An assimilation of thoughts and reflections on High Street decay and renewal.
Just over a year ago BT announced a major investment for Dunbar in high speed Broadband. This is the sort of speed that local residents are unlikely to complain about, though we might want to spare a thought for the digital have-nots in the “remote rural” countryside nearby.
There are literally dozens and dozens of ways to improve our High Streets and as you would expect some people have thought about this at greater length than me, so I am not going to give you an orthodox list. Some of the issues that are faced are structural and other problems deeply embedded (e.g. economic hardship), while some things still are likely to be cyclical, if you believe economic theory.
My list boils it down to a list of things that ‘we can do’. I believe we should be:
Not everyone wants public car parking at Abbeylands, Dunbar. Over 50 signatures, all people who live nearby, believe resident parking is a higher priority. Residents have no dedicated parking provision, unlike in Haddington or North Berwick, and what long term parking is now available will be reduced to nothing if current muddled plans go ahead. Among traders and residents there is a broad consensus that the problem in Dunbar is exaggerated and being used as a political football. Councillors really ought to listen to ratepayers and not follow their populist instincts.
Continue reading Letter to press: Not everyone wants public car parking at Abbeylands
Dunbar, well Belhaven actually, is world famous for its Bridge to Nowhere. Now there are plans for a Road to Nowhere. Just weeks after we heard that the Abbey Church is once again on the market, with any prospect of much needed sensitively designed housing development being stymied, we hear that another council department have been tasked with creating another killer attraction for Dunbar … yes, wait for it a car park. The road to Abbeylands, a quiet cul de sac, is to be Dunbar’s new Road to Nowhere.
There is a fatal and incomprehensible attraction among our town planners and policy makers to the discredited policy of “predict and provide”. There is a particular obsession with providing even more space for cars, when their own policies suggest they should do otherwise and national policies are basically saying “reduce car dependency”. We all need the bloody exercise as its our arteries getting congested not the roads, even if we couldn’t give a monkeys about the planet. North Berwick is a case in point, where consultants get hired not to advise on the best way of managing the parking problem, but to identify the best place to provide additional parking. This is not just barking it is insane. Dunbar is not a major holiday destination, not yet, as the accommodation and attractions don’t quite cut it.
Continue reading The Road to Nowhere – New Dunbar Attraction