A little light reading.
http://www.purbeck.gov.uk/people__organisations/purbeck_comm
unity_partnership/community_plan_for_purbeck.aspx
Just in case.
http://tinyurl.com/ks3bwd
Our Community Plan.
Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 12:51 PM
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47 comments:
I just tried to download it and it is split into 3 sections, the third link is dead.
The only way I could get the whole thing was to use the 'Word' link.
But don't worry if you haven't got Word - cuz it's pdf anyway.
Recently I've found myself swearing rather a lot, so in order to address this I've come up with new swear words
1 Mild
Oh, Purbeck!
2 Moderate
Oh, PDC!
3 STRONG
Oh, Purbeck District Council!
A not very wonderful read, but that is the "Dorset Assoxaiteon of Parish and Town Councils (Purbeck Area)" mentioned on page 22. Sounds like something Greek or is Mr Assoxaiteon an Albanian perhaps.
When I read documents like this I am always filled with wonderment because they always say
1 The writers have obtained the views of residents about what the place should be like.
2 Tourism is the keystone of the economy.
But they never mention asking the views of the tourists on whose spending so many of us rely. Its like a car manufacturer never asking buyers what they want of a car. Oh, just a minute, did someone say Rover?
OK I'm a tourist of Swanage and my verdict is:
Fantastic natural beauty
Grim hotels, B&Bs and shops.
Really grim.
Thats interesting. Without naming names are is there any particular type of shop you don't like e.g. tacky gift shops full of junk. or is it all of them, i.e. lack of national chains.
Swanage seems to spiral lower and lower. The folk who peddle their wares to the summer tourists probably have an interest in maintaining this status quo rather than reinventing themselves as purveyors of excellence and value. I read the Which? Good Food Guide again with disappointment that Swanage doesn’t even get a 1 out of 10 for any of its restaurants (That’s “capable cooking, with simple food combinations and clear flavours”). A decent pasty shop would perhaps be a start.
Is it just me or has the link:
"Purbeck Community Plan chapters 9-12"
been omitted?
How can you expect retailers to go upmarket if the place is full of people who expect to spend pennies. Until something is done to attract a more affluent group of tourists this will not change. Every tuesday the market brings large numbers of low spenders here. Apart from buying a cup of tea and a 10p postcard they do nothing for the economy. When this topic was aired on swanageview a while ago it was clear that there is an element who look upon attracting anybody wealthier or more cultured than themselves as a personal attack on their values. How can we escape from the pile them high and sell them cheap mentality?
Well for a start we need to do nothing to discourage second home owners, instead give them tax breaks to let their properties when they are not using them. We need to revisit the possibility of a marina and working harbour. The pedestrianized Town streets need to become a centre of retail excellence. The car parks need to be closed and park and ride become the norm, (more out of Town parking needed). The standard of accommodation needs to be raised significantly. The change from reliance on day trippers to real tourists must be managed carefully, and need not take away the family image of the resort. Most of all we need some consensus, leadership and support for the move from mass seasonal tourism to targeted markets of affluent individuals visiting for longer periods and seasons.
"Most of all we need some consensus, leadership and support for the move from mass seasonal tourism to targeted markets of affluent individuals"
I agree entirely, however, there is a marked reluctance by local businesses to put in the investment needed for this. Here is a pertinent example. If you look though the documents on the pdc website relating to the planning application for the kiosk down by the quay (aka oyster bar) you will see that when the council tried to lead Mr Storer in the direction of building a modern pavilion to house his enterprise he demurred on the grounds of cost. How can we get anywhere until local businesses have the vision to take the town forward?
Knocking day trippers has a very long pedigree. Writing in the 1930s the artist Paul Nash dismissed the crowds coming from the steamers as "Quite beyond description".
For several decades official analyses of tourism have spoken of the need to "convert" day trips into overnight stays. Is it as simple as that though? To start with a very high proportion of day trippers live within Dorset. Someone who comes over from Canford Cliffs to give their dog a run along the beach and to enjoy the time warp experience is hardly going to book in for the weekend.
There is a significant opportunity for Swanage to be perceived as the historical and cultural quarter of the Poole/Bournemouth conurbation. We are already the envy of many in the arts over there. The fact that we do not have a modern concrete and glass homogenised shopping centre is also an enormous asset. There are several hundred thousand people who can get here in an hour or so. Why are we not targeting the 10% with most disposable income?
