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.
