The current council leadership boasts about the development of the Sage concert hall, the Baltic art gallery and the Millenium Bridge. Each of these was conceived and brought forward under the last Leader of Gateshead Council George Gill. This is carefully forgotten now because George's political background was from the west of Gateshead rather than the centre.
Today's leadership should really be judged on the town centre redevelopment and the mass demolition of homes in Saltwell and Bensham. Here we have a slightly different story.
Many residents participated in surveys about what they wanted for a new town centre. One of the questions was; would you like large nationally known stores like Debenhams in the town centre? The answer would be yes please if you phrase a question like that. Officers of the council did presentations showing artists impressions and implying coffee shops would appear with internet connections, high fashion stores and continental bistros.
It's now a couple of years into the new town centre development. So we checked on progress.
When you have got your payday loan from the pornbroker one of the next convenient stores to spend your money is;
Many residents were surprised that the council didn't mention that having nationally recognised stores in the town centre was just an aspiration and not a firm plan. The street cafes and the bistros don't seem to have materialised. The only big national store we might get is Tesco - primarily because they own a lot of the land in the town centre.
Less than a mile away from the town centre is the cohesive community of Bensham. Streets of well planned late Victorian residences built ot a high standard for the Victorian craftsman who could afford to buy their own homes. Gateshead Council told residents 5 years ago that, just like the town centre, they had big plans. The shopping areas would be swept away and tree lined boulevards would replace shops. Whole streets would have their back lanes gated and new green arboretums would provide quality green space. New "family homes" with sumptuous gardens would replace ordinary flats and if the residents wanted to stay then Gateshead Council would help. Roads would be redesigned to make public transport more efficient ... and so on. They even had artists impressions of the new Bensham. Just 1200 homes would have to be bulldozed to provide this image of bliss.
Today there are no boulevards. No new homes. Residents have been "made offers they couldn't refuse" in order to move out. The master plan has 440 demlitions in mind and there are no plans for new building. Shop owners have watched their customers disappear as more people moved and many shops on Saltwell Road are struggling to survive.
The promise of cafe culture in the Town Centre and boulevards in Bensham have not been realised. Is it any wonder that the residents of Saltwell and Bensham have become sceptical and cynical when the new master plan is simply to demolish and grass over. No plan and no vision.
2 comments:
It's "pawnbroker". P-A-W-N. Like it says on the front of the shop.
A pornbroker is an entirely different thing.
Boy that was a spelling mistake.
Its corrected. That almost got us in trouble!
Nothing intended - a genuine (but mildly amusing) typo.
Post a Comment