11.35. If you look at the front of last week’s advertiser he (Storer)apparently has plans in next month for just such a modern glass building, see:
http://www.purbeck.gov.uk/planning/PlanAppDisp.asp?RecNum=34735
But in August the application for the retention of his jolly flag poles was refused as “naff”, despite the council ones in the Square. I think Swanage Town Council raised no objection to either application.
Actually no he does not. His current application is to replace the thatch and wooden supports with glass and steel. You need to download the documents from pdc and read the account of the various meetings they had with him. He was asked to come up with a comprehsive new design and also asked for something modern rather than a pastiche of period styles but said that this would be too expensive in the current climate. This is a little odd as he has been very busy all summer.but it illustrates my point about the reluctance of local businesses to invest. The reaction of the planning officers was that replacing the current improvised structure with a permanent version of the same thing is not the answer. It is worth taking the time to read through the documents rather than just Mr Storer's widely promulgated and one sided version. Unfortunately there appear to be hundreds of people in Swanage who think that just about any development that will make money is acceptable.
Thanks for that I had not read the architectural statement thing before. Why don't PDC label the application pages better?
It reads as though the parties are poles apart. So if he goes to appeal presumably the thatch will remain for another year?
From his point of view I can see that he wouldn't want to spend £100K's on a new building if it didn't improve the profitability. Perhaps the council should provide the incentive of allowing a couple of flats or a elevated restaurant above?
Having anything above the ground floor was specifically ruled out at one of the meetings. The rationale for this is that there is a diminution in the height of the buildings as you get nearer the sea.
Like Quayside Court next to the two storey Angling Centre and the single storey bankers you mean?
Maybe something much higher would be appropriate on the Quay in the way a steeple finished a church?
Thats what it says in the documents relating to this application. I am not making it up. Have you read them?
There is no policy behind "diminution in the height of the buildings as you get nearer the sea."
It,s a story made up by a planning officer. An architect can have whatever built there with the approval of the committee or a govt inspector. The next appointee as case officer may well have an alternative opinion. We should not have too much respect for these West Port House Mandarins whose policies change with the wind.
This has more to do with the lack of a design brief for developments in the Swanage conservation area. This needs to be developed, with due consultation with the public, and published to property owners in the area to give them some guidance on the direction in which they can move. The present situation, of vague and ambiguous planning documents and a planning permission system that is entirely reactive, leads to the absurd situation we have now with officers and members able to interpret the rules in whatever direction they choose.
I know it sounds rather precious but I do think we have something of value in the character of this part of the town and it is a tragedy that this is so under-appreciated by some of those with businesses in that area.
The original kiosk was an ugly mistake, this seems to be accepted now, however, simply wrapping something round it is no answer. Mr Storer refers to it as a restaurant now. Why should he develop a shanty building for his business when every other restaurant has to be properly constructed? They appear to cope with the capital costs well enough.
8.19
Your post reads like a breath of fresh air! Which ever planning policy you read, they are all intentionally ambiguous (confirmed by the inspector) so that they can be agreed and refuted and spun round and round to meet the requirements of the planning officers, and planning board at any given time. Settlement boundaries can follow arbitrary routes, even moving about randomly to meet the required needs of the developer.
I could go on and on, things can only get better!
There appears to be a lot of local “shanty town” restaurants on the coast which do very well attracting tourists and employing people. Think WestBeach in Bournemouth, Hix Oyster and fish House in Lyme, Riverside in West Bay, Crab House Café in Weymouth, the fish place in Burton Bradstock etc. Just because the restaurant scene in Swanage is dead and dying doesn’t mean that other businesses shouldn’t evolve to meet people’s needs. I bet the Pier Head café is the next to see the business opportunity of serving good food al fresco, and closing the Lower High Street would allow all the pubs and restaurants to participate too. The council can charge licences for this. The Square would make a magnificent serviced food court.
I used the term shanty because what it resembles is something in a third world slum. The other restaurants range from a large rendered building surrounded by extensions in the case of West Bay to a single floor wooden structure like a fisherman's hut in on the beach overlooking Chesil Beach Weymouth. None of them are a kiosk with random diy additions.
I think the oyster bar is an excellent business concept, however, it does need to be carried on in a suitable building.
A small building to replace the Pierhead cafe surrounded by outside eating areas is a splendid idea. unfortunately the other Mr Storer has spent the last twenty years making planning applications for flats and rows of houses on this site that would cover it from one end to the other despite being told several times by the planners that only a building with about the same footprint as the existing one would be acceptable. He maintains that the existing building is beyond restoration although if it was in fact so decayed that there was a danger of collapse he would have been made to demolish it. Again there is a great deal of reading on the pdc website about the planning history of the site.
