Re: Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire
Aaaaargh! Don't talk to me about the "I'm bored brigade" - having tried to motivate 10 - 12 year olds into doing something so that they won't be bored and getting grumbles about how boring it is going to be before they even start to do anything I get the impression that they get their main enjoyment in life from complaining about being bored. It seems to start at about the age of 10 and develops into a fully fledged total apathy by the time they are 18.
When I was a kid we used to go out there and FIND things to do. Maybe we had more imagination then because life wasn't handed to us on a plate with children's TV 24/7 and computer games etc.
My youngest daughter is learning to play guitar in an out of school type thingy as well as being part of a drama club. They've both belonged to a dance class for years and the older one attends a church youth activity once a week. She's also thinking about joing Buddies. In between that they organise things amongst their friends. They do so much they don't have time to be bored, and not all of it costs money.
I cannot see how not renovating old buildings and making them useful rather than allowing them to fall into decay and dereliction is going to help. Surely doing the revamping is what we need.
Accrington has already lost most of its worthwhile buildings of historical interest. Breathing a bit of life into what's left is better than moaning about what we haven't got.
As for the demolition of solid stone-built terraced housing in order to replace it with (often smaller) brick built boxes and not even Nori brick at that, it strikes me as a very short sighted waste of money.
Yes we need to provide for the youth of Hyndburn, but as Cashman says it matters not how many shiny new buildings we put up - they could have flashing lights and bells on - if the kids would rather hang around street corners being bored than actually go and get involved. We already have things which are not patronised so why build yet more to be ignored? We also need to think of the rest of the population and try to make Hyndburn more appealing to all ages and that includes decent housing and decent shops and some interesting places to go.
BTW - where would these guitar teachers (just one example) come from and who would pay their wages if the lessons were going to be offered for free? Oh, wait a minute, could it be financed by the council? Hmmmm, a council tax increase maybe?
|