Gary39- Registered: 7 Jul 2017
- Posts: 454
#1
My name is ......... and I was a proud self employed trader at Stembrook lane shopping arcade and indoor market. I say was we have just found out that me and 49 other traders are to be kicked out, so the council can build a car park. Now we all knew that when the project started there was a possibility that we would have to leave this august. But we have been closed for 6 months, we have not been able to trade, some of us were new business so had no help from the government, so after not being able to trade, very few of us have any savings left to pay the extremely high rents in the empty shops in dover town. The project was set up to help small local businesses grow and move in to the high street. Covid put an end to that and now the council want us all out so they can have a new car park. If you have been to Stembrook lane and enjoyed you visit and think Dover needs a diverse shopping experience then please support us and lobby the councils town planning department. The people who had businesses at Stembrook lane are people from Dover. Please support you local shopping arcade and indoor market. Thank you Dover
Gary39- Registered: 7 Jul 2017
- Posts: 454
#2
This was found on the Dover for Disgruntled Facebook page.... Sadly it is either going to be a car park or a hotel.. Where will all the unique and independent traders go now.. So much for DCC investing in local people. surely they can change their minds?
Hope this is not true.
Arthur- Registered: 18 Nov 2020
- Posts: 455
#3
I feel very sorry for the traders but for the life of me I cannot fathom out why Dover needs another car park? Why does anyone go into Dover? What is there to buy?
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Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#4
Arthur, they probably get more revenue from a car park or even yet another hotel. Yet another daft DDC plan close down what is used and popular and replace with the unwanted or unnecessary.
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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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Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,321
#5
Do we assume that it also applies to Action Carpets?
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Andy B
- Location: dover
- Registered: 10 Nov 2012
- Posts: 1,829
#6
I do think they should at least give the traders the time closed due to the lockdown before they kick them all out.Perhaps they could find room for some of them in the Charlton centre on a similar sort of rent deal?
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Guest 1835- Registered: 3 Sep 2016
- Posts: 13
#7
If this development does go ahead could the ground floor be the new Stembrook market ? Do we really need a further car park or hotel ?
there is less and less reasons to visit dover centre.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
#8
Jan Higgins wrote:Arthur, they probably get more revenue from a car park or even yet another hotel.
Not sure DDC got any revenue from Stembrook. The 'old Co-op' was suddenly purchased by DDC a few years ago. I was a Councillor at the time and it was just announced as a fait accompli.
When I brought it up I was told it was all part of a cunning plan to extend the car park so Dover Castle visitors could use it (With a third of a million visitors a year English Heritage doesn't have the parking).
The visitors would obviously (sic) be flooding in to Dover's shopping center and St James' making the former even more vibrant and the latter even more successful.
The offer (dread word) would be enhanced by the cable car etc.
At this point in the conversation I believe I said 'Don't be so f**king stupid' and walked out.
The Stembrook shops were just a bit of feely touchy PR through Dover Big Local which had £1 million of money taken from stupid poor people (Lottery Fund) to blow so was no sweat to DDC who looked as though they were 'doing something' for the 'community' even if it was totally ineffective.
"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
#9
THE Cable car is part of a plan I gave to the D.D.C and DHB in the late 1990s it was then and still today a winner it would bring to Dover 1000s of visitors both town and the castle I was hoping it would be done in my life time but I do not know now I think it will be build but when? only time will tell on that one.It works in Germany and even in Scotland .
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
#10
Let's get real. The day of the High Street and the small trader has gone, sent off by Superstores and the excellent Amazon. Yes we'll all miss hours queuing in various shops to buy from their limited and overpriced range but somehow we've got over farriers and candlestick makers (other than scented ones! ) being consigned to the dustbin of history.
Stop wasting public money trying to stop the inevitable.
Meanwhile where are the start up spaces in Dover for the businesses of the future?
With more people wfh but not wanting to run a business from a laptop precariously balanced on the bed while wearing earplugs to keep the noise of loved ones at bay, THE thing needed in Dover is Start Up spaces.
Low rent 'cubicles' with a desk, filing cabinet, chair, high speed wi-fi, somewhere safe to lock a bike and a communal conference room where Generation X can start catching up with the rest of the world.
I've visited the ones in Folkestone
http://www.theworkshopfolkestone.co.uk/ and Sandwich Business Park Micro-Business Zone
https://discovery-park.co.uk/office-space-kent/#officespace-4.
Meanwhile what have we got in Dover? Bugger all.
THIS is the future and where DDC should be looking to investment ..................................
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"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Arthur- Registered: 18 Nov 2020
- Posts: 455
#11
DDC has come up with some ridiculous schemes but the cable car has to be the most barmy one of all.
Dover Fastrack is another white elephant- it’s really incredible how DDC fail to see the future- the past year has made a colossal difference to society- things won’t return to how they were. Commuting will not return to pre-pandemic levels. Shopping habits have been changing - hence why M&S, John Lewis, etc have been changing their business models. There’s also a new facility (at present limited to London) where you can have clothes purchases delivered to your home and the driver waits while you try on and return the items you don’t want- no sending back by post or courier. Additionally new service being trialled where you can order supermarket items via mobile and they’re delivered within 30 minutes. This is the future. We definitely don’t need cable cars or buses going nowhere. We do need a council that monitors what is happening and is able to respond- and that includes having the ability to change direction not continue blindly with plans developed when the world was different.
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Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,109
#12
Meanwhile what have we got in Dover? Bugger all.
I suppose, were I to point out that Dover has shedloads of high street businesses that one has to visit in order to purchase the experience - I'm thinking here of nail bars, bars and barbers, you'd throw something at me...
(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
#13
'Threading'. What's that all about eh?
"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,095
#14
Arthur wrote:This is the future.
No thanks. Were DDC part of the resistance, I'd dig out my flag and wave it for them. But they're not, and they're more on your side than you think. They just need the instructions.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,261
#15
They really need to change the syllabus at Dovers K college!
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Arte et Marte
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,261
#16
There is this:
https://co-teq.com/
Opened last summer, but doesn't seem to come up on office space searches (probably need to pay Google more)
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Arte et Marte
Arthur- Registered: 18 Nov 2020
- Posts: 455
#17
Did it ever have a syllabus?
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#18
This is my comment on FB, it would be a way to fill the empty shops in town........
When I lived in Beccles Suffolk a lot of the businesses shared the smaller shops with others effectively becoming mini arcades maybe all of you could do similar should you have to close. Definitely time landlords were responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their buildings, everything except for internal decoration.
Thinking of my landlord comment it really is time they took on maintenance responsibility for their properties instead of simply pocketing their exorbitant rents.
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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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Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
#19
Lucky the landlord still collecting 'exorbitant rents'.
Two years ago and pre-Corvid I was talking to councils in the north of England who said they were lucky if their commercial tenants were still paying their utility bills.
"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 3925- Registered: 28 Nov 2020
- Posts: 541
#20
Vic Matcham wrote:THE Cable car is part of a plan I gave to the D.D.C and DHB in the late 1990s it was then and still today a winner it would bring to Dover 1000s of visitors both town and the castle I was hoping it would be done in my life time but I do not know now I think it will be build but when? only time will tell on that one.It works in Germany and even in Scotland .
I hope this comment is meant to be a joke?!