Having followed this and other planning sagas locally for many years it seems to me that the system fails because it is entirely a negative filter. There is in fact no plan in the sense of a document setting out where we should be at some point in the future. We need both design statements for the conservation area and an economic strategy for Swanage both of which need to be brought forward hand in hand with the community and the businesses that will deliver the latter. The problem with the planning system and the conservation area is that the people on the ground here do not feel they are in possession of either and they are perceived as impositions from above rather than vital tools for bringing about future prosperity.
As a former businessman I have sympathy for the Quay owner. His business started as an ice cream and shellfish stall. People don’t buy whelks etc like they used to, and ice cream can be purchased all over. The business seems to me to have evolved much quicker than the rest of Swanage. It’s very difficult to know the building you need until it has been tried out. Hence I suppose the various additions in vinegar and brown paper to keep expenses to a minimum and allow ease of change. An elegant building to replace the existing and appease the planners could turn out quite as unpractical as the original stone kiosks concept. The more I think about it if they could be persuaded to tidy up the roof maybe with some sort of tented structure the whole thing could carry on as it is.
PDC seems to have a history of picking on little people. I’m thinking of restricting the hours of the kebab shop, the signs outside the Purbeck Hotel, the uproar when the Snack Bar applied for a for a licence. But how clever can these guys be who put an old peoples home opposite the White Horse, Quayside Court in front of the Royal Victoria Hotel, and left us with a marina housing complex 1/3 finished?
If you read the conservation mans comments:
http://www.purbeck.gov.uk/Planning/Web%20Importer%20Attachments/34735/0000EA10.PDF
it appears the council are being neither helpful or be prepared to compromise. Perhaps a new architect needs to make a fresh start. Any suggestions?
You credit pdc with rather too much power. Most of these had nothing to do with them. The Haven ground to a halt because the company developing the marina could not get the Harbour Bill they needed for it through the House of Lords and then went bust when the property market had one of its periodic collapses, the wardened flats are there because the land was donated by its owner to the housing association. Its hard to see what planning grounds existed for turning the planning application down when almost every building nearby has flats on its upper floors. I don't recall ageism being a planning consideration. As for the ghastly bulbous plastic beer adverts outside the Purbeck...well if you think they enhanced the conservation area I have to question your judgement. The restriction on the late opening hours of the kebab resulted from complaints about noise and showed the council responding to the public. I do not recall pdc objecting to the licence for Snackbar although there were voices raised against it in the town. That leaves the dreadful Quayside Court which I have no intention of defending. At least it looks a little better with a pitched roof than with a flat one.
Why any development of this site which had been a garden was ever permitted bewilders me.
The point about the town evolving is an interesting one but taken to its logical conclusion would mean all commercial developments being as cheap and tacky as possible in case circumstances change. I don't think that argument can be sustained.
There does seem to be reluctance to discuss how change will impact on businesses here. We know for example that pubs are closing all over the country and that the population is ageing. We do seem to have a lot of reliance on pubs which market themselves to the young with no discussion of how the use of these buildings is going to adapt to changed circumstances. PDC's rejection of the application to turn the Purbeck into shops and flats did not exactly help here. Again this is an area of common concern omitted from the community plan.
I can't see much to disagree with in http://www.purbeck.gov.uk/Planning/Web%20Importer%20Attachments/34735/0000EA10.PDF and in particular the remarks about the appearance of the proposed structure in the winter months is a concern. The existing building gets surrounded by wire mesh screens in the winter. These look dreadful. I challenge anyone to find anything prais-worthy in them but in particular they demonstrate Mr Storer's lack of concern for the visual impact of his business at what is in all respects a "key" location, if you will excuse the pun.
I still think this is all to do with punishing Mr Storer for showing some entrepreneurial drive and daring to be a little different. If the thatch is torn down I presume he will just put temporary tables and chairs with parasols or awnings where it was and carry on as ever. Hardly a great victory for the council, more an opportunity lost.
12.36
I believe fencing has not been put up for two years since the thatch has allowed a much longer opening season and the rear shutters. The business was open on Christmas day and NY day!
I have no doubt that if Mr Storer has his plans approved he will, before too long, extend his opening season by surrounding the structure with patio doors to make it weather tight.
I fail to see why his initiative should be exercised without following the same rules other businesses have to abide by. None of his supporters, or the man himself, have published a word explaining how what he wants to have there is suitable for a conservation area. They seem quite unable to understand what purpose the designation serves.
Well what does it serve? Take the Royal Vic - in the con area and a listed building: Doors and windows changed all over. Balcony removed, advertising signs left and right, terrible service pipes crawling all over the outside.
