David H said...
Isn't about time we hit the regatta week on the head? Make it something that lasts three months with fireworks every weekend and organised activities all Summer? No offence to the many volunteers that help, but this is going down hill. We used to have Swanage Summer Time Radio, but now the carnival doesn't even have a web site...What people want is crabbing/sand castle/cryptic treasure hunt competition every day of the holiday. Plus big events to bring in crowds like races and stuff. Swanage can do much better.
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29 comments:
Try:
www.swanagecarnival.com
The biggest problem with the carnival site is that you need to install the 20+Mb java plugin just to view the menu !
Not everyone has this installed and I hate being told to install software just to see a mouse over effect that can be done using 2 images.
Pity the money spent on employing beach inspectors to keep an eye on the sand can't go on employing people to organise entertainment for the visitors.
Around 10 years ago, a school friend was employed by the TIC to organise events for visitors and locals during the summer season. Things like crab catching comps(not in the club) and other childrens activities.
Dose anyone know if there is still anyone doing this job?
Rowland Hughes says:
A carnival month or carnival summer would be great - bands every night, funfairs, fireworks and a jolly old time. But someone has to organise, pay and take responsibility for all this, and if it is left to the volunteers (well done by the way) how are they ever going to get on with their lives? Some of them take their holidays just to give their time to the carnival. So....if not them, then who is it to be? A combination of our councils, hoteliers, licensed victuallers, business interests and private enterprise? Would it pay for itself by charging attractions, rides and music to be here and letting them set their own charges to recoup their expenses and make a profit. Who will put all of this into practice? Fine idea - but then so is putting the bell round the cat's neck - no-one wants to do it - and why should they for all the thanks they get. I'm very pleased that we get the carnival week that we do and if anyone has any suggestions as to how to make it work all summer long let's hear them - starting with the contribution that they will make personally.
A bed tax could work if the organisation behind collecting the money wasnt too long winded and expensive. Dose anyone know how many beds there are in town which are rented out and then we would be able to work out what sort of cash income would be available to pay for full time tourism person(s)
bed tax for christ sake so you make those who sleep here perhaps not for a holiday pay why not a camp tax a fish and chip tax a parking tax a day visit tax get real nick ! also beleive it or not thers a LOT of retired people who dont want swanage to have visitrs just more doctors and park anywhere menatlity you go ask some of the bussiness they will tell you
A tourist tax is an excellent idea. They have it in France and it works very well as a source of funding for tourism. It could be a pound a night for serviced accommodation and 50p per person for camping and caravans etc with a similar charge on a sit down meal or takeaway. Of course the people who had to put it on their bills will say it is impossible, but they said that about VAT.
Parking charges in Swanage are a tax. They bring in more than they cost to collect and without them the council tax would be even higher.
Quote:Anonymous said...
also beleive it or not thers a LOT of retired people who dont want swanage to have visitrs just more doctors and park anywhere menatlity you go ask some of the bussiness they will tell you
7:12 PM
end quote
If the town just catered for the retired generation and the coach trips of retired visitors we would end up with a few shops selling only items for the older generation and after a few years the town would die. The only business who would do well would be James Smith!
The town needs to look towards the future and give the young people who are leaving the area to find better paid jobs than is currently available a reason to stay so the town dosnt become one big retirement home!
Swanage has a charm all of its own. What that charm is? Is hard to define? for at best it is no more than an old Victorian seaside town: and a bit dowdy at that.
But it is that charm that brings folk back here year after year.
If you change it, you will lose what ever it is we have. If you want a Blackpool? Then go to Blackpool. If you want continuous entertainment? then Southend may suit.
Why is it that those that come here to enjoy the indefinable charm of our old town, immediately want to change it to copy where they come from? or what they think it should be.
As it is, Swanage is just fine, leave it alone, if you want a brassy, noisy, blaring town then go elswhere, for this place was never designed for that. it lacks the space and facilities.
Anyone born here can count themselves the luckiest on this Earth.
Dancing Ledge
thats true swanage has so much to offer, but I will reiterate the point thers an element ( I beleive) being mainly people who have moved here to retire, who want NO entertainment No music no fairs carnivals etc they are hell bent on turning swange into a little ole place by the sea for no one except themselves and be warned people these people are very nasty peices of work.
What we have now it seems to me is just about right. Though I have to say that the pre-war regatta was a damn sight better.
Dancing Ledge
Most of the people who retire to Swanage have been coming here for years and years. They don't choose it by sticking a pin in the map. This means that they are familiar with what it offers. My impression, based on talking to a good many of them, is that they would like it to go on being like it was when they first got to know it.
The flip side of this is that we do get a lot of folk who imagine that they are returning to some imaginary England of their youth 50 years ago when they move here, but thats more or less what the town sets out to offer. The real problem is the younger people who move here thinking they are going to a place where the values of half a century ago are still applicable.
Anon said "The town needs to look towards the future and give the young people who are leaving the area to find better paid jobs than is currently available a reason to stay so the town dosnt become one big retirement home!"
This is absolutely true. Dorset as a whole has identified the fact that economic growth is going to come from the "creative industries". This means a whole range of activities from advertising to art. What can be done in Swanage to attract creative businesses and make jobs for our youngsters?
