Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,560
On the front page of the Dover Express there a comment from a director of the company that runs the leisure centre and he says "...until a replacement leisure centre can be built."
I haven't heard anything along these lines before.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I think it was said to stress the point that there is not much anyone can do to improve the current one, certainly no money for a new one. Can't remember anyone saying anything nice about the leisure centre.
Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,820
It was fine when first built but that was in the 1970s but its so dated now.Definatly time for a rebuild or a major refurbishment.I went there last year and it was like stepping back in time to my schooldays.
Guest 723- Registered: 12 Sep 2011
- Posts: 40
Go for a swim every Friday, seems OK to me.
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,560
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Andy B- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,820
It could be refurbished,not just a paint up n a few new tiles but properly done.I dont think that the buildings are too bad and its in a good easy to reach place.As i mentioned before on this thread,the last time i went there it was like going back to my school days as its all very dated but i suppose nowdays its probably easier to just knock it down and start again.
Judith Roberts- Registered: 15 May 2012
- Posts: 637
Does anyone know where the possible new sites are? It is very dated and buildings of that era weren't built to last, but it is busy and well used despite the tired building.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
I think this is a good idea if it means bigger and better but not if it simply means more of the same just new.
http://www.dover-express.co.uk/leisure-centre-set-Whitfield/story-27549753-detail/story.html-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 1266- Registered: 8 May 2014
- Posts: 381
Sensible plan. The population of dover has been falling significantly over the years whilst Whitfield population will only grow.
Jack of Hearts
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,560
I don't see how the continual pushing of moving things (football club, leisure centre, housing, hospital, etc) to Whitfield can help Dover.
Perhaps it would be an idea to enlarge Whitfield so that it reaches Deal to make one town. Then Dover could be demolished to make a lorry park.
Guest 1266- Registered: 8 May 2014
- Posts: 381
Karlos, you have seen the secret plans!
Jack of Hearts
Guest 1103- Registered: 3 Nov 2013
- Posts: 759
I think the Leisure centre never really been maintained very well and that is why its in a state as it is. I have been to Leisure centres which are wayyyyy older than the Dover one. It needs refurbished and deep cleaned and keep maintenance at the top..
Job done :)
Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Maya Angelou ☺🌈🌄🌌🌏🌍🌎
Guest 752- Registered: 21 May 2012
- Posts: 25
If you want to see a dirty rundown leisure centre try Tides in Deal. Yuk!
Guest 1555- Registered: 23 Jul 2015
- Posts: 29
Why cannot we include the present Leisure Centre site in the Burlington House development where besides the new Leisure centre there could be a Ten-pin bowling alley complex which includes indoor soccer and cricket facilities for our youth, Cinemas? And a shopping Mall for all, without the junk-food outlets. Working people are under pressure today to find activities which include the family environment from the old to the young, especially so the young who are struggling to cope.
Dover is fast becoming a town of unacceptable traffic congestion. It needs a bypass of some sort either a tunnel or lanes added to the Jubilee Way to funnel the traffic quickly out to bypass town. If the government can contemplate spending five to six billion on refurbishing the Parliament buildings it can contemplate spending the taxpayers' money on the Gateway to England, which to me, as a suffering Dover resident, is more important than the subsidised comfort of pampered politicians, over 800 titled who are unelected, who never seem to be troubled by AUSTERITY!
It is about time the people came first, as it is the people who pay most of the taxes, and it is the people who should be benefiting from them. The present government must not be allowed to put their pet projects first before the needs of the people. They must not be allowed to override the County Councils' decisions as to other decisions, such as Fracking for gas. The latter is a democratic decision taken by those who have voted their respective County Councillors in and those decisions must be respected, or we may as well have a Dictator running the country...which I hope will never happen in my lifetime.
I do not hesitate to ask why we need a central government anyway. The democratically elected County Councils in Britain, which I believe includes Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, working together, would do the job just as well, or in some cases even better... There must be billions spent on politicians we do not need. If firms can cut down on workers and implement zero/hour contracts, we the people can cut down on over the top politicians... That way we will only have politicians interested in democracy for Britain and not those interested only in their own creature comforts.
