Creeping ever forward.

[Inspector Knacker]

Driving up towards Hart and passed the next insidious encroachment of urban sprawl as a yet another new housing development nudges ever closer to Hart village. Now I may be a bit naive here, but considering we're always portrayed as a town on the 'bones of its ar*e' as my Dad used to say, there's been an awful lot of twee housing developments over the past few years and still it carries on apace.
Once again, if we're portrayed as being on the breadline, who's buying them?
When will the expansion into green fields be reined in, this cannot continue surely?

[eddy]

There is a market and desire to live in the house near the farmland on the edge of a town, regardless of what is happening in the town centre.  For house builders its the easiest land to build on (as in not brownfield, contaminated etc) and tends to attract higher house values, sales and profits.  You then end up with the middle to centre of town becoming empty, run down with poor quality housing stock.  I did this at Uni, its called the Doughnut effect.  A reasonable proportion of the people who buy houses out in Hart will probs never use the amenities in Hartlepool or integrate into the community, they see it as a chance to own their aspirational edge of town 4 bed detached.

To be fair it isnt that different to the 1960s and construction of the Fens estate etc 

[Inspector Knacker]

There's a scale to expansion and I suspect the Fens was just about the limit. I too suspect those in their nice houses on the edge of town will never use local services or even integrate into town life but whizz onto the A19 in their bragwagons to something that matches their tedious aspirations.
I must be getting old 

[stokoe]

I come into town between 6 and 7 am the stream of cars heading for the A19 is unbelievable would love to know the percentage of the town work out of Hartlepool.

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

I come into town between 6 and 7 am the stream of cars heading for the A19 is unbelievable would love to know the percentage of the town work out of Hartlepool.

Suspect it to be significant!

[eddy]

To be fair there isnt much potential for white collar jobs in town, save the now empty call centres.  Probably 2 or 3 people I went to school with still work in the town, and not that many more have remained in the north east

[Topcat]

I served my apprenticeship at the Steelworks south works and worked there from 1965-1973 from then until I retired in 2012 I worked out of town ,mostly in Stockton but also in Billingham. I would say that most people now, especially in engineering trades,need to find work out of town because the traditional main employers no longer exist here.

[Inspector Knacker]

Might this have always been the plan, to turn us into a dormitory town, we've had nodding dog Councillors of all Party's willing to jump when their collars were tugged.
There's been no sign of any civic courage or fight for many a long year, I suppose being the dominant species in a car park puddle appeals along with a total lack of ambition.

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Might this have always been the plan, to turn us into a dormitory town, we've had nodding dog Councillors of all Party's willing to jump when their collars were tugged.

Thoroughbred or mongrel? ... 

[eddy]

Part of the problem is simple geography, we are out of the way, even compared to Middlesborough.  It may only be 10 mins further but that counts for a lot, good transport links etc. 

Historically we had big employers in two which kept people local but now this isnt the case.  We have sort of done a half arsed attempt at leisure with the Marina but the baron land that surrounds the Historic Quay is a testament to none achievement.  It doesnt shock me most of the cars head out of town on a morning, or that most of the work in my field is located around Manchester / Leeds / Newcastle

[Inspector Knacker]

I don't buy the transport links stuff, we're no further from the A19 than Sunderland centre is as for 10 minutes making a difference is cobblers ( to use a technical term). I travel all around the country by car and it isn't the distance that counts it's the congestion, that's the killer. I came off the M6 at Preston last week which is literally on the M6 and took over 40 minutes to travel just over a mile.
You talk as though we're in the bleeding tundra with majestic herds of Caribou moving down the Burn Valley en masse.
As for the barren land in the Marina, refer your enquiries to the developer who's left it like that for years and it would appear is unwilling to release the land.
Eddy you possess that unsavoury Hartlepool trait of thinking 'it's not for the likes of us'  or the classic ' we're just little ole Hartlepool's in buckets.