Firstly release enough land so two or three sets of small business units (like the recently built one on the Industrial Estate) can be completed.
Second support change: modern architecture, marina proposals, new bars and restaurants, zorbing, road changes etc
Entrepreneurs will follow. But beware every other town in the country is competing for them.
If the town could only lose some of the nimby's who complain about the smallest change to the town they came to die in, it would be better for everyone.
As for land to build low cost business units, how about the old school site at the top of Northbrook road?
I wish there was some way of distinguishing between the anons who think people move here and try to change the place and the anons who think people move here and try to stop it changing. Its very confusing to the rest of us anons.
Perhaps if the Anonymous users clicked the "Other" button and used a name, or even registered we would all be able to tell whos who :)
I would happily help organise summer events. I'm involved with many aspects of the local community including Youth, Arts and Music and have a background in organising a whole host of things.PM me on here if you think I can help or to meet me in person. And the beach inspectors work damn hard to make the beach a safe place for all.
I can't see the relevance of suggesting that Swanage needs "modern" buildings. Nobody comes here to see the modern. Ask the tourists what they like about Swanage and they all say its the fact that it has not chaned that brings them here. What we have is a lot of locals who have absolutely no grasp of why the place is attractive and who would gleefully turn it into a mini-Birmingham if they had the chance. Can anyone suggest a comparable town which has been made better by putting up a few buildings in whatever style is fashionable at the moment? Its as if I kidded myself that if I dressed like a chav and swore all the time I'd be 14 again, or saying Corfe Castle would get more visitors if it was rebuilt as a nuclear bunker.
theres a HUGE difference between locals and people who live locally, the locals do agree that swanage is nice and want to keep it that way re-read some of the posts from other threads and find those who want to turn it into st ives and other up market places, the main problem is that its gods waiting room and lots of those in it are spitefull old s*ds who want to turn it into a very quiet old town that shuts at 9pm and we all drink horlicks. they rant and rave at the old farts who are the older tory councillors who then make evry ones life hell cause we want to push it forward and have a vibrant succesfull town. they park where they want and rule evry bloody committee.
P.S im old but local.
Good and bad in both young and old, y'know.
Well done 'mattbassman' for your positive suggestion. You must be new!
Notice how in this blog any attempt at being positive results in the wafflers diverting the topic away again. Don't be put off by their negativity. Any positive action is worth far more than their attempts at being clever.
And whatever happened to empathy, you Old Guard? You weren't perfect when you were young, let alone now.
But before you go on about ball games and cycling on Shore Road, what back-up do the beach inspectors get in Law? Far less than the police and employees of the Car Fine Warehouse that is now Swanage.
The way to make Swanage "a vibrant and successful town" is to follow the StIves model. The Tate there has averaged 50,000 visitors a year since it opened. We are talking about educated people with a bit of money to spend. There are many art galleries there selling stuff costing thousands, rather different from the twopenny-halfpenny gift shops we have to put up with here. It has brought a huge growth of trade to the hotel and catering businesses.
Whats wrong with Swanage being upmarket? Excellent suggestion.
Let's not forget the only reason Swanage became a resort in the first place was because someone took the trouble to build a railway line. As for new buildings which have helped sea side towns take the, the Minack Theatre; the spinacre tower; De La Warr bandstand, Bexhill;
Bournemouth Square;
Van Alen Building, Brighton;
Seaside Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex;
Saga’s Headquarters, Folkestone, Kent;
Chummy’s Seafood Stall, Folkestone, Kent;
Boston Square Sensory Park, Hunstanton, Norfolk;
Clacton Marine Gardens;
Lotus Way, Jaywick Sands, Essex;
The Tern Project, Morecambe, Lancashire;
Beach Hut Café and Extreme Academy, Newquay, Cornwall;
Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes, Cornwall;
Southport Pier Pavilion, Southport, Merseyside;
Wastewater treatment works, Ventnor and Eastbourne;
Whitby Abbey Heritage Centre.
And before it is decided to do nothing again, look out of your window and see how quiet the Town is on this second week in August. Just because one person prefers classical music they wouldn't be allowed to ban pop, so why should the status quo apply in architecture?
Does anyone actually like Poundbury? Is that what you want in Swanage?
just back from my hols and this is a new thread to me. My first response is, things never change.
We're still arguing about the same old things, in the same old way.
Trying to be positive, Swanage can be fun and lively, the Blues w-end, the Jazz W-end and the Folk W-end are three very good examples. They draw people into the town and, to me give it an entirely different 'feel'.
With discussion going on about the carnival, shouldn't there be some form of integration?
Can't we all work together to create a Swanage where we'll be happy, and people will visit and spend there money
I get the impression that these events take place DESPITE a certain amount of local opposition!
I have had a chance to look at pictures of most of the buildings in that big list. The De La Warr bandstand is terrific and worth travelling to see but I could not really say that about many of the other ones. Not many are exactly adventurous, several have strong vernacular or historical references. Do people go to these places because of these buildings? A detour of a few miles perhaps but I need a lot of convincing that it would be more than that.
That list comes from a publication from The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. The list misses out the St Ives Tate which is the biggest success story described in the publication. It is credited with a 20% increase in turnover in local hotels and brining millions of pounds into the Cornish economy. However, most of them are there for whats in the Tate and not for the building itself.
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