The post you are reporting:
Looking at Howard's photos, we can see that to cut down all the trees on Western Heights would be awful. I thought it was a case of preventing trees and bushes from encroaching ON historical sites and ON pathways, and removing those which already have.
But not to go and cut down ALL the trees everywhere on the Western Heights!
I was just getting used to Mike Green's ideas of promoting visitors to open day events and extending the number of such events on the Heights, and starting with small, affordable projects, such as electricity, toilets, until I read Chris's post.
Chris, increasing Dover's population by 16,000 may be an opinion of yours, but it has nothing to do with maintaining Western Heights! We're going way off tangent here.
Adding to that, an increased population in any town or city would see an increase of shops, thus taking away the advantage of increased spending in the already existing shops.
Would it not be better to concentrate on Mike's proposal, to dedicate attention on how we can get some more enthusiasm into Western Heights in conventional ways, rather than linking the subject to the building of thousands and thousands of new houses?
If you look at Dover's core strategy, Chris, you'll see that DDC have already planned 6,000 new houses in Whitfield, with more in other areas in and around Dover.
So your point on building even MORE houses would only serve to bring the whole conversation to a stale-mate, because it sounds so unreasonable.
Many local people who signed the petition know this, they know that DDC have ALREADY planned many thousands of new houses, a project which already has proved to be unpopular with many local residents.
As for bringing in more revenues to shops, Chris, this really does have nothing to do with Western Heights, no matter how you look at it, and I've already pointed out to you in the past on this or some other thread, that shop-owners will NOT give over their profits to maintain Western Heights.
In the same way as Councillors, painters and decorators and factory workers do not hand over their salaries to maintain Western Heights.
And finally, Chris, the idea of increasing Dover's population by building on more Green areas, makes evident to anyone that there will be less Green areas for us locals and for visitors to enjoy.
It would be a shame if Mike's proposal were to get lost in a long repetition of: why houses - why no more housed on W.H.
I had hoped Mike had started off a new phase of discussion that was practical, applicable, and not destined to go off on a tangent of super-fantasy such as transforming Dover into a city.