Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
is that jeff Robinsons wifes monica at the bottom
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Heard rumblings earlier that the application has been approved for some time and the meeting is just a smoke and mirrors job to show that the powers that be have been listening. That will probably come as no surprise to most people who have posted on this thread and on the planning application. I feel certain that the national press will be most interested if that is true, all around our coastline volunteer groups and local authorities desperately try to find ways of repairing/renovating their piers whilst Dover destroys one in perfect working order.
Judith Roberts- Registered: 15 May 2012
- Posts: 637
If this application is only about the street furniture and so on, I don't see that it makes a great deal of difference whether it is approved or not we still lose our access to the POW.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
This appears to confirm what most of us have been saying all along, there will be very little or no access to the pier after work is completed and DHB still claim we will get more seafront access than we have now.
http://www.dover-express.co.uk/g/story-28163964-detail/story.htmlGuest 1416- Registered: 20 Nov 2014
- Posts: 77
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.
A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,880
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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 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
First the pier is only closing till the work is done.
The pier will always be a pier till the end of time.
The public like now will have a free pier to walk along with a eating outlet and toilets .
The historic furniture will be put back into use ,some might even go back along the pier we will have to wait and see.But it will go back into use just like the gates long side the car park by the town hall.
Saying it will take away tourists is just not true we will see more cruise liners using the port bring more not less and if all the new shops etc opening they will stay in Dover +a lot of the crews already use the town for their shopping.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
And we all will live happily ever after.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
The pier will have more viewing points to see the ships and liners that come in and out of the port.
All this will be free to the public to see.As for swimming etc it will be the same then as it is now in fact one could say it could even be better .
I am also just a member of the public and a Dovorian born in 1942 so I have seen this great port of ours grow, more then most of you.
And it has been done by the D,H,B, if they had not done what has be done the port would be in a right old mess now .
But the port must still keep up with the times or other ports in the UK will take trade away from us.We need the cargo ships to call as well as the ferry, and liners it brings work to our own workers. Again it has been the D.H.B. over many years that is keeping our sea front looking like it does I was only walking along there and the pier this morning ,thinking to myself how lucky we are in having a sea front like we have to walk along .We are a major working port within the EU and the world and lets hope it stays that way for ever.With all what is happing in Dover now and port it will as I have said many times the in place to live and shop.Dover has been waiting over 40years to see this big change in Dover ,it is now happing so get behind it. We have see companys come and go from Dover and the mines closing ,Paper mill, D.EW. Parker pens, And many more some of them house hold names, But still one is with us and it was the very first one Dover had and still here today and it is our great port.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Dover needs members of the public talking like Mr Mcsweeny like a hole in the head.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
we need another cargo terminal like we need a hole the head,
well said howard.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
You would not say that if you worked there or was looking for work easy just siting at home running it all down.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,880
I see someone's head is still stuck firmly in the proverbial sand, maybe #90 should read.
Dover needs members of the public talking like Mr Matcham like a hole in the head.
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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 643- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,321
Yes well said Howard. Also Jan and Brian.
When oh when will VM put a sock in it and stop making up stories to suit himself.
There's always a little truth behind every "Just kidding", a little emotion behind every "I don't care" and a little pain behind every "I'm ok".
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I have this vision of the jet setters sipping Pimms from a bistro on the pier watching the sun setting behind the warehouses accompanied by the orchestral sounds of fork lift trucks loading and unloading containers.
We will be the new St Tropez.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
if that's the case howard,we could stick a few palm trees along the pier.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,880
Howard and Brian.
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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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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,546
Sounds more like a quote from Neil Rix of Rix Scaffolding than Neil Rix of the town council. Still, should at least keep Neil in DHB contracts for the future.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
So it is only me thats supports it then!
As I said weeks ago it will happen and it is the best way for Dover,we must stop looking backwards,
Dover for once is leading the way with now both councils and the D.H.B. working with each other for the very first time,I take my hat off to them and say thank you it is the way forward bring work,jobs, more trade for the shops.
