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Excellent posting, as always Nigel, and you know that I do fully appreciate all the hard work you put in. However, and you knew this was coming, another fact to add to this list, Surveys done by Coastal Kent show that Dover's image as percieved by potential visitors is Dover Castle and the vast majority see it as a day trip, there and back with no stop off anywhere else. You are quite right to say that work needs to be done to bring visitors into the town but if their destination is the castle and the direct route into town is down past the traffic problems around a big supermarket, right on the main route and the seafront, then as many more will be put off as encouraged. I could not agree more with plans to better incorporate the town with the seafront as that is a very positive first step towards improving the towns desirability. Large schemes are all very well, although harder and costlier to deliver, but they also have the potential to irreversably damage further potential. It is of great concern that smaller projects to improve other sites of visitor potential are being left in the cold while chasing supposed showcase development. I am thinking here of such sites as The Grand Shaft, revamped and then only open for a couple of hours in the afternoon and overcharged. I could not count the number of times I have seen potential tourists peering through the gates wondering what it would be like to visit. The Roman Painted House is another example of a great potential that is vastly under exploited. Everyone knows that the Western Heights hold a huge treasure trove of our history that should be properly developed, before the Chamber of Commerce decide to bury it all under a 'big scheme' hotel. Nobody is trying to be negative on here by pointing out concerns and very genuine worries about the direction, and pace, of new developments they are only expressing a love of the town and what it could be in the future. Knock on effects of large developments must be taken into consideration and part of that has to be the sort of jobs that will be created and how that will effect our children. For too long Dover has suffered from a lack of career type employment, of the sort that will encourage our youngsters to stay in the town while being able to afford to live here. This does not mean part time and seasonal work, which can only ever be a short term fix to the towns wider problems. Without the career jobs new diplomma courses will just train our young for work elsewhere.
I am glad you can reassure us about the housing behind Maison Dieu Road but that does rather revive the concerns about parking around the new polyclinic (I refuse to give it the credability of calling it a hospital). Still, thank you for an informative posting and I would love to hear more about the ideas for the 'street scene'.