Sunday 7 September 2008

reading, walking, talking and listening......

Spent yesterday doing all 4, thank goodness it was too miserable to do some gardening. A friend commented that all the work done to produce the 'summer look' has been wasted because of her inability to sit in the garden to admire her handywork. Can't disagree but my conservatory/dining area means I'm able to admire the greenery and colour no matter what the weather is doing. So I'm going to continue planting for a winter show....silly me?

I walked down Victoria Road to pick up a paper and noticed the completed Dormans Yard development seems to be occupied with the other housing development opposite; Victoria something well on the way to completion. Does anybody know why the junction between Bellevue Road and Victoria Road keeps being dug up, filled in and the road traffic controlled by lights. I know its to do with gas main replacement 'cos the pipes are yellow coloured but why's it taking so long?

Crossing into Boundary Road the used car showroom site is now completed as flats and occupied. Next to it the old 'Pike Shopfitters' site is now 'flattened' and what an area that covered! Presumably it has been earmarked for housing? On this side of the town we must be getting very close to the housing requirement for the area, hopefully the utilities required will be sufficient to keep everything flowing as normal! Looking across Hardres Street at the Aldi building I have to say, what a pleasure to see a local shop even if it is a 'multiple'. The old Invicta car showroom and service area never looked right there and always looked temporary. The style of the new Aldi building is totally in keeping with the area. The colours blending in with the old Gas Board building opposite in Boundary Road. That 'old gas works' site next door is still empty; it's an eyesore and with the gas holder still there, looks as though it will be some time before the land can be decontaminated and made ready for development. Please no industry, maybe some retail and social buildings set into open space. The whole area developed as a one light and open space there's plenty of 'space' to make it something special for the local inhabitants with a theme maybe linking it to an illustrious past and a very positive future.... Sorry, I'm rambling but you see what I mean and where I'm going in the 21st century scheme of things?

With all the additional building increasing the number of homes and utilizing the areas concerned to their utmost. Surely the new property rateable values generated must be increasing the local goverment income? But, all we hear about is services being curtailed, cut and the costs going up! Surely there must be a time when they go down or even stay the same with all these efficiency innitiatives being implemented. Have I got it wrong, have I got the wrong coloured glasses on or reading the wrong clues relating to the scale of economies being achieved?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With all the brownfield development sites available it makes you wonder why they are having to dig up perfectly good arable land on the island.

And if they need a larger site why not develop our useless airport?

Mitch said...

Without having 'any axe to grind' I would agree with you anon 11:15 Then I'm not a developer or land owner!
Just in my little patch there are a few 'brownfield' sites that can do with some thoughtful improvement but there's obviously no fast money in them......although as a sensible communal project I'm sure there'd be no losses incurred.