If you want to learn more about the plans for the development of the Pierhead site (now approved), look here. I gather that building work probably won't start for a couple of years, owing to various things that need sorting out beforehand.
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At last......
At last indeed , finally Swanage is moving forward :) good luck to Mick and Nick wish you lots of success
An iconic building for Swanage - supberb !
The graceful lines of the sewage treatment plant hauntingly echoed in the balconies.
It seems to me this is one of a trilogy of over ambitious planning applications in the area, put before planners in desperation to achieve a permission. It started with the Swanage Sea Rowing Club. They just needed to put down a concrete base and erect a wooded boat house for perhaps £50,000. But no the planners insist on a £350,000 citadel. The thatch restaurant on the Quay must spend £100,000's on a new first floor terrace to continue trading without any prospect of any increased trade. Now this on the Pier Head site which the local paper says will cost £7m to build. How much do they expect the eight flats to sell for?
Swanage has lost hundreds of bed spaces in hotels and guest houses over the years. Pubs are closing. The chance of a marina was rejected. Swanage Town Council is hell bent on killing tourism with the car parking charges, removal of all the litter bins and toilet closures. The government has only implemented 20% of its proposed cuts as yet. Some local businesses are already 50% down on previous years without any guarantee these cold wet summers will not become the norm. Swanage and PDC planners need to wake up to the fact that our principal trade is reliant on a few fickle day trippers and unfortunately we may need to lower our architectural sights to reflect this.
It would be a great help if those making comments had actually talked to our visitors and asked what they like about Swanage. Almost without dissent they tell me it is the "time warp" element. I have yet to hear anyone say they like going somewhere because of modern buildings. The polar opposite in fact. No doubt a sprinkling of Swanage contrarians will opine that their leisure hours are devoted to going to Birmingham to admire the way the city centre is demolished and replaced at frequent intervals.
The more we nibble away at the nature of Swanage, "stepping forward" as one poster puts it, the less incentive there is for anyone to come here. The Mowlem was a great step forward, or rather that is what we were told at the time. The Haven similarly.
Bournemouth has the dreadful Imax by the pier and is about to demolish it, You would think that Swanage people would learn from others errors but they don't.
At last indeed , finally Swanage is moving forward :) good luck to Mick and Nick wish you lots of success.
I surmise that Nick & Mick will not undertake this development themselves but in all likelihood the site will be sold to developers.
I took my boys to Birmingham only for one reason to see and look around the bullring. Which I have to say is a magnificent building . The boys loved it , with us taking many photos. Things eventually have to move forward to keep up with our every need to have something to excite ourselves in our lives. This can be from anything from art , photos , visiting places , sport , the list can go on.
As for litter bins disappearing , I think if I am right it has something to do with this so called " war on terror " . You will find that there are no bins in many towns and mainly in train stations , reason is a bomb can be put in them. Any plus we have people that clean the streets and stations , so in a way it's employing people to do just this. Pick up litter.
The IMAX full stop was silly , put in a silly place too. Though we don't succeed in live by not making mistakes , we learn from them. Like Bournemouth has relized that now.
As for the rowing club , we should be very very proud of what this club has done. We probably have some of the best gig ( I think that's what it's called ) rowers in the
country and I certainly think they deserve a new club house from them to expand and get better.
To be honest that whole area needs revamping and finally it's going to happen. And so it should:)
The expected response from Mr Furmage, the man who likes the look of steel shutters on shops.
What would all the people who don't like the look of the new building wish to see. Why is it they never say? I suppose there are choices:
Leave it as it is (a real mess)
Build something fitting for the 60's (another Mowlem box).
Build something fitting for the 70s - 80s. A rectangular block of flats with shops under#
Or what?
Refurbish the existing building. Quite simple. Not much money in it though. You don't really think two blocks of flats with wobbly roofs is great architecture do you? As an alternative something really innovative, which this is most certainly not.
No money in it.
Exactly. So why bother?
Regardless of what it looks like it will be 2 things. 1)Benefit to the town 2) not an eyesore like what's currently there.
How will another block of flats and a couple of eateries benefit the town beyond not being covered with paintings of rats and decay? Could you explain this.
A similar development took place a few yards away in Lower High Street and we have the Tratt and Snackbar with flats over. Can you tell us how much you think the town has benefited from this. If the Pierhead development is going to help the town it follows that similar developments nearby would have done so as well. It certainly benefited the developer, J Peiser Wainwrigh, but at least they had the decency to refrain from making claims to be some sort of altruist.
