When you think about it, the case is SO obvious and easy, yet the nimbys simply whine that Thanet is dying, yet protest when anything feasable is proposed to address that slow death.
KLM and Manston want more flights = people/freight = wealth creation = regenertion = PROTEST
Westwood = shops people WANT = people use shops and travel from afar = PROTEST
Phizer want new access road = protects jobs = PROTEST = jobs lost
Tesco at Arlington wanted by VAST majority of Thanet = jobs = increased footfall = opportunity = Nimby PROTEST = delay = possible jobs and opportunities lost
Pleasurama burns = opportunity = proposal for shops n flats = delay in recession = whining nimbys = PROTEST possible loss of viable development
I could go on, but why bother, the residents I am forced to share this lovely part of Kent with are SO naive and self centred they are unlikely to EVER see the big picture, and thus must be ignored.
Even Driver has abandoned them!
I agree with most of this, but the trouble with Pleasurama is that the site has been derelict for 15 years and we still don't seem any closer to getting anything built... I would support any reasonable development for the site, whether it's a hotel, housing, shops or funfair, as long as SOMETHING is done!
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the above and Peter's comment.
ReplyDeleteThere must be many more of us out there too. I suppose we are just too polite to make enough noise.
Ever since the 'No to Tesco' brigade have been banging on about the 'massive seafront store' I have been trying to get across the fact that the proposed store is NOT on the seafront [Unlike Tesco Sheerness which is almost on the sea wall!]
But the No lot have this mantra ... 'repeat a lie often enough and it may be believed'
Do they really think that the present decayed concrete ghetto around Arlington House is an attraction to any but the lowest life forms?
Col I might be miss quoting but a lie will travel half way round the world before the truth has got its pants on. Thanet peoples seem to be unable to as John says see the bigger picture. I remember the furore over the Ramsgate port road when I first moved to Thanet and by the time it was decided the world had moved on and the costs escalated and it ended up almost a waste of money and has been little used. TDC and Thanet residents always seem to be ten years behind the curve and loose out as a result.
DeleteCouldn't agree more Don! As a more longer standing resident like yourself, and unlike the noisy but worthless and clueless newcomers, we have some idea of the damage that has been done to Thanet by those who dogmatically object to every and all plans to improve Thanet and stop the slide into dereliction.
DeleteI agree Peter. I would wholeheartedly support the development of the site with a realistic self supporting and viable scheme. I can see nothing whatsoever wrong with the current scheme, apart from it hasn't been built yet!
ReplyDeleteIt has to be said that the laughably naive "lets have a park" brigade, really do need someone to sit them down, and carefuly explain to them basic economics, as they are are clearly utterly clueless, and FORS have lost all credibility thanks to poor ole Barry Jane's paranoia and scaremongering, and allowing Driver and his monkey to utterly co-opt their gullible little group.
I have to agree with you Col. The Nimbys at Arlington and their self improtant "leader" Oldfield have been shown to have no support whatsoever, and their arguments and whining shown to be clear lies, yet whine on they do. I think a basic understanding of economics on their part wouldn't go amiss.
John I had a conversation with someone the other day who recconed Arlington should be small shop units. When I said its been small and empty units all of the thirty years I have lived here they couldn't understand why people could not earn a living out of a shop with no customers saying a shop must be busy in the summer. They could not seen that a possible eight weeks trade would pay for fifty two weeks expense. Are these people real he had skin and was standing but no idea of how a shop makes and needs profit, he had no idea of costs involved and how to run a business.
DeleteAgain I find myself agreeing with you Don!
DeleteHere's a thing, I bet you've heard of a "anchor store", something like a Tesco's where people WILL go because that's where they WANT to shop, now, surround that store with some smaller shops, and guess what, they may well benefit from the footfall that Tesco's will generate!
I KNOW you will understand the point, sadly the vacuous nimbys have no clue what I'm talking about, any more that when you try to explain to them that being 200 yards from the seafront means it's NOT ON the seafront :-)