Blackburn road - in front of town hall.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Guinness

Nope…but if I had a garden full of flowers and some amateur told me that they had got funding of £150 to dig them up and replace them with flagstones provided that I put £50 up front, I’m pretty sure that I know what I would tell that amateur and where to place his funding!

It ain't rocket science

Where is this person because I need my the front of my house re-paving?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Neil, you will be out of luck...you want it re-paving which suggests that it is already paved. Unfortunately(for you) the person holding the strings of the purse will only pay out if you swap flowers or plants or trees for a paved area.
You know how finicky these funders are don't you? It has to be their way or no way!

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Neil

Why is it? So many like to blame to the council which has changed colour several times while Accrington town centre as slowly disappeared. I think the main reason the town centre is dying is down to the shoppers. People want to use supermarkets, they want to park outside and fill the car up once a week. They want retail parks and they want to use online shopping from places like ebay, Amazon etc. The shoppers of Accrington and Hyndburn are the reason Accrington is dying as a town centre. Is there are no shoppers there will be no shops. I've heard people say the council should be encouraging shops to come to Accrington with cheap rents and rates but the council don't set the rates and most of the shops available for rent do not belong to the council. Even M&S left and they had a very good deal on their building.

If you want to blame someone, blame the people, blame yourselves every time you use Asda, Tesco, Iceland, B&M, Lidl, Aldi, Home Bargains, Pets at Home, Currys and all the other supermarket type shops not in the town centre most of us use.

One of the biggest, yet very seldom mentioned causes of dying shops, is the refrigerator & the freezer, when I was growing up we didn't have them, you bought your food supplies practically every day, then along they came, and now every household has one or both, and those supermarkets are only too happy to cater for you, corner shops, corner grocers & butchers died a quick death. There is no turning the clock back, I am also a victim or culprit, I would rather go once a week, fortnight or even a month, than traipsing to shops every day, even fish & chip shops are getting the knock, but I still like my Friday Chippy Tea & my own mushy peas.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Things are not going to get better anytime soon, in fact we are likely to see the demise of more shops when the new business rates are applied.
The loss of shops will be detrimental to those who cannot, for whatever reason get to the large out of town areas to shop...those who cannot shop online...and there are still a number of people who do not have access to the Internet.
Once the shops are gone the Internet companies who supply goods will have the shopper by the short and curlies.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Neil, you will be out of luck...you want it re-paving which suggests that it is already paved. Unfortunately(for you) the person holding the strings of the purse will only pay out if you swap flowers or plants or trees for a paved area.
You know how finicky these funders are don't you? It has to be their way or no way!

I'm in luck, part of the area is currently unpaved and has stuff growing in it, weeds mainly and cat mess and there is a hole in the front paved area that I've already cut a tree down so I must be pretty much spot on with the requirements - uneven damaged paving caused by tree roots, removed flower areas, animal mess everywhere and a murdered tree. Do you think I need a few taxis and ignorant driver to drive on it before I apply?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Most certainly Neil...and even then be prepared for disappointment. Your plans and theirs may not marry up. You might have to commit to spending more than the fifty quid to get your windows and your neighbours windows upgraded to show off the finished project to its best advantage.

[Neil]

As long as it still costs me less money than it would have cost me to do the work with my own money then I'm still onto a winner

[Margaret Pilkington]

Well, not necessarily...especially if you haven't got that money to spare...or if you have it earmarked to do something important...like EAT.
Dealing with your front garden is a luxury, not a necessity...what would you do, have a fantastic front garden but a roof the leaks every time it rains?

However you cut it Neil, this project is one that Accrington could easily live without and it would make little difference to the lives of the people who live here.
It is for vanity....it is a show off thing. There are other more important things that could be done with the 1.2 million of our money.
Tell the lottery folk to stick their money where monkeys shove their nuts.

[KiTChener]

A vanity project, just like our spanking new bus station, wonder what the next one will be? A McDonalds type arch, as you enter town via Blackburn Road from Church?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, that was also a truckload of