I would rather see a good all-round Leisure Centre in the Dover District than a traffic gridlock that can only become worse. Dover belongs to Britain. Its history says so and that history must be respected by those who would wish to turn it into a traffic island roundabout, against the wishes of its people.
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I have been in Dover since coming over from India in 1947 when all the British nationals had to leave. I went to St Mary's School in Queen Steet Dover, which no longer exists. I do not like the changes being done to the Dover seafront by people who do not really have the town's people at heart. I used to play in the rock pools with my twin brother under the prince of Wales Pier and had my first job in Dover painting the wrought iron legs, which are now filled in with concrete.
I feel a sense of loss at what The Dover Harbour board is contemplating. If the Yacht Marina is moved out of the inner harbour and into the bay it will become just another rubbish dump. It is obvious that big business is moving in against the wishes of the Dover people.
I worked at the Dover Harbour Board for thirteen years on the small boats before I retired in 2003 as a survey and environmental cox'n. The last ten yearssurveying the bottom of the harbour and its approaches. I know the tides and the bottom better than my own hand...and a lot of silt moving out there. If they fill the Granville Docks in, where I used to help unload fruit boats in the good old days. It will just become another huge lorry park in the future.
I also think the small boats are open to abuse by the swarms of immigrants coming over from France and further afield. With fewer customs, once the immigrants twig there is another way in they will take it. I have been to sea in three Merchant Navies since 1959 and have always believed Britain, being an island should have had a container fleet Merchant Navy manned by british sailors, the best in the world, trading with its Commonwealth. The Greek fiasco has proved the politicians cannot be trusted,nor the big Banks, to have any intrest in the working people of Britain, only in themselves... Who owns the town, is it business interests in Europe, the Harbour Board, or is there a hidden agenda. What is the plan for the Western approaches from Shakespeare Cliff to the Admiralty pier. QUESTIONS have to be asked and honest ANSWERS given. Already European countries have huge interests in our utilities and other, used to be publicily owned, businesses. We may as well not had a war, not when we are being slowly taken over by foreign interests. Britain was once a country to be proud of and brave people defended its honour and died for it. I am seventy-seven years old now and retired. I still remember the gaps left in the high street by German bombers, and those Dover people whomust have lost their lives there. Just what did my father and those brave people fight for? I had the honour of sailing with two or three merchant seamen in the fifties and sixties, who had actually been in the water a number of times after being torpedoed. Over fifty thousand seamen died and thousands of our Navy, Airmen, and Army died for our freedom. Will the young remember them when those left are gone. I no longer free free any more, only a sense of foreboding for our younger generation.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The proposed new leisure centre will be paid for out of public funds so they will look at the best value for money location. The DTIZ complex will be filled by businesses looking to make a healthy profit, any leisure facilities like ten pin bowling, skating etc will only be added if someone thinks it is financially viable.
On the subject of county councils having more power I would disagree, they are even more remote than central government. Most people know who their MP is but don't who their county councillors are. It is very rare that reports of debates and decisions at County Hall get published in the media.
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,259
John while you make many valid points, the topic of what is happening in the future of our leisure centre isn't really the place for a political rant at our elected and unelected government.
As to the leisure centre I think a complete rebuild in it's present location is the right option, there's little enough to draw people in to the town centre as it is and would complement the new St James development.
Arte et Marte
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
I would like to see a new Leisure Centre with an Olympic size swimming pool that would entice the serious swimmers from other areas to train who would then hopefully spend their money in this district.
This would mean moving up to Whitfield simply because of the amount of land needed for the building and car parking space..
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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 1266- Registered: 8 May 2014
- Posts: 381
John ~ plans already advanced for an all round Leisure centre in the district along with the new youth hub
http://yourleisure.uk.com/tides-leisure-centre-development-plans/Jack of Hearts
