What Next?

[for fawkes sake]

There will be mixed feelings about the local council's plans to scrap the camera car but its decision to sell the town centre car parks surprised me and I'm sure will surprise many others. It seems very short-sighted to me and I would worry about the long-term plans of any private owner. Many people have said that they believe the days of Middleton Grange are numbered - would a private owner of town centre land not benefit if it were true?

[one direction]

Now that Greggs have pasty shops on Belle Vue Way, Catcote Road and Powlet Road then will anyone care if the town centre shops are knocked down and houses built on the site?

PS Great website App which you can load on your mobile. Never be lost for a Greggs!

https://www.greggs.co.uk/home/shop-finder/

[steveL]

Greggs pasties are getting smaller and so expensive that they are in danger of losing their core market. Personally, I prefer the meat and potato pasties from Morrisons. They look like a pastie (not a pancake), don't ooze fat and are much cheaper.

[mk1]

PS Great website App which you can load on your mobile. Never be lost for a Greggs!

https://www.greggs.co.uk/home/shop-finder/

When I was in Leeds I was struck by the numbers of Greggs in the town centre near the railways station.
Birmingham has 3 right next to New Street Station and Manchester has 3 near to Piccadilly Station. They are taking over the world.
Interesting fact. They sell different variations of their standard  'cakes' in Leeds than they do in the north east.

[Hartlepudlion]

Ffs. Perhaps some see this as their last chance to line their pockets, bribe their core voters? Who knows?

[Stranger in a Strange ...]

The Gregg's in the Bloomsbury area of London gives you a serviette with each purchase.  How posh is that?   

[gmeasor]

I'm frankly astounded that our car crash of a council are even contemplating this.  Car parking charges are just wrong.  Selling off the car parks!!  EH!  We will probably end up with a company like Parking Eye, who currently fleece the families of sick and dying patients in hospital, in my opinion a reprehensible concept.  Even though we have already paid for the service via our taxes, and to rub porridge into the wound, is FREE in Scotland (along with prescriptions and university education - no wonder they wanted to stay part of the union).  I am of the opinion that the council should retain ownership of the car parks.  As an incentive for people to visit Middleton Grange they should be free.  Or perhaps this is also part of a bigger plan.  Sell off the car parks (more nauseating lunacy) which will further strangle the town centre.  More businesses will close.  Eventually a time will come when the number of businesses in Middleton Grange is the same as the number of vacant units in the £2Million white elephant that is Jacksons Landing.  They will then be offered a more competitive rate to move across to the new site.  Our shopping centre will then close and be demolished for more housing.  A stupidly short term win for the council.  God knows our town needs more housing, demonstrated by the fact that the population of the town has not really changed much in the past 40 years.  So exactly who is going to buy all of these houses is a mystery to me.  Personally May can't come soon enough.  I am so fed up of the way our council is being ran I cannot put it into words.  Good people of Hartlepool, this is a heartfelt plea.  Please vote for change before it's too late!!!

[one direction]

Good people of Hartlepool, this is a heartfelt plea.  Please vote for change before it's too late!!!

A heartfelt plea that will fasll on deaf ears other than the tiny minority who read this forum and are already convinced. A good book, Leading Change by John Kotter might help. Although aimed at businesses it has many lessons that can be applied to politics.

He says that changes only happen when people see the point of the change. If people are comfortable and happy without the change, they're going to resist it, not because they're miserable stuck-in-the-mud Luddites, but because they don't have any need to change and very few people like change for the sake of it. Change takes effort and stress and unfamiliarity and insecurity. People are only going to do that if being where they are is uncomfortable. So Kotter says, turn up the heat. Make it uncomfortable. People have to know that life sucks before they'll try something else. Somewhere he says that losing a billion dollars is a good way to get noticed. So your first task is to communicate to people, in terms that they understand, that they have a problem. This doesn't mean "tell them that they have a problem that they didn't know about." It means "find ways to get them to realise that they have a problem."

I read that as "things need to get an awful lot worse before they are going to get any better!

[gmeasor]

Beautifully insightful.  If things continue as they are, then what you have described will come to pass.

[beanzontoast]

UKIP campaigned to reduce council car parking changes including the hospital, they also campaigned to cut outside consultants, and guess what the residents voted labour back in, Labours core vote is the reason it is difficult for change to happen, 

[pensionater]

In a general election people have only 2 choices,Tory or Labour.They decide who will benefit them most when in government.In poorer areas of the country like Hartlepool,in most peoples minds and hearts that is Labour.Until people seriously believe that another party has a chance of getting into power,that's how it will remain. 

[mk1]

UKIP campaigned to reduce council car parking changes including the hospital, they also campaigned to cut outside consultants,

In 2010 UKIP said it was going to force all those on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit 'in private rented homes'  take part in Local Council run workfare schemes. Is this still the policy and can you explain how those who receive these benefits and are in full time work (the majority) can do the 'workfare' scheme as well as their full time job?

UKIP said it was also going to ban all 'Global Warming Propaganda' from schools. Is it still UKIP policy to remove   books from schools that contradict its political stance and will this be widened to prevent schoolchildren reading any books that  criticise UKIP?

[beanzontoast]

One question at a time please global warming is propaganda,  it hasn't been proved as an exact science even the climate change body were found to manipulate the computer model, those paid to make this assessment were paid by governments,  and they asked what these governments wanted and then skewed the data to reflect this,  so putting books in schools is blatant propaganda from those who wanted green energy at any cost, ii mean we only produced 2% of the world CO2, china and America did not sign the Kyoto agreement whiich meant china was still building coal fied power stations which made a mokery of what we were doing, but hey ho didn't your electric bills go up . As for the other question you could phone a friend and ask Phil Broughton,  answers please on this forum.

[mk1]

please global warming is propaganda.........  .

There is the answer. Book burning is UKIP policy.

I notice no denial of the UKIP policy of forcing people with full time jobs to do extra work for the council if they are getting any Council Tax or Housing Benefit.

[beanzontoast]

I for one wouldn't be at all bothered if people criticised UKIP in books or any other media for that matter as long as the facts are correct.