Oh god. A miserable cynic.
How will it benefit? Well someone has to build it, run the electrics through, plumb the building etc. Hopefully that will be local people.
Then 2 restaurants, an ice cream parlour and a gallery. More jobs for Swanage people.
And the upkeep of the buildings, general work that needs doing from time to time, hopefully more work for locals.
More jobs = more money in circulation in the town.
Also, tourists, and I know this because I work in Swanage in tourism, always want good places to eat/drink (locals do too believe it or not). If these are as good, if not better than what we have then surely that's a benefit.
A lot of what I said is subjective and conjecture.
Locals may not be asked to build it, but I'm almost certain those working in the restuarants would be.
Obviously, and it is obvious, the more holidaymakers we have, the more jobs are needed in the town. More grocels + more jobs = more money for the people and more money distributed through the town
Again, maybe I'm not a negative Nancy like you.
How odd to imagine that the number of tourists expands to fill the places wanting to feed them. If only. No matter, lets accept that hypothesis and the implication that there will be less employment in competing establishments. I don't think there is anything wrong with a fair degree of scepticism or if you prefer cynicism about the claims that were made in the documents supporting the planning application and offered to the public as part of the pretend "consultation" exercise. I would say the cynicism lies in the application of the jargon of regeneration and public consultation to promote a commercial undertaking.
I think a lot of people were hoping for a marina with this building, or somewhere visitors could actually learn about the area. Many people come to Swanage as they want to find out more on what is a unique location and not to just shovel food down their throats whilst looking at the sea. I dunno, maybe I'm being naive...
Steady ..... a marina requires more imagination than the planners seem to have. I am sure there would be a dozen reasons against before you wake up next day. It would also spoil the run down character of the area and not fit particularly well with Playland. The Mowlem might even open up again to serve the wealthy sailors - heaven forbid we should move forward too much, too quickly. Lets retain our dilapidated atmosphere despite the fact it doesnt seem to be attracting thousands of tourists and bringing much revenue into the town. Over the years every proposal for redevelopment of the Pier Head has been criticised and knocked back. Not surprising some people dont like this one either. Trouble is they dont suggest any thing to replace it. A refurb of an old and crumbling cafe building seems to be the best so far.
How odd to imagine that the number of tourists expands to fill the places wanting to feed them. If only.*
No matter, lets accept that hypothesis and the implication that there will be less employment in competing establishments**
* Twisting my point really. The number of tourists coming to town won't increase because we open 2 new restaurants or cafe's. However if it's good it'll stop them buying stuff from a supermarket and eating it in their caravans. And if Swanage can provide top quality facilities then more people will come to town. To quote the film 'Field of Dreams' 'Build it and the will come.'
** Erm no it wouldn't. You do realise that similar buinsnesses can co-exist in the same town don't you?
"a marina requires more imagination than the planners seem to have" I appreciate the irony of this because a marina before Peveril Point WAS in the planning policy 30 years ago. They commissioned a university to look at Swanage to see what was needed then adopted the policies including the need for a leisure pool, marina, and better accommodation. Now all we get is incestuous parochial talk shops which have delivered very little so far and seem happy to let Swanage slip into oblivion. The Trat and the snack bar are two of the most successful businesses in Town, why knock them?
SLOW DAY IN SWANAGE….
It's a slow day in a little East Dorset town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich London Banker finds himself in Swanage. The last ferry has gone so he stops at The Hotel and lays a £50 note on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the fish shop. The fish shop owner takes the £50 and runs down the street to clear their debt to the fisherman.
The fisherman takes the £50 and heads off to pay his fuel bill at the garage.
The guy at the garage takes the £50 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, she has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her
"services" on credit.
The prostitute then rushes to The Hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner, who then places the £50 back on the counter so the London Bankster will not suspect anything.
At that moment the bankster comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Swanage and the UK conducts business since we ceased manufacturing.
RobO
The point is the planning officers have consistently refused to consider much smaller and more "in keeping" proposals over many years for the Pier Head site, so why now pass something so ambitious?
"if it's good it'll stop them buying stuff from a supermarket"
To quote the film 'Field of Dreams' 'Build it and the will come.'
I can't argue with the wishful thinking approach.
It seems you are saying the success of the venture is largely contingent on some combination of:
An increase in tourist numbers.
The eating places in the new Pierhead being of a better standard than others in Swanage.
A behavioral change on the part of a proportion of self catering tourists.
An interesting argument to put forward in a business plan.
