The Poolie Bunker

I see a MP is trying to put through a bill in Parliament to force absent landlords to let charities etc to have properties rent free if the building is unoccupied for a year plus. Good idea but as these properties are effectively worthless why not legislate for councils to purchase at real market value (very low after demolition cost) and simply demolish.
The MP concerned focused on Stanley which is typical of many areas.
There is simply too much retail buildings in many towns. The world has changed and what we had 20/30 years ago is history with online deliveries growing. Many would be much happier going to a smaller centre which looks pleasant with different offerings.

Yet our MP and Council want to spend millions on our town Center and the old Binns.....Town centers are dead in the water.........The mind boggles with the money these people waste!!

I bet the old Binn’s will become offices, better than demolition…no point knocking down buildings en masse.
But I always thought building the shopping centre was a major mistake…Lynn Street was in the real centre of the town at the time, but Councillors do seem to like leaving a legacy.

true, but many others at the time welcomed it. Lynn st. was getting tatty by the time it was demolished and well past its best. a refurb was the best choice but it was the time when modernisation and concrete were king.

Hartlepool Shopping Centre would probably thrive if it was free parking all the time, but parking fees are a source of revenue for the council so I can’t see that happening. The management of Hartlepool centre have made a real effort this year and the centre looks very festive.

The £13.8 million allocated in 2021 for Hartlepool is worth what now as construction costs have increased 20-25% since then.
Is central government going to fund it back to its original worth? Its not going to be completed until December 2027 phasing the costs over several financial years!
Do you get the impression that central governments dont like spending money on towns like Hartlepool?

A statement says,
"Work is currently taking place to appoint a development manager and it is hoped they will be in place early in the new year, with a planning application expected to be submitted around July time.
It is hoped planning permission would be secured in September, with construction starting on site in May 2027 and being completed in December 2027."

Why could not the development manager and planning permission issues have been sorted years ago?
Deliberate delays ????

Yes i think they have done a good christmas job this year and the central areas do look fine. I hope they are going to board over the empty shops on the corridor towards Church Square or block it off completely and sort the corridor from King Johns which is full of pigeons and pigeon crap.

think we all know how towns have started to thrive by giving free parking and those who have gone the other way when charges have increased. Especially the ones that have little tourism and nothing much there to recommend them. Councils want it both ways. All the shops to thrive to get money from them plus rip off car owners and say they want everyone on there bikes or buses for sustainability bollocks.

Modern architecture in the 60/70s in towns and cities concrete structures with the obligatory multi story car park then came along the retail parks and now the crumbling centres are falling to bits some with the raac concrete including Hartlepool’s Middleton Grange.

most of that started under wilsons labour government when anything old was demolished with relish to provide modern towns that looked just like the rest. the ones that managed to avoid most of that seems the ones that are flourishing now.

The redevelopment of Billingham centre seems to have hit the buffers.
Nowt happens quickly !

Speaking of free parking, th3 Council brought it in under the Akers -Belchers to pay for improvements…..show me them.
They didn’t charge for winter parking, but the replacements did…why….? Surely in the winter is the time for helping local businesses at a seaside location.
The site of the Ice cream van near the Green is a point in question…you have to pay £1.50 to get out of your car to buy an ice cream…fecking joke.., Councilnomics in operation.

Lynn St needed developing, ..a shopping Street with pubs galore which now would be bars or cafes, other towns did it…..trouble is when politicians get involved, sense goes out of the window where ego’s are concerned.
I recall my dad saying the original plans were called in by the NE Regional planning body as they doubted the wisdom of removing town centre shopping to a completely different location…but the locals got their way…maybe the shopping centre might have been better remodelled around Lynn Street…instead we got a tribute to 1960’’s concrete wind tunnel school of concrete eyesores spite in a whose layout was going out of fashion even then……looking like the old U boat pens in Western France…..when it comes to planning, we certainly showed the way not to do it.

Hes really good value i think a small cone is not much more than the parking.
The cost of collection (including enforcement) in Dec/Jan/Feb must be more than the income and i think a lot of people dont bother.

Ha ha nice one ..............are they £1.75?

I don’t know ….but an hard cornet goes down well whatever the temperature

thats true, but have the businesses suffered with the car parking charge. was down seaton about 11 in the morning the last home league game and there were still plenty willing to pay for parking plus having a piss as well. think its more annoying than the actual cost we pay.

Yes its a pain i often just go into the Seaton Lane library car park and walk down. The cost as you say it is very reasonable.

i,d rather pay for parking at seaton than in the town centre. you have to go to the shops but you go to seaton for leisure and its not compulsory.

You have no choice, you have to pay…during the week when it’s quiet however, it ain’t so busy…so go elsewhere.

Very true!

if it actually looked like that but at the end it didn,t. it was gloomy and past its best but needed modernising and nit the wreckjng ball.

I was in Hartlepools today and they have decorated it well and it looks a lot cleaner. Also any vacant shops have been emptied of fixtures and fitting and look like they have been cleaned inside. So credit where credits due.

It was run down because our Councillors at the time were on an ego trip and getting quite aroused over the distant prospect of Middleton Grange being born, so Lynn Street was forgotten about.
Some Councillors just love to leave a legacy.

some, you mean all. they love to tell everyone about the hours they put in blah blah blah. should be a hall of shame set up for all who had real input in the scheme plus those who made something out of it.

Let’s be honest, show them a blueprint of the scheme and you might as well be showing them a wiring circuit for a tumble drier, they’d be none the wiser….nodding dogs.

Free parking and low rents and the retailers will come. At the moment why would you go there unless you’ve got a charity shop fetish.

but would they. is there the interest anymore looking round the shops even by lasses. more a case of going out now and getting what you want than window shopping and brousing about like they used to do. bit like pools has become for us, more of a chore than entertainment.

Do the kids go to town these days? It was the done thing when I was a lad to hang around the shopping centre on a saturday.

Have a read of this.Is the development is stalling? Political infighting between HBC and HDC? The £13.8m was a 2021 figure.........what will be buy now? Rumours circulate as to the centres financial viability?
https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/busine ... re-5598025

Or is it the case that central government wont release the money as it not for London and the South East?

The only way it would thrive is to get similar shops the same as the retail parks, similar rents maybe even less, reduced business rates and free parking other than it is dead in the water like the majority of town centre shopping centres in the U.K.