Friday, August 25, 2006

 

Our Town.....

Let me take you for a short walk through our town. It won't take long and you will see why I and others would not want to spend any more time there than we have to.



This is the start of the town, and as you can see it's boarded up. This whole area is to be redeveloped ..... but when?



The old town is pedestrianised and is probably the busiest part of the town. It has the usual range of uninteresting shops. Estate Agents, Building Societies, Mobile Phone Shops, etc. etc. etc


There are a few interesting people who take clothes shopping very seriously. Unfortunately, not enough to make the town more inviting. Note the string of lights zig-zagging through the street. They're part of last years Christmas decorations.

Alma Square is the newer part of town. It was developed in the 1960's, but is now one of the areas due to be re-vamped under the reconstruction programme. Why so busy? Most of the shops are now empty.

And lastly, all that is left of the multi-story car park. The building behind, with the pictures of how it will all look, is due for demolition in October.

But we are lucky. We have city shopping twenty minutes away in Truro, or an hour away is Plymouth, with all the major retail outlets represented. I wonder what the £55 million (about $100 million) is going to buy us!


# posted by LePhare @ 12:04 AM
Comments:
Towns and cities are dying everywhere it seems, due to urban/surburban sprawl...it has been touted in my home state that "we" are trying recreate the town center, the multigenerational neighborhood, with church, school, shops all right there...but so far these only seem to be arranged for the upper 10% of the economic scale...the rest are still going to prefer to drive the miles to the overlarge, less expensive discount department stores, even though the poor do not have the transportation available so easily to them, so they end up paying more at the so-called convenience shops in the inner city......oops getting on my soapbox, will leave off before I say more.

thanks for sharing your home Ian.
# posted by Blogger Sunny Delight : 1:44 AM
 
This 'regeneration' has been on the cards for years. Now that a start has been made, it's been found that the original plans have been mislaid, and nobody knows where any of the services are.
I tend to be a supermarket shopper, but do support our local shops where possible. Many of our less able bodied need the 'local' and unless you have transport, getting around this area is very difficult.
# posted by Blogger LePhare : 11:44 PM
 
hahahahahaha you totally had me with the 'shopper' ... I went OMG and then realised the image was superimposed - thank you for the laugh I certainly needed it!!!

No big supersize stores here, we don't have the space and I tell you my jaw dropped when I went into my first full-size American supermarket. Egads the excess!!!

It was really hard trying to shop...there comes a time when there is TOO MUCH choice in life.

It looks like it does have some nice areas - and you can't beat being by the sea. My mum lives near Eyemouth and it's lovely to go down to see the still-working fishing community there. She actually lives IN Lower Burnmouth and they still have a small group of fishermen there who are amazing people.

Thank you for a) making me laugh out loud at work and b) showing me a little corner of England :)
# posted by Blogger Fiona : 10:26 AM
 
Superimposed? What do you mean? We all walk around like that, especially on warm days.......even the men.

I know some people that live just outside of Jedburgh, about 40 mls from Eyemouth.

And we ran a pub in Brixham, Devon, for 15 years, which still has quite a thriving fishing. industry.
# posted by Blogger LePhare : 11:43 PM
 
Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]