Riverside development April start

[kyoto49]

Plenty of Parks in Stafford - https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1LIogLVDZMnXkmWJvm08OTiADm6g

But to town center park is a different thing, it's useful to pop into while in town or doing other things - and sometimes it's busy, and sometimes it's not - but that's a parks for you.

My point was that park provision has not grown by the same amout as there are houses being built and therefore it's not kept up with demand.......

Most of the parks are poorly equipped if equipped at all. Town Park is what all parks should look like.

 

[proactive]

Most of the parks are poorly equipped if equipped at all. Town Park is what all parks should look like.

If you actually looked at them rather than walking around with your eyes shut and then having a typically ill-informed and bigoted rant, you would know how wrong that statement is.

My point was that park provision has not grown by the same amout as there are houses being built and therefore it's not kept up with demand.......

I wonder how long it would be, if huge sums of money were spent on a big increase in parks by the council, before you complained about how your council tax was being squandered on facilities that you don't approve of?

 

[Jade-clothing]

Why should users of the centre have to walk a quite significant distance fromn the route they are taking, along the side of the building all along Queensway round to the front to get step free access? There is plenty of space by the stairs to also put in a ramp, problem solved ), or just never have even put steps in and just put a ramp? I shall not make the same mistake again, I shall just not visit and will buy my products in the old town centre . Maybe now we'll get our underwear from your store, rather than the new M&S. Are you bike freindly?

I walk home past the centre every day, sometimes I walk down the riverside, sometimes I walk down the road past the Primark entrance. It actually takes me the exact same amount of time whichever way I go so it's not a quite significant distance.
Anyone is welcome in Saffron - bikes, wheelchairs, pushchairs - we're very friendly, give us a go

 

[kyoto49]

If you actually looked at them rather than walking around with your eyes shut and then having a typically ill-informed and bigoted rant, you would know how wrong that statement is.


I wonder how long it would be, if huge sums of money were spent on a big increase in parks by the council, before you complained about how your council tax was being squandered on facilities that you don't approve of?

Er, I regularly use the one on Holmcroft Road, and Lovatt Street. Do you? They are poorly maintained and poorly equipped, at best.

If you could read, instead of your ill informed rant you'd see that i put that it should be made a condition of planning consent that the developer should pay for the new parks on all new estates, really good proper parks not the token one like the pathetic excuse that's on The Oaks , but don't let the facts get in the way.....

 

[bunique]

Our most local park is on The Crossings and regularly littered with dog mess in the long grass so we rarely go there. Town park is impeccably maintained in my experience.

 

[pinky]

Wow this thread became depressing. the improvements in town the past 9 years I've lived here are great. new Park, new shopping centre, new leisure centre. there is history in the town and different buildings, we have real flowers throughout the town, nice restaurants that aren't all chains, chains for that kind of food. we have a train station central to many places around the country. Affordable housing, surrounded by countryside. are there improvements that need to be made? most definitely! is this the worst place to live in the country? certainly not! I grew up in a grim town, Stafford is beautiful you just have to embrace the goodness instead of trying to find the bad in it.

 

[proactive]

but don't let the facts get in the way.....

Oh, the irony...

 

[Jade-clothing]

I presume in your last paragraph you are referring to the 'beautiful park' which is about to be destroyed by the council as they have suddenly realised that there is a nice part of Stafford that they haven't meddled with. Or the 'new' shopping Centre that was built by an opportunistic developer a mile away from the 'old' shopping Centre, has no easy access and has taken half the shops from the old Centre leaving the former as a wasteland. Or the motorway that is so crowded and unfit for purpose that it often closed and its traffic diverted through the town's already crowded roads causing mayhem. You forgot to mention the market that has no stalls, the shopping precinct that has no shops, the car park that does not allow cars, the closed university, the half-closed hospital, the about-to-be-closed court, the soon-to-be-closed fire station, the never-even-opened empty supermarket, the derelict former library or the about-to-be-derelict shire hall. Then there is the high speed train line that has no local stations but will nevertheless rip through Stafford's countryside destroying everything in its path. Name me any other single town in the country that has got all that.

I've seen the plans for the improvement for the Park, and it looks great.
What about all the new shops in the new centre? Plenty of new businesses open and lets face it the old shopping centre was a dire mess long before the new one was even built. It should never have become a shopping centre really - there isn't enough space in the Town centre for a proper shopping centre. I still don't get why people complain about the new one being too far out. It's really no more than 10 minutes walk from the centre of town. Only five minutes from this end.
It's a major motorway, high volume of traffic - lots of mad drivers. Yeah it gets closed sometimes. Pretty sure that happens anywhere around the country. Not sure we can blame Stafford council!
I can't even be bothered to address your great long list of negativity. All the positives in the town outweigh some of those in my opinion. I agree with you about some of those but it's nothing that isn't happening everywhere around the country.

 

[Wormella]

Our most local park is on The Crossings and regularly littered with dog mess in the long grass so we rarely go there. Town park is impeccably maintained in my experience.

But isn't the issue with that is the developers are supposed to maintain it and don't

 

[Carole]

Wow this thread became depressing.

It's not just the thread that is depressing.
Some people on here are negativity personified. They themselves are very depressing and my heart sinks when I read what they have to say.

