So much potential, yet so much wasted time and opportunity. We have the best theatre in the north east yet no decent restaurants/bars nearby to make a night out for the volume of people who do go. We attract hundreds of thousands of people every summer with huge gigs at the SOL and the Airshow but many people from outside the north east stay and spend in Newcastle and Durham because of the lack of hotel rooms and retail offerings. We have regular away followings of around 2-3K for at least nineteen weekends of the year, but how many spend in Sunderland? Everytime my company arrange for hotel rooms in the area, they book the Ramside or Durham Marriott, and we are not alone. All this should be topping up what money the people of Sunderland would be spending in our City, if there was something to spend it on! Vaux needs a number of prominent hotels, restaurants and retail space. Linked to the Vaux via a footbridge should be our leisure zone with a leisure pool in an extended aquatic centre and ice rink as part of the proposed indoor ski centre at Sheepfolds would replace the aged leisure centre, offering attractions which would pull in people from all over the north east. Farringdon Row was earmarked to get a Crown Court which would attract legal firms to the area, again bringing in money. Where have the plans for this been buried? Getting this right will improve the fortunes of Sunniside and be a catalyst to making better use of the enormous retail opportunity the leisure centre currently occupies.
Yep, every point valid. The lack of city centre hotels is mind boggling, a travelodge, which is in very poor condition, isn't nearly good enough. Attracting Debenhams could, & should have been a major catalyst for the city, but then the Vaux saga kills the city, it's prime land, it's an eyesore, and it's been going on for so many years now it's beyond belief.
Still.... we're apparantly going to spend a small fortune on a big bridge linking nothing special to nothing special and a new building on the promenade for the bored youths to ruin! This is bound to attract the investment we need.
Ha ha. It's painfully true. I think to really get the city moving forward would require a full re-route of the road from the Alex bridge, and try and spread the city upwards towards Hylton Road. It'd be a massive job, enormous, but the city needs enormous work, and longer term, only additional capacity for retail & business space will do this. We can't go the other way due to housing in Thornhill, Ashbrooke & Hendon, and the bridge towards Roker, this could all tie in with redevelopment of the Vaux site.
I agree MON, but there's so much wasted retail land in the City centre already with Vaux, the semi-derilict leisure centre, former kwik save on Park lane and adjacent marketplace. Let's get this redeveloped first and take stock, although I mightn't be around to see any of these done first and offer any further suggestions!
Just the Vaux site would do for now, that alone will add about a third to the size of the city, more with good planning. Whatever happened to the SOL hotel & casino plans? Probably fell by the wayside due to the Vaux debacle, one will aid the other.
Mons, if you can tell me where the Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys/Morrisons is in the city centre at newcastle I'll stand corrected because it will just never happen or be allowed. It would have made the city centre at Sunderland even worse than it is now and thats saying something. Tescos plans for the Vaux site and what they would actually deliver are light years apart. We all know once the supermarket was built they would just shelve plans for any other developement as they have done countless times all over the country for years. I think that this will turn out okay and should be given a chance to shine.
There is a Tesco on Newcastle Quayside, and a massive one 2 mins drive over to Gateshead. There's a Co-Op by the Gate, bang in the city centre. Tesco's plans encompassed all of the building work being done in tandem, so there was no prospect of them slying up a supermarket & binning the rest of the development. Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to see our city put right mate, but speculation does not change the facts.
Out of town shopping developments have been the downfall of many city and town businesses, and are also very unfriendly when it comes to the environment. The quicker that rates and car parking charges for these places have to match city centres the better, and then we might see a change.
Been out of the country a while mate, so you maybe right. Tesco will still be there though! RAW, How about making city centre rates the same as out of town, thus not penalizing consumers for going elsewhere? Why should rates be hiked elsewhere?
I've never lived in Sunderland marra, so you will know better than me but I'll tell you this. The city council come across as the biggest set of ****wits known to man.
there is a tesco in the bridges, a marks and spencers on high street west but they are comparitively small, also an iceland opposite tescos. so you can buy food in Sunderland city centre, is that the reason most people go to city centres, I don't think so. I've never gone to a city centre for my food shopping.
To be fair, I don't either mate, but considering a large student population in Thornhill & Ashbrooke, generally most don't have cars, can you not see the obvious oversight? And just cos we don't go to the city for food shopping, doesn't mean many won't, I remember my mum dragging me round food giant when I was a kid, bang in the city, and the place was always busy. It goes beyond mere food shopping anyway, that was part of a bigger point. That point is, the Vaux site would have been redeveloped 10 years ago if the council had allowed Tesco to build, now nobody on earth can say that would not have been better for the city than a derelict wasteland. It's a point beyond dispute.
The problems began with Tyne and Wear, the barcode council put money in and creamed money off every other council not just ours to improve their city centre. Take a look at all the other city/town centres up here and they are all run down except good old Noocarsehole.
Vaux a wasteland! My good friend it's a Shiney new car park that costs 90p an hour to park there. At the moment about 6 traffic wardens swarm around the car park looking to ticket anyone! They could easily have made this free parking. At the moment it gets about 10% full at best. Complete lack of vision. Oh and the kicker, they seeded the area in front with grass, once the grass came through, they've had diggers and drilling equipment churning it up to look for a gas pipe.
