
DOVER TOWN INVESTMENT ZONE UPDATE
Following a meeting of Full Council last night, Dover District Council has decided that it will continue negotiations with Bond City Ltd in the development of the St James' area of Dover, known as the Dover Town Investment Zone, (DTIZ).
The target for negotiations will be to enable a final detailed report on Bond City's proposals to be presented to a future Council meeting no later than 3 November 2010. The report will provide alternative proposals that give full regard to the design and planning issues required to support an acceptable proposal.
At the same time, the Council's Director of Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Economy and Special Projects, will evaluate alternative options for progressing the scheme, reporting back to the same Council meeting.
Cllr Frederick Scales said: "The proposed development in the St James' area has a live planning consent and any new application must maintain the same standard of design and function."
The Council needs to take decisions about the future of the DTIZ scheme following Asda's withdrawal from the scheme late last year.
Both Bond City and the Council have been working hard since Asda's withdrawal to secure the future of this important regeneration scheme for Dover in the midst of the worst recession the country has faced for decades, which has seen the future options for Government support seriously threatened.
- ends -
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#2
in other words we can forget about it for the foreseeable future.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
#3
Plus ca change..........
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#4
I was hoping to see it all build up before I died ,just hope I live till I am 150years old.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#5
Yes I think the last paragraph of the release is standard PR speak for it being kicked into the long grass. There are no takers to replace ASDA, and my feeling is and was before, that we should have grabbed ASDA with both hands. Now we are left with nothing and the place will remain as it is for good... more or less. At least as far as many of us are concerned. I for one will be pushing up daisies before anything happens now.
sigh!
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#6
If we had true blues as a district council it would happen ,but all we have is ones that play at being blue without their own funding as a back up to what needs to be done,money makes money makes money ,who do we have on the DDC that have real money behind them?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#7
Not sure I fully understand your last posting Vic.
Are you saying we don't have any rich Councillors, rich enough to put their own money into DTIZ ? If so, they wouldn't be allowed to do that.
I agree that (usually) money makes money, but Bond City are still very hopeful they can attract people to sign up to DTIZ. I hope they can do it - they have till November and I'm sure they want this to succeed as they have put large sums of their own money into this.
We were grabbing ASDA with both hands Paul, but they were pushing for a much reduced building - like a big tin shed and I'm sure the people of Dover would not have been happy with DDC accepting that.
It would have been like replacing one ugly building with another.
All of these delays are outside the remit or realm, of DDC.
Roger
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#8
Sorry Roger i do not agree we should have gone along with Asda,it would not have looked like a shed anyway.
#9
1. Vic, you sre just trying to start an irrelevant argument and wasting our time.
2. This latest report clearly demonstrates the lack of a Plan B at either Bond City or DDC. ASDA pulled out of DTIZ months ago, yet only now are we targeting a date for yet another report. Someone at DDC needs their ass kicked big time.
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
#10
SID;
I go along with you that VIC often talks tosh,
but so do you at times.
I'm all for everyone having there say whether or not I agree.
Your line is to silence him, asking him to go on holiday as you don't agree with him.
A line i'm surprized you take.
VIC;
ditz something will go on the site, but not what Dover people want to see.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
#11
Vic thinks it is the old days (1900s) when there were people like William Crundall putting millions of pounds of his own money into the town (and becoming the mayor from it!!) !!!!
Surely if they are talking to developers it is better than not talking? I cannot see what more the council can do - they don't have millions to spend so can only try encourage people to want to spend money in Dover..
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#12
Paul, at last some one is looking at the way I am thinking.He might not agree with it but he is seeing where I am coming from.And again you are right in what you say about the DDC but if they were in the same club as to put it, it would be of great help.Thank you for your very good post.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
#13
The reality is the DTIZ is a dead duck in the form envisaged by the DDC and Bond City have nowhere to go without an anchor tenant to make the scheme viable from their perspective.
DDC need to sit down with the town council and other interested stakeholders (e.g. local estate agents etc.) and consider all possible proposals for this site along with all funding avenues available )if any in these straightened time). Perhaps that way we will end up with a proposal that we can all support and get behind.
Vic, seriously, if you have nothing to say to genuinely further a debate, then please say nothing.
"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
#14
Paul, perhaps DDC could ask KCC for some of our £50m council tax rake they've got stashed away? Be nice to use it before the banks lose it, again!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#15
come on chaps this is turning into a victor bashing thread.
roger
i thought that bond city had only until the end of july?
what is the possibility of abandoning dtiz and instead just allowing companies to take up small parcels of area to open a business?
let's face the facts, burlington house is not coming down in the foreseeable future, plus it takes away the sword of damocles from hanging over the businesses operating successfully in snargate street.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#16
Ross sorry mate,I disagree and will carry on as I have ,what makes you think who is right and who is wrong ,all I ever do is put to the forum what I am thinking right or wrong,I am never rude nor do I put say that other post,s are rubbish. And I will carry on doing just that. You do not have to read anything I put, but I hope still do.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
#17
Vic of course you have the right to air your views exactly as I have the right to decline to read them if I choose.
I was not suggesting that you (or I) were right or wrong solely that in my humble (or not) opinion your post was adding nothing to the debate
"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
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#18
Howard, Bond have until November the 3rd. to give a presentation showing who they have got under their belt - ie signed up.
In these hard times, it is very difficult to sign anyone up to anything; we have seen some of their other Town Centre projects and they are very successful ones; they have spent substantial amounts of their own money, so are not treating this lightly, but we do need this moving forward.
If David H has developers wanting to come here, then I would say now is the time to bring this forward; either that or wait until November to see what the decision is and then bring it to the table.
The Town and District Councils don't have any money and the District is the LPA, so that would not be useful at this time.
Roger
Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
#19
VIC
As i indicated elsewhere I don't share fully VIC'S View but will always support vic's right to post.
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
#20
I think the powers-that-be should throw this whole DTIZ scheme open to other developers asap - this whole circus has been going on way too long. Can we really wait until November for Bond City to say, I fear, "er, sorry, thanks but no thanks"?
I really admire David Hannent's vision of a sympathetic, low-level redevelopment of the St James Street street pattern - The Brighton Lanes effect, perhaps with a new public piazza at its heart (St James Square, anyone?).
Anything to restore some heart and soul and civic pride into Dover town centre. Anything.