I agree entirely. I have asked pdc about the vic and in particular the gubbins over the entrance to the east bar. I also asked whether they do anything to monitor the conservation area regularly. Strangely enough I have not had a reply on this point.
You seem to imply that because one property has had changes not appropriate to the conservation area the whole concept should be jettisoned. I keep coming across this argument which is expressed in terms of "x is a horrible building therefore y should be permitted."
It is nonsense.
Its because its one rule for one and one rule for another. Little old lady in Corfe changes her windows for UVPC because she is cold in the Winter and gets clobbered ny PDC. Landlord in Swanage dismembers listed building and nothing is done.
Which is a very good argument for making sure conservation areas are properly enforced, not for abandoning them. The failure is in not having an ongoing system to make little old ladies in Corfe aware of the advantages of living in a conservation area and the responsibility they have as a result of living there.
What does not help is the lack of understanding and support among our elected representatives who often lack the vision to realise the value to the town of its hertigage assets.
ps, which listed building was dismembered. Did you report this to the conservation officer who as we know is not sufficiently proactive in these matters?
The east bar balcony
If you want to preserve the conservation area the best thing you could do is start building a 2m sea wall from the Pier to New Swanage. Sea change is coming!
Oh yes, that dubious plastic excrescence over the door of the east bar. I asked the planners about this and my enquiry has been passed to the enforcement officer. Watch this space as they say, but do not hold your breath. How many years did it take them to see the illuminated plastic beer signs sticking out of the front of the Purbeck?
You would think that in this connected age someone from planning could stroll round the conservation areas once a month and check anything that looked to have been changed on pdc's website with his phone. No need even to go back to the office.
Big developers employ expensive planning consultants. Eg Shore Road, Planning Solutions for Local Authorities, what does that mean for 'local authorities', many of the people employed by Planning Solutions have previously held government posts!
Am I missing something? What point are you making?
Returning, if I may, to the question of "converting" day trippers into overnight stays for a moment, I came across a tourism fact sheet put out by PDC which establishes that the difference in spending per day is only roughly 10%, being £38 a day for day visitors to Purbeck and £42 per day for stayers. The problem we have in Swanage is that there is quite a range in day trippers spend depending on where they go and according to PDC's figures a few years ago we were very much at the lower end, possibly because we have the lions share of the coach trips, however, taken together they suggest the need is to get the higher spending day trippers here as they are only a few miles away.
Yes but the value added for someone staying here is big. Its a long time I have seen the statistics but something like for every £1 spent in an hotel £2.50 goes into the local economy.
Good point but you are talking about folk staying in hotels whereas we have a majority of stayers camping, caravaning or self catering rather then staying in hotels and they are not all putting a great deal into the local economy. The figures speak for themselves. If you want to find a day visitor analogue for someone staying in a hotel it would be someone having a meal in a restaurant rather than just a cup of tea and a bun. I think this shows its about attracting people with a decent amount of money to spend whether they come for the day or longer. Simply getting large numbers of people to sleep in fields and eat in the streets is not a lot of use.
If you want that then we should remember that Swanage hasn't actually got that much to offer over other small coastal resorts, notable in Cornwall. We need to encourage destination restaurants and boutique hotels, to complement the beautiful coastal scenery.
Agreed, did you see the piece in the Echo from the hospitality association saying that the four and five star guest houses had been very busy this summer but the three star ones less so. The last guest house owner I spoke to was quite surprised at how prices were not a consideration for many guests. Whether other types of business that seem to be stuck in the 1960s mass market approach will raise their act remains to be seen.
Also Blackpool visitors down 26%. Swanage is uniquely placed at its nadir to rise again as a real quality resort, with a bit of direction and marketing.
Again, I agree, but it is hard to convince many people locally that it should be marketed as a premium destination. The catch is that the downmarket businesses are not going to do well and will deteriorate and make the place look worse. I don't know what the solution to this is.
people generally remember the best bits of a resort but-
which businesses worry you?
I had a variety of businesses in mind. Take some of the pubs as an example. Most of them are really restaurants with a bar area but some are not. These latter seem to be pursuing an ever shrinking market as the population ages and pubs become relatively more expensive.
Basic b and b establishments are doing less well than the better ones. (See the Purbeck page on the Echo's web site on this). The latest gift shop, to open, is part of a local firm with a business model that is very much design led. Although it is too early to tell if it will succeed this does appear to give them an edge over the more traditional ones which do not all seem to have had a particularly good summer.
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