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This is an open letter to the Chairman and members of DDC planning committee who will decide on the 19th November 2015 on planning application 15/00627 re the future of Prince of Wales Pier.
I am sure you are aware that the fate and future happiness of Dover and more than one generation of Dovorians rest on which way you vote on the aforementioned planning application. Before you make your final decision I would humbly suggest that possibly you would like to do a couple of things, if you have not already done them, to see all sides of the picture.
1. Please try and take the time to take a walk along the Prince Of Wales Pier and just ask the people you meet one simple question "Do you want the pier to close?"
2. Read in full all the objections submitted to the DDC planning application 15/00627, if you do so you will see the depth of love the people of Dover hold their pier in, I have read them all and never have I read such truly heartfelt objections to any planning application.
I think once you have done this and re-looked into the planning history of this planning application and the PR spin that has been put on it by Dover Harbour Board, it will become apparent that the reality of Dover Harbour Board's plan is to close any daily access to the pier for the public permanently and maybe only give escorted public access once or twice a year, if that, and only because this gives the impression that the public will still have access to the pier. Also if you read the small print of the plan, it is self-evident that Dover Harbour Board do not have any intention to replace the historic furniture removed from the pier back on the pier once the work on the new cargo port is completed.
The Prince of Wales Pier is one of the only free historic public access assets that Dover possesses that is open and used 52 weeks a year by hundreds of locals and tourists alike every week for jogging, walking, fishing, dog walking, taking tea at the sweet cafe at its end or just using it as a great camera point for photos of the white cliffs and the castle. The pier is also an important and irreplaceable recreational asset for the disabled in our community.
The loss of public access to the pier on a daily basis will rip the heart out of this community, it will badly affect some local business and remove what has been for over 100 years a place of great free pleasure for the people of Dover.
Also there is the question of the historic importance of the pier, and yes it was mucked about with
in the 70s before proper planning protection was in place, but that does not detract from its historical past, especially in WW1 and WW2; the pier has survived through two world wars, countless storms to stand proud for the people of Dover to enjoy, now only to be possibly felled by an ill-conceived building plan that will only cause heartache to the people of Dover and stifle any real chance of future re-generation for the town for years to come.
Please do not play into the hands of a Harbour Board that has no regard for British historic assets or the people of their community.
Before you cast your votes please just take a few minutes to reflect on all the bad planning mistakes made by past DDC planning committees that have defaced the town to the point it is now, which has created a drive-through town, where no one wants to spend local or tourist money, "stop for an hour look at the Castle and go", is how the town is seen. We can't even get the passengers from the cruise liners to spend their money, as the majority of shops are not geared to attracting the tourist market, an untapped and wasted revenue stream and source of employment the town has missed out on for a number of years.
Will the building of a cargo port change this? NO! Will other uses of the site do this? YES!
If you vote yes to this application, you will be voting for more pollution, more traffic , less tourist, less swimming and water sports space, the loss of more public beach, a marina the town does not need or want and the loss of the Prince of Wales Pier and two historic docks.
Do you really think any retail or catering business of any note would consider taking premises on a marina pier that backs on to a 24/7 cargo port? The fumes, noise and HGV traffic would not make this a pleasurable retail or dinning experience. Also do you think any buyers of the new high end houses or guests at the new 5 star hotel proposed on the western heights will enjoy the noise, pollution, both atmospheric and light, from a new cargo port below them, not to mention foreground views of an ugly 24 hour a day working cargo port?
Please, councillors, step back and take a deep breath, adjourn the meeting and let the people of Dover decide the pier's fate in a town referendum, don't blindly follow the DHB as they drag the town over the edge of our beloved White Cliffs and drop us into years of newly created ugliness, non-regulation and financial oblivion.
After talking with many people in Dover it seems the consensus of opinion is that Dovorians really want a town that looks forward to new technological innovations, aspirational architecture with any new building coupled with a town that cares for its architectural heritage and harmonises that into the 21st Century vernacular, not a town that wastes prime water front land and destroys itself and its historic assets all for the sake of instating a soon to be eclipsed form of last century cargo shipment infrastructure, that will hold the true regeneration of Dover back by another twenty to thirty years.
For once just look into the people of Dover's faces and see and listen to what they really want.