Whitebirk planning application.

[garinda]

I think the housing is a good idea. When I moved back here I would certainly have considered a loft type apartment in the town centre.

Sadly, unlike in most other parts of the country, there aren't any.

 

[katex]

Sorry Gayle, ya' still got yer aesthetic, arty head on .. not the business head.

You have to think of the catchment and, as Garinda has already tried to put the point across of geographics .. we do not harbour that type of clientele.

Would help if M&S and Boots could extend a little too.

Sort of agree about the evening culture, as mentioned, hope Ken Horkins plan for a wine bar on Church Street will be a little more open to the street, etc., but the drinkers are not spending money in the shops. The evening culture/apartments would just follow, even specialist shops would bounce off the nucleus, maybe around Warner Street .. our 'South Quarter' (probably got that wrong geographically}.. gotta' start realistically.

 

[garinda]

There needs to be better controls about what sort of shop fronts are allowed - i.e. no back lit signs, no garish colours, all in keeping with a certain style - even the big boys curb their usual garish styles when they're in upmarket towns.

Agreed, but that should also apply to any new buildings as well, so we don't end up with Toy Town architecture, topped off by a French chateuesque roof, that the council allowed to be built on the site of the old outside market.

 

[garinda]

Love the idea of Accy being a haven for artists and artisans, but as someone who has actually run several, successful retail businesses, I feel it is even more wishful thinking, and not something that would be economically viable. As stated earlier, there are very few 'arty' shops in St Ives, despite the hoardes of tourists, and a sizable artist community.

I was chatting to the woman who runs the nearest thing we have to an antique shop in Accy, in the Victorian Arcade, and until we went in, and only taken forty quid in a week. Not much of a living wage, is it?

 

[Gayle]

I disagree about starting realistically, you have to be bold in order to attract consumers - just being like all the other towns won't cut it anymore. The physical size of Accrington means that it can't compete with Blackburn and Burnley so instead of attempting to it should try to be something different.

I do have a business head on Katie but I think you have your rose coloured specs on for the good old days. Why should Accrington town centre be a shopping centre - just because it always has been. That's failed so now it's time to be a bit radical and try something different.

 

[Gayle]

It doesn't have to be 'arty' - just specialist shops.

 

[garinda]

Well rather you than me, sitting in a shop all day selling pot pourri, and a few candles.

 

[Gayle]

What about visitor attractions? Even small ones like the old clock brought people in but bigger ones like Eureka or Sea Life or something on a smaller scale but you get the idea.

 

[katex]

Think I have got my very modern head on Gayle .. not living in the past at all, as were more specialised shops then. High street shops are the modern era.

Think you are trying to create a Utopia, and as things stand at the moment, will not happen.

 

[Gayle]

As things stand!!!!!

We have to stop thinking about 'as things stand' and aim for something different.

 

[Ianto.W.]

This town was built by town center retailers, when we were all on a more level playing field, no cars walking to the shops was a day out to savour, Saturday with 'Uncle Dick' after a feast of films at the Odeon. How long have the likes of 'Bramwells' made sure you and yours had a piece of fish, DO WE NOT OWE THE LIKES OF THEM SOME DEGREE OF LOYALTY?

 

[Gayle]

Absolutely Ianto.

Bramwells would come under the category of 'specialist' shops. The town was built by specialist shops - Bramwell's, Wardleworths etc etc then a few of the big guns came in Principles, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons etc and took up valuable retail space. So they built the Arndale so that the could squash more of them in. This pushed the price up for smaller independent shops and so they closed and moved out. Then the big guns realised that they couldn't sustain the place all on their own so started closing down or moving into smaller spaces.

 

[Uncle Mick]

I may be a bit thick here, but why would Next want to move from their large store by Blackburn Ice Rink to a large store at Whitebirk which has a much poorer transport system and greater traffic congestion ?

 

[Gayle]

I don't think they would move - which in a way proves that they were trying to get the Accrington £ and not the Blackburn one.

 

[katex]

Well, think we agree to disagree

I would love to see the town that you describe Gayle, but got to make it commercially viable in the first instance. Next was only an example by the way, but we punters do love 'em, men or women.

These young folks not interested in the Bramwells, Wood Tobacconists and so forth, but attracting them to what they want will overspill to build others around them. We are not initially a town like Hebden Bridge, Skipton or Clitheroe which is a tourist attraction in the first degree, and would be difficult to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

As before, all about keeping our folks in ... not competing with Blackburn or Burnley.

Seem to be two ends of the poles .. think we should meet in the middle you and I and could get some sorta' compromise, obviously, we both care about our township ...HYNDBURN !! (any opportunity )


This is the site you should be studying:-

Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres - Communities and Local Government

Pity you didn't make Councillor Gayle (meant genuinely) .. I would have been your appendage, or whatever they call the 'escort' to the Mayor .. whoops off thread .. why do they have to have one of those anyway ? All extra cost like.

 

[Gayle]

Perhaps we're both talking about the same thing except one is the chicken and one the egg - which will come first?

 

[Lilly]

Pity you didn't make Councillor Gayle (meant genuinely) .. I would have been your appendage, or whatever they call the 'escort' to the Mayor .. whoops off thread .. why do they have to have one of those anyway ? All extra cost like.[/quote]

As I understand it if the Mayor is unmarried then he/she can appoint a Mayor's Consort as Mayoress so no matter who is Mayor we will still have a Mayor and Mayoress,no extra cost.

 

[Gayle]

It just means that when the Mayor isn't available there's a spare to attend events. The Mayoress (or consort) also takes on their own duties - for example when Miles Parkinson was Mayor we invited his wife the Mayoress to one of our women's event.

 

[katex]

It just means that when the Mayor isn't available there's a spare to attend events. The Mayoress (or consort) also takes on their own duties - for example when Miles Parkinson was Mayor we invited his wife the Mayoress to one of our women's event.

Yeh, but how disappointing, who wants second best.

Like inviting the Queen and getting Helen Mirren.

Hey, if you had made Mayor, would Chris have attended the women's events then, if you were not available ? (sure he would have loved it) ...

 

[katex]

Perhaps we're both talking about the same thing except one is the chicken and one the egg - which will come first?

Probably the Ugly Duckling, who would have been lurking in the wings...