10.53 a.m.:
The Inland Revenue would like a little word with the banker, hotelier, the chippy owner, the fisherman, garage owner and lady of the night. Something about undeclared income, and lack of VAT receipts........
Another quiet day in Swanage.......
A need for more business rates.......and an attitude of relaxation of regulations 'inspired' by the present government...
"an attitude of relaxation of regulations 'inspired' by the present government"
Oh, like the banking regulations were relaxed. Its wonderful how these panaceas never quite die, even years after they are discredited
I can't argue with the wishful thinking approach.
More positive thinking that wishful thinking.
No wonder the town is the way it is with the likes of you who are so quick to criticise the ideas of others yet never offer an alternative.
Not sure where we are going with that. An alternative to what? I can suggest a number of things that would benefit the town but will not make the owner a millionaire. For example the owner of the site now occuped by Weighbridge Court gave it away to a housing association since he felt he had enough money and wanted to do something for the town.
As I have pointed out several times in this thread the ideas of profit for an individual and a general benefit for the town have become conflated leading to an expectation that suggestions aimed at the latter should encompass the former. Hence the question really being posed is not what would be good for the town but rather what would be a good business proposition.
In a thread now deleted by the postman I suggested a work of public art in the space between the two blocks of flats would significantly increase its attraction to tourists. Since the plans incorporate gallery usage for part of the premises this would be entirely reasonable. Poole and Bournemouth College had a number of works by the likes of Moore and Hepworth on show outside the Study Gallery. Perhaps they could be persuaded to loan some thing.
"More positive thinking that wishful thinking."
You are familiar with the fate of Dr Pangloss aren't you?
It seems that people feel that the only thing Swanage has to offer tourists is food whilst being unable to look at the long-term benefits of somewhere educational. This sort of thinking is what separates Swanage from a destination like St Ives, a town which actually realises the value of itself.
so the Which? Good Food Guide 2012 St Ives 6 listings. Swanage 0. What has St Ives got? A boring modern art gallery. What has Swanage got- all sorts of interesting under marketed stuff but nowhere to eat in style. Robin who wants a tea and a cheese sandwich for £1.28 in a building we have all contributed £5m for is little use.
That is true but we can draw some solace from the fact that it took a long time for the District Council down there and the town to come round to realising the Tate was a good thing. I understand that the gallery project was propelled by the great and good of Cornwall in the face of indifference and downright hostility until the tills started ringing. They did start with the considerable advantage that the St Ives School has a well documented place in English art history and this made the project a great deal easier to sell. Swanage has attracted almost every well known English painter from Turner onward, although it has to be admitted that Constable stuck to Weymouth. It would be wonderful if some of their work could be seen locally and would be a year round attraction if properly curated to the great benefit of businesses in the town. However, this is certainly not something within the scope of local financial resources. No doubt the philistines and the cheap and cheerful element on here will scoff at the idea of something that raises Swanage's act.
Oops "that is true" refers to the 7.02 posting not the 8.32 one which seems to come from one of the legion of philistines but which was posted while I was writing..
8.35
John Wesley lived for a while at Wesley's cottage in the High Street.
Shall Swanage plump itself as a centre for hymn writing?
'Songs of Praise' at St Mary's, perhaps? We have a (inter-) nationally famous choirmaster there. No one seems to have twigged that fact.
Famous artists visited Swanage but did not stay. That, in itself, is a damning statement.
So peoples' visits to Swanage should be didactic. How many people actually do the Art trail? How many tourists will be in St Mary's for the 16? How many even visit Durlston?
A Harry Ramsdons might encourage a few more, better Mark Hix though. A larger market under cover certainly. Parking next to a purpose built dive centre. An hotel by the golf course. More than anything better marketing of what we have, better accommodation ( a Travel Lodge would be ideal ), and a destination restaurant or two.
Harry Ramsdon, yet f,f,f,fish & chip shop. A better franchisee for the Pierhead would be a Loch Fyne, (Iknow Mickie approves.
OR I KNOW, WHAT ABOUT A MARINA, MARINA, MARINA, MARINA, MARINA as well?
RobO
7.02 was right. Some posters have a food fixation. There is another strange presoccupation, Harry Ramsdens, Travel Lodge, Wetherspoons. Its standardisation. Lets make everywhere the same, with the same chains of hotels and eating places.
All you people with ideas of what should happen in Swanage...what about getting involved with the Swanage Town and Community Partnership? That group exists to promote and develop ideas for the future of Swanage. It's not perfect, but it is an established forum, with strong links to the Town and District Council. Your ideas are more likely to come to something through working together than just by making comments here. But it depends on people being prepared to put the time and effort in themselves, rather than expecting others to do everything.
I used to attend the Partnership's meetings. It got nowhere. There was always a good turnout from professional meeting attenders and other nice people but what has it achieved? Zilch. Various functionaries of bodies such as SWRDA appeared from time to time and held out the distant prospect of pots of gold for useful projects if we ticked enough boxes and jumped through enough hoops. Like the lolly at the rainbow's end this bag of gold always moves on when anyone gets close to it. Having watched the movie through a couple of times I gave up as it was getting repititous. I am afraid any prospect that it can be an istrument of chenge is chimerical.
Totally agree. How many meetings and forms have I filled in about the future of Swanage! If anything actually makes it into policy PDC chops and changes on a whim.
eg
-Supermarket at Worgret proposed: Fierce opposition from planners, then a few years later it's in policy doc.
-20 years ago every new flat must have 1 car space at least, now none.
-marina, in policy, never mentioned again.
-what happened to the two diesel trains purchased by DCC to run on the Swanage Wareham line?
-Was it about five years ago the exhibition at the White House TIO regarding the new sports and community centre. It seemed like just a matter of deciding on the venue and work would start...
The goal posts for funding move at a sp[eed that would impressan olymic athlete. The lifetime of a funding stream is usually less than the time it takes to find out about it and work up an application. Government planning "guidance" for councils is a shifting sand. This is so that when ministers announce that £x million is avaialable they know perfectly well most of it has been left over from previous schems and will be carried over to the next announcement a few years down the track. Work on putting in the signals at Worgret is supposed to start this year, or is it next year, or the one after..
'Poole and Bournemouth College had a number of works by the likes of Moore and Hepworth on show outside the Study Gallery. Perhaps they could be persuaded to loan some thing.'
The insurance that would be required might be prohibitive for something that will not generate any income.
Downtown Swanage is a better risk than a position next to a car park in Parkstone. In any case, a piece by Mary Spencer Watson is located a few yards awy in Prince Albert Gardens, Barbara Frink's Dorset Martyrs stand by the roadside in Dorchester and Sir Anthony Caro's Sea Music is on the quatside in Poole, all without problems. There are innumerable pieces of sculpture in public places around the country. One of the notions discussed in the context of the overhsul of Durlston Castle was a sculpture trail leading up from Swanage so the Pierhead would be an ideal starting and finishing place offering trail walkers refreshment after the rigours of the walk.
8.04
I do not disagree if the entity that paces artwork in those sites also owns the art, but if the artwork is borrowed, then insurance will be required. And is is not cheap.
Well to be honest it's nicer to open up them shutters , than to look at a chipboard window , where some idiot smashed it the night before. Also it adds as security and saves a shop owner the hassle of replacing a window.
Common sense , though the way you brought up an old story , you lack it:)
It stuck in my mind as it suggested your judgement in general was, to be polite about it, a little bit wonky.
" do not disagree if the entity that paces artwork in those sites also owns the art, but if the artwork is borrowed, then insurance will be required. And is is not cheap."
If this was ever to be pursued funding would have to be sought and insurance would obviously be one of the expenses to be factored into the exercise. It would need the establishmant of a small organisation as applications from individuals are problematic for more than small amounts and would need expert input, both on the art side and the funding side. Whether it could be spun off from Purbeck Art Week I do not know, but that is focused on marketing living artists.
I cannot imagine, in the present economy, that funding will be available for this. It would require a benefactor.
You are right of course, but, as we have seen today with the catastrophic economic figures, and the general growing critique of the austerity mania, it is only a matter of time before the government starts throwing money around.
RE-Money, What is it? £20 notes says 'Bank of England promise to the bearer the sum of Twenty Pounds', define 'a pound £? A pound of carrots spuds what?
In the 1950s' Goon Show they said; "That will be £4-7&6 pence".
The response, "Here is a photograph of a £5 note".
"thank you, here is a drawing of 12&6 pence Change."
Spike knew what it was all about.
Also who owns the Bank of England? It is not a Government Department but referred to by the Treasury as 'Their Agent' ?????
RobO
The B of E was nationalised by the 1945 Labour Government.
We have what is know as a fiat currency. There is as much money as the government decides there should be. The quantity is not tied to a precious metal. Of course if the government print too much the guys who lend them money by buying bonds get very cross and charge more for their loans and as you might expect if more money is chasing the same supply of goods and services prices go up. Money supply is measured in several ways. M4 which is one of these shows a decline over the last few years and as you may have noticed money is indeed a bit tight just at the moment.
On 27th July 1694 a private joint-stock association called ‘The Bank Of England’ was formed with a capital of £1.2 million, this capital was ‘loaned’ to the government in consideration of a monitory and banking monopoly over the Kingdom of William III, ergo The United Kingdom. The government of Clement Attlee nationalised The Bank of England in 1946, issuing Treasury Notes in the sum of £11,015,100. All the stock was owned by the British Government, although The Bank of England continued as a ‘Royal Charter Company’ with the absolute protection of confidentiality and security afforded by a Royal Charter and The Official Secrets Acts.
Obviously the nationalisation was not welcomed by it’s share holders or bankers of the day. Wilson’s’ abrupt resignation as Prime Minister in April 1976 and the new government of James Callaghan had virtually no majority, ‘UK Ltd’ was vulnerable and effectively bankrupt, with double digit annual inflation, 70% over 3 years, incessant strikes, the £ Sterling frequently suspended on international exchange markets, virtual parity with the US$, the ideal time for the share holders to strike back and re-take the Bank of England.
SO is this WHY, on the 6th April 1977 the Bank of England formed the BANK OF ENGLAND NOMINEES LIMITED, (BOEN), a wholly owned subsidiary private limited company, no: 1307478, with 2 of its 100 £1 shares issued and its Memorandum & Articles of Association’s Objectives are;-
“To act as Nominee or agent or attorney either solely or jointly with others, for any person or persons, partnership, company, corporation, government, state, organisation, sovereign, province, authority, or public body, or any group or association of them....”
Its a little hard to believe the shareholders were gnashing their teeth for 30 years and then sprung into action, so the connection you posit is a little to close to conspiracy theory for my taste. What does the nominee company do exactly?
Nice to raad the reminiscence therapy. Strange though how the contemporary commentators who see devaluation and the consequent inflation as the cure for the problems of southern Europe enjoy the same place in the media firmament as those who excoriated the same thing when we had it here. My chief memory of this period is that my income rose rapidly and the proportion that went out in mortgage payments fell steadily. If you had borrowed to buy assets you did well out of inflation but of course if you had wealth as money in the bank you were in trouble.
I thought 5.11 sounded a bit erudite for Swanage. It comes from a website written by Sabine McNeill who campaigns on matters of high finance. Did you post it Sabine, or have you been plagarised? It very flattering to see you taking an interest in the pierhead.
Someone is Swanage knows how to cut and paste.
Good grief. Have these arcane skills spread this far? The site is came from is one of several and I wonder why anybody here should stumble across them. The fruit cake content varies a little between them but the richest in this respect seems to be the stuff from a particularly right wing member of the House of Lords who advocates handing it back to the hereditary element - sort of "Barons rule OK" The uniting factor seems to be a dislike of usury. You couldn't invent it.
Re; 26/7/12 10:03 PM ~ above
With regards to The Bank of England item I wrote it and posted the extract on the SwanageBlog. I did ‘cut and paste’ it from a presentation I made in the House of Lords (organised by Sabine)which went Global and has never been challenged. (Sabine carries the item on her website.)
My presentation went further by stating I thought it possible that Maggie Thatcher organised the Privatisation of the Bank of England in exchange for the bail out of UK Ltd. The BoE’s share structure was changed with 50% voting and the UK Government keeping 50% none voting shares. The share transfers being held in BoE Nominee Ltd. (which remains un-traded therefore exempt).
RobO
Whilst your views on a number of topics would probably accord with those of some of the more right wing Swanage residents this piece of trollery is not exactly relevant to the topic under discussion. Whilst it is always nice to know our deliberations attract readers from afar it would be even nicer if their comments were germane to the matter under discussion. I am sure we could discuss Mrs thatcher's secret deal at length but I can't help thinking other readers might grow impatient.
'Readers from afar?!? Our bungalow where we LIVE is about 100 yards from the Pierhead !
RobO
Oh, sorry, I misread your posting, and thought it came from the 8th baron himself. Why on earth are you quoting this nutter's views to us? If you look at his other stuff on the web and his track record from when he was chairman of the Monday club, at about the time it was disowned by IDS for racism it is pretty clear he has no plausibility at all. Do you buy into his strange world outlook? What difference do you think it makes whoever owns the BofE. Do you have a view on this? A consortium of bankers from the other side of the galaxy could hardly do worse than the terrestial variety. What has it got to do with the pierhead anyway?
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