Please feel free to ignore this, as my opinion goes against the prevailing attitude and I am not looking for a row (but if I am not banned then I will voice my opinion - you can always put me on ignore), but I have thought about this for a few days and actually think boundaries etc do matter, hugely. so many decisions are based on results, and Hull is a political and economic entity that is judged on those results. To simply brush off bad (awful, actually) results as misleading is a terrible mistake. Any time/money spent doing up Whitefriargate should be matched by doing up the city's reputation by addressing this issue. The only other caveat I would add is that I get it is unrealistic, and I strongly suspect every other city has the same issue where if they added the whole 'metroplitan area' (or whatever the right term is)they would find their results greatly improved. Just saying. Edit - I won't mention that I reckon East Riding schools aren't that good anyway.
Are there any plans to rejuvenate Whitefriargate itself? It's the natural pedestrian link between the town centre and the old town. There probably are plans in place and I've just not seen them?
If I'm reading it right, it's not that you're arguing against the prevailing attitude, I think it's more a case you're having a separate argument altogether based on misunderstanding where this funding comes from. It's not 'either or' between education and redevelopment. If we didn't get this money, it would have gone elsewhere, dropping us further down percentage based statistics. This is predominantly additional money. If we didn't have it to spend on regeneration, it wouldn't exist to spend elsewhere in the City. The education measures are happening independently alongside, although they will acquire some benefits as a consequence, such as raised esteem etc. If it were to be spent solely on education (which it can't be), the brighter ones would tend to leave the City as the jobs are less liable to be there without the impetus of regeneration.
I absolutely get what you are saying re new sources of funding. Fine. But building St Stephens is piss easy, compared to creating a thriving city centre. Why is the city centre dead? See the creation of Princes Quay/St Stephens etc. The opportunity cost of doing the wrong stuff now, a period that anyone who chooses to trust scientists would say is actually a very small window of opportunity will prove to be catastrophic for the city. I am looking out to 2020 - 2025. We are looking, and working, totally in totally the wrong direction. I get the raised self esteem issue and think it will help, but I think the council should be delivering the basics - health, housing, education. The results says they really are not. We are Gary, Indiana, lite.
incidentally, one contributing factor to Gary, Indian's decline was how boundary rules, and the magnifying effect those boundaries had on funding, white flight and various other social factors.
Rather than building St Stephens it would have been easier to put a roof over Whitefriargate and you would have ended up with much the same thing, Unfortunatley Whitefriargate and all the shops along it do not belong to the council. I think the deal with the developers / investors of St Stephens was that in return for getting the land to build on they had to redevelop the bus station. I agree with you that the building of St Stephens has certainly had a detremental effect on the rest of the city center. As has been said before this redevelop money is extra money I hope the council use it wisely, a long shot I know but it's not easy being a council.
Hence it being far more difficult, as I did say... I would like to know how much time and money that isn't 'free/extra money' has been spent on city of culture bid etc. If it turned out it was very little of the council's time and effort, then fair enough. I strongly suspect that isn't the case. But it isn't just that - it is focusing on consumption, rather than creation, that really bothers me. I get the suppliers will grow and create jobs argument, but so far we have seen the promise of 700 jobs, and no mention of the cost to the public purse. When the city of culture bid was announced I listened to radio humberside. It went from 'this will create 7000 jobs', to 'this will create 10000 jobs' in the space of one hour between news bulletins. It definitely did, as ridiculous as that sounds.
Why do people seem to expect the council to create all these business opportunities for the private sector to make money from? Where are the demands on commerce to create something for themselves and the community?
EXACTLY. The council should just deliver the basics - health, housing, education, is a good start. Provide a civilised society's safety net. It is true that mental health and addiction services have been greatly diminished recently, for instance... Culture and the rest will thrive IF the council just did what they were ****ing supposed to - the basics. Instead they come out with all this ****, I think because they have ****ed up the basics for decades now. The problem is that the current plan is STILL ****ing up the basics.
The Council didn't come up with 'this ****', as you describe it, it's a national initiative evolved from European schemes. The Council are doing pretty much what you keep asking.
No, I'm sorry, but it is very much a council, with the hand of a willing local BBC, initiative. I am not accepting that.
I suppose that would explain how we beat the other City's to win the funding and title for 2017 then.
I noticed Nick Swift from Ten foot city magazine mention on more than one occasion how much the city put into both those bids, but when pressed as to how much it cost he always disappeared. Meanwhile they closed the addiction clinic on Spring Bank (one example of many we could all cite) - the only place doing anything to deal with the time-bomb of alcoholism in the Polish community in Hull (it will cost us a ****ing fortune, new street baubles or none) for want of £40k etc etc etc etc etc.
Maybe it means they will hide it under 6 feet of soil occasionally like the real heritage of the City ?
And the reason those of us in the East Riding want absolutely nothing to do with Hull City Council......but that's another subject entirely...... Hull needs sorting & tidying up......but it needs to do that while acknowledging it's history & heritage....without a past you cannot move forward...... There are so many shops, offices etc that are run down & scruffy which no amount of council tarting up will change.......there is a need to get landlords & owners to put these things right....by enforcement if necessary....empty buildings will always look scruffy & lower the appeal of an area to visitors & residents alike
Yeah but the East Riding needs Hull. Imagine an East Riding without it? The reason that greater metropolitan stuff tends to work is that those on the outskirts has a centre to gravitate towards - and a **** hole to dump their unwanted on.... We should co-operate, not compete, and always with an understanding of the impact our activity has on the world around us, but that doesn't seem to be in our nature. In sea level rise terms, if/when Hull goes, the East Riding will too. So be it.
If the local council need to action derelict buildings, particularly if they represent traditional industries and culture, ERYC are going to have all on to get all these dilapidated farm buildings sorted out. While they're at it, they should take action against the subsidised farmers leaving crap all over the road, from unroadworthy vehicles and kicking up dust in the same way the rest of the food industry is policed. Fairs fair.
If Hull goes then everything will be focussed on Beverley.....but I'll be smoke & ashes long before then......the East Riding is much more than the villages around Hull...it covers areas from Brid in the North to Goole in the South West. I agree we need to co-operate but that does not mean assimilate ..... as I've said before I may have been born it Hull but I choose not to live there now & if the boundaries ever expanded I'd look to move again beyond those boundaries ...... I only used to come into Hull to watch City & now I don't do that any more
Typical move out of the city and become a stuck up snob attitude if you ask me. If you don't come to the city or go to watch the Tigers why do you show such an interest in it ? We know it ain't perfect and the council ain't been very good for decades so we don't need you telling us.
Sums it up quite well for me when I see in Ferriby, there are posters in the windows of relatively new houses, campaigning against more development in the village.