Doom, gloom and misery. They seem to delight in trying to find things to complain about.

However, on the upside at least we can turn the computer off.
Imagine having to live with them. How depressing would that be?

 

[bunique]

But isn't the issue with that is the developers are supposed to maintain it and don't

Yes, absolutely! Not the council's problem at all

 

[proactive]

Imagine having to live with them. How depressing would that be?

 

[c0tt0nt0p]

But isn't the issue with that is the developers are supposed to maintain it and don't

Correct.... Persimmon employ Greenbelt Group to maintain the park bit of the Crossings but let's be honest they cut as many corners as possible. We're still waiting 2 years down the line for wood boundary fences with Alstom/GE to be replaced after being blown down....

 

[c0tt0nt0p]

Yes, absolutely! Not the council's problem at all

It's a very easy out for them....

 

[markpa12003]

But isn't the issue with that is the developers are supposed to maintain it and don't

It depends on the planning application and consent. As part of a new development the developer should wherever possible provide public open space and play provision on site, if this is not possible a contribution should be made to off site provision. Most local authorities used to require the developer to maintain the public open space for a 3, 4 or 5 year period before it being passed to them to maintain. Most local authorities now no longer want to take on the responsibility of maintaining greenspaces; public open spaces and play provision, as such it's now common for management companies to be set up to maintain them on new developments. The management company is paid by the home owners as a service charge. Sadly some management companies are useless.

 

[Withnail]

Town Park gets worse every time they redevelop it...

It is very difficult to reconcile this statement with the kind of reality in which most people live. A bit like reading something written by Iain Duncan Smith.

The last time they redeveloped Victoria Park was to put the new park, splash pad and skate park in. No one on this planet could consider that making the place "worse"

'No one on this planet'... well, quite.

 

[HopesDad]

I've seen the plans for the improvement for the Park, and it looks great.
What about all the new shops in the new centre? Plenty of new businesses open and lets face it the old shopping centre was a dire mess long before the new one was even built. It should never have become a shopping centre really - there isn't enough space in the Town centre for a proper shopping centre. I still don't get why people complain about the new one being too far out. It's really no more than 10 minutes walk from the centre of town. Only five minutes from this end.
It's a major motorway, high volume of traffic - lots of mad drivers. Yeah it gets closed sometimes. Pretty sure that happens anywhere around the country. Not sure we can blame Stafford council!
I can't even be bothered to address your great long list of negativity. All the positives in the town outweigh some of those in my opinion. I agree with you about some of those but it's nothing that isn't happening everywhere around the country.

There are actually very few 'new' shops in the new Centre - most of them have moved from the old Centre. I read now that a shop from Stone is now moving there - so that will be another boarded-up shop in Stone paying the price for Stafford's vanity project.

How can you make a ridiculous statement like 'there isn't enough space in the town Centre for a shopping Centre'? There IS a shopping Centre in the town Centre. The only problem is that there are no shops in it. Or anywhere else in the town Centre.

You don't understand why people complain the new Centre is too far out, then admit it is ten minutes walk. If it takes you, who I assume are fit and healthy, ten minutes, it will take less healthy people at least twenty. There is nothing in that Centre that is worth a twenty minute walk (or, for me and many others, a thirty minute wheelchair push).

The 'major motorway' runs most of the length of the country. Very few other towns grind to a halt when it closes, which it inevitably will. That is because they have a proper road infrastructure to cope with it, not the mess that we have to live with. There is a huge thread about that on this board, as I am sure you are aware.

You say the positives in the town outweigh SOME, but not all, of the negatives. You decline to comment on the rest of my list, presumably as you know it is indefensible.

My point is simply that every town has SOME negatives, yet Stafford has ALL of them.

 

[Withnail]

My point is simply that every town has SOME negatives, yet Stafford has ALL of them.

Yet you fail to see that that is exactly why it is difficult to take you seriously.

Stafford is ENTIRELY negative, and hasn't a SINGLE thing going for it whatsoever?

This is, you must surely see, what some might generously characterise as rhetorical hyperbole.

 

[HopesDad]

Yet you fail to see that that is exactly why it is difficult to take you seriously.

Stafford is ENTIRELY negative, and hasn't a SINGLE thing going for it whatsoever?

This is, you must surely see, what some might generously characterise as rhetorical hyperbole.

You have, as expected, chosen to misinterpret what I have said. Nowhere in any of my posts have I ever said that Stafford is entirely negative without any positives. What I have said, in my last post, is that if there are any negatives to be had, then inevitably Stafford will have them.

Unlike many on this board, I do not have a vested interest in any business in the town, nor am I a council employee. That allows me to stand back and take an objective view of reality rather than falling for the 'hype' that many, indeed most, others in this board seem unable to see past.

For clarity and the benefit of the hard of thinking I went to the trouble of listing some of Stafford's failings for you in an earlier post. I defy you to challenge any of them.

 

[Withnail]

You have, as expected, chosen to misinterpret what I have said.

Why would you 'expect' that of me?

I don't even have a vest.

What I have said, in my last post, is that if there are any negatives to be had, then inevitably Stafford will have them.

And if there are any positives, will you list them?