Vision or Illusion?

[steveL]

Looks like Councillor Stubbs is taking criticism of Calamity Chris' fading vision to heart.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/this-will-happen-civic-chief-says-hartlepool-masterplan-will-become-reality-1-7053599

Interesting how The Marina is still dragged out as being the focal point of the town's prospects but it's not surprising that people doubt the council's credibility on generating anything new. You only have to look at HBC's record on The Marina itself. It's more than 4 years since Stubbs told us that the council's adoption of the roads and pavements of The Marina would take place 'within a fortnight', the Wingfield Castle has been allowed to slowly turn into a rust bucket and twenty years after the Marina development started it still looks like a half-complete building site.

You don't need 'a vision' to look after what you already have; you just need a smattering of organisational competence. That said, if you don't posses such a thing then I guess it's easier to talk about visions than reality.   

[mk1]

2004



2014



2004 delusion here:
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/163-500m-plan-to-transform-town-1-1005217

[not4me]

 

These two pics describe the problem so precisely. A point brilliantly made. Who are the 2004 characters?

[steveL]

Any Dream Will Do . . . 

[Inspector Knacker]

The  so called masterplan will be trumpeted at full volume like some incessant back ground jungle drum beat and then fade quietly away some time in May.
A distraction  for the dimmer end of the electoral spectrum.

[Inspector Knacker]

Why do I feel from the outset this whole project was to define Hartlepool asa low wage service/ leisure location within the Teesside masterplan.. a pleasant backwater beside the sea and the real business centred in the Middlesbrough/ Stockton axis.
The marina should have been a welcome addition and not adopted by politicians as defining the town .

[steveL]

This is all very weird. The Mail has run several slightly different versions of the same non-story about five times now. A sign perhaps that the tiff is over with kisses and hugs all round.

I can almost hear Stubbs spiel now. "Now, Joy. You need to get fully behind this Vision thing to help us create the illusion that we're doing something positive before the May elections."

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/absolutely-fantastic-councillors-hail-future-plans-for-hartlepool-1-7055847

[Inspector Knacker]

Reading the piece in the Mail is to experience banality in action. Choreographed quotes from political droids extolling their own  'masterplan' as 'absolutely fantastic'  is cringeworthy.
To give an example..... .one councillor asks for 'better access between the railway station and the marina'  which begs the question  why.....? What is the relationship between  a sparse rail service and the marina..... are train loads of visitors arriving and heading for the marina.... er, no !
The whole thing is wishful jibber jabber ... the article tells us nothing, offers nothing, contains nothing and consists of the usual media addicts pointing themselves at the nearest camera and letting rip  with their vision of bright sunlit uplands.... or their limited perception of such a place..... watching these people describing their vision for our town is like watching an adolescent chimpanzee holding a Ming vase.

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Oh, I don't know - could it be that the word 'fantastic' is entirely appropriate?  After all, the OED gives the following as a definition:

Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality

[mk1]

It is not so much a link for the railways station but more a way to get people over to the Marina without having to risk their lives crossing the chaotic junction. A good walkway between the Historic Quay and Church Street would be most welcome. Thing is there used to be just such a path. The tunnel under the railway that was in the area now known as the 'Bus Station'.
Our idiotic councillors decided we did not need it any more. How wrong they were. 

[mk1]

I noticed it as well. It seems the Council have gone into overdrive playing up their delusion. Notice how Stubb's  mention 'Social media sites' but we all know who he meant.
It shows just how scared they are of the site.

They really mean it this time folks, they really really mean it. They're not kidding. This time they are really are gonna do it..........

Dumb fecks. They have no idea  how pathetic they sound.

[Inspector Knacker]

Sorry, but don't think a crossing would make a blind bit of difference as there's no one down there to use it....... I just think they've opened up a tin of vague thought bubbles......  and they don't do joined up thought.

[mk1]

Everyone east of Stockton road would. Anything  is better than the absolute nightmare it is now . The way the town centre has been cut in two by the road is the biggest mistake made by town planners in Hartlepool's history. No account is taken of pedestrians and only the motorist was catered for. As I mentioned earlier they even filled in a perfectly good subway that was there for over 50 years.

[Inspector Knacker]

It all went wrong when they built the shopping centre and mucked everything up.... and the town centre has been messed up ever since.
Middleton Grange was a monument to the municipsl ego.... dumb planning, ...... I can think of no other town who uprooted its shopping area in such a way instead of building next to its .existing centre

[mk1]

The only 'vision' that would have been of lasting benefit was a bridge from Middleton to the Headland. It would have created a true 'corridor' from Old Hartlepool to the town centre. However our lot are more concerned with borrowing 'X00' million quid fabricating a vision that has no other aim but to cover up the insane decision to get into hock  to buy the tin shed. We are going through this so the Dear Leader does not end up with egg all over his botox scarred face.