**CRANNEY ALERT**

[steveL]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed the pattern here. Over the years, a single event, in this case the College of Art's own expansion plans, is hijacked by HBC and triggers some sort of totally unrealistic 'vision' as in desperation the local council latches onto the idea and announces it as yet another new beginning. Look how the Royal Navy Museum is being hailed as the magnet which will pull in thousands upon thousands of visitors to an area the council has totally neglected ever since responsibility was transferred to HBC post TDC.

Church Street currently consists of a mixture of bars and takeaways which, from my experience, is where students spend much of their lives. In other words, if the interests of students are the main issue then they are already well covered though a few more music venues might be worth pursuing.

With Morton being pals with Damien Wilson and Cranney drooling over the possibility of all that grant money I think we can all guess what the direction of this will be. I caught site of Cranney staggering into the meeting where this was discussed. I've no idea why his nostrils appeared to be covered in self-raising flour but perhaps it's just as well he got a taxi home.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/hartlepool-s-church-street-a-step-closer-to-becoming-vibrant-cluster-of-creative-companies-1-7448530

[fred c]

Typical a**e about face thinking by The Mob, Church St is a busy commuter route for people who work along the Tees Rd / Seal Sands / Haverton Hill corridor, so why would HBC come up with someting that would restrict the flow of that traffic into & out of the town, all that will lead to is increased traffic coming into the town along Brenda Rd & the A689 which is already something of a nightmare.

The "Provisional Funding" another inducement from Teesside is only that.... Provisional, I drove along Church St last night & The Shades would probably take half of that amount of money to restore.

BTW how much did the CAD pay for the land where the council depot stood ? or was that something else given away for nothing.

[steveL]

I like the idea of paving off Church Street but it's impossible until they sort out the traffic flow which at 5pm is horrific. The fact that I've seen nothing that even recognises the traffic as an issue gives us some idea just how well this 'vision' has been thought out.

[not4me]

Sooner or later they will have to drop the idea of paving over Church Street. The only way to redirect the traffic would be down Hucklehoven Way and, such is their inability to forward plan, that road is too narrow and surrounded by houses with young kids....and then there's access to the railway station which doesn't seem to have occurred to them at all. Total Divvys, the lot of them.

I wonder how long it will take Wilson to come up with some sort of grant-aid package for his mate, Hillcarter owner Morton?

[Land Phil]

Constant bad town planning.

Probably easier to pedestrianise York Road than Church Street.
Less likely to have cafe culture down there though and that is saying something.

HBC is full of busy body wannabe senior/executive managers and not a single leader between them all, officers or councillors.

Maybe if they opened positions up to the general job market they would get some decent staff.

[not4me]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed the pattern here. Over the years, a single event, in this case the College of Art's own expansion plans, is hijacked by HBC and triggers some sort of totally unrealistic 'vision' as in desperation the local council latches onto the idea and announces it as yet another new beginning. Look how the Royal Navy Museum is being hailed as the magnet which will pull in thousands upon thousands of visitors to an area the council has totally neglected ever since responsibility was transferred to HBC post TDC.

Church Street currently consists of a mixture of bars and takeaways which, from my experience, is where students spend much of their lives. In other words, if the interests of students are the main issue then they are already well covered though a few more music venues might be worth pursuing.

With Morton being pals with Damien Wilson and Cranney drooling over the possibility of all that grant money I think we can all guess what the direction of this will be. I caught site of Cranney staggering into the meeting where this was discussed. I've no idea why his nostrils appeared to be covered in self-raising flour but perhaps it's just as well he got a taxi home.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/hartlepool-s-church-street-a-step-closer-to-becoming-vibrant-cluster-of-creative-companies-1-7448530

Nail on the head time.

All the College of Art did was to announce a link-up with Bournemouth, that it would be taking a few more degree students and that it hoped eventually that the figure would grow over time. Suddenly, a bunch of empty-headed councillors and clueless senior officers desperate to remind us that they're still there are talking about creating 'A Skills Quarter'.

In truth, they have no ideas of their own and so are constantly searching for someone else's to hijack.