Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
If lanes are built, in the sense of streets, this could mean thousands of housing units in the DTIZ area. Would this extra housing bring down the overall cost of rent and housing in Dover, or push it up?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
my understanding is the lanes would be home to specialised retail outlets and poncey cafes, not much housing involved.
i stand to be corrected of course.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Could this be the end of Dover's 365 doner kebab shops?
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
We have had six years of disappointments but our glass is still half full. Are we stupid?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
Do we really need more shop space that will extend the shopping area even more and cause further empty shops than we already have.
I will believe whatever has been planned when it is actually being built, until then it is still just another plan.
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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 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
I can't remember their name off the top of my head Darren, but I may have a business card somewhere. They are new(ish) to the scheme, but very well respected, they were brought in by the developers - Bond City Ltd. to give a fresh innovative look and feel.
Roger
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
There will of course be a need for a mix of shops and housing (apartments) and I do not think it will have an adverse affect on the other end of Town.
Morrisons, Aldi, ASDA etc. will help people stay/shop that end, but I do agree that we have too long a Town, stretching all the way along London Road to Hollis Motors.
I have no influence, so it doesn't matter what I think, but I'm sure that if there were more residential along London Road and more businesses concentrated nearer the Town, those businesses would be busier.
Roger
Darren
The Architects are Lyons Sleeman and Hoare.
They have designed several shopping sites in historic towns and cities. I believe this included one at Lincoln.
My experience of Lincoln , as I have mentioned several times on this forum, is that the City retail is well designed with sympathy to the historical connections and (on my hoby horse) one of the cleanest towns in the UK.
Lets hope that this promised high quality development not only triggers the regeneration that Dover so desperately deserves but also see a new dawn on cleanliness accross all of the town with the appropriate enforcements that are already available to the Local Authority/Police.
As a Dover Society Exec we are awaiting, like all of Dover, greater detail which whilst there may be commercial sensitivities the availabilty of the building design would be most welcome and I doubt if this would compromise commercial sensitivity.
As many forumites have said Dover has so much to offer and we fail to sell it. Lets be positive with the DTIZ scheme and take the town forward. Our glass is half full and with a positive attitude it could be overflowing.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Alex, according to the report in the Express the amount of housing has been reduced from 65 to 16. This does mean a lot of shop and hotel space but little dwelling space and still no leisure facilities.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
There are long-term improvements to Dover's leisure facilities, but not in the DTIZ.
DDC will not be paying for any new leisure facilities, but will be facilitators and perhaps providers of the necessary land.
I have no specific information, so cannot add anything further.
Roger
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Roger, does this still include moving the sports centre to Whitfield?
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
It would make sense - there can't be many sports centres with no grass or outdoor facilities included ??
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
But it will leave Dover with no indoor swimming or sports facilities.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
something does not gel here, we have been told that the whitfield housing development would have strong links with recreation facilities in the town centre.
now it seems that the leisure centre is moving up to leafy whitfield.
if this happens we would be one of very few towns without an indoor pool/leisure facilities.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
well never mind we have got the beach and sea sprots center,i would love to see the ddc try and move them up there.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Agree with Chris in #10. The artists impression in the Dover Express shows a facsimile town wall enclosing a series of white sheds. Less than inspiring and doing nothing to reunite the town with the seafront.
The article does say that this is only one of a batch of designs which have been drawn up so perhaps the best is yet to come.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
Thanks Roger and Pat.
I agree Ed, the joining of the town to the sea front is the ultimate goal here.
I have always felt that the rest of the site could wait for other investment if a suitable catalyst was provided, i.e. a new link to the sea front.
This whole 'lanes' idea is lovely but I have seen no scheme providing a suitable construct for this to date. You can't make street feel like the Brighton lanes by using big buildings and it is no use making small retail units if they are not all filled. I believe the trick is to provide the infrastructure for the area to evolve, after all this how areas like the Brighton lanes have come about.
Town planners have become too obsessed with making everything fit for purpose and as a result things have to be demolished when something does not work. The beauty of Victorian and especially Georgian properties is their agility to provide different types of space. Their proportions (and construction) allow them to become houses, flats, offices, B&Bs, bars, dentists. It is this diversity that gives character and why people like places like Deal, Whitstable and streets like Castle Street. They work at a human level and have evolved, they are the antithesis of the 'built for purpose' shopping centres, that turn shopping into a hobby or horror, rather than the basic essential pleasure it can be.
By no means am I saying build twee little Victorian replicas with Upvc sash windows, but at least build a development with capacity to evolve. I hope the new schemes will do this.
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
Pat -
You mentioned the designers had done some of the development work in Lincoln. We visited Lincoln (my old home) fairly recently and were most impressed.
The old streets and buildings near the cathedral are still the same, but the whole area has been improved, cleaned up and enhanced without altering the ambience and historical side at all.
If something like this is done with Dover it would be good.
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
"The old streets and buildings near the cathedral are still the same, but the whole area has been improved, cleaned up and enhanced without altering the ambience and historical side at all."
This I believe should be done to the "current" Town Centre, Kath. We have some lovely old buildings, but they've been allowed to become dilapidated and neglected. The Town needs brightening up, made cleaner and be more welcoming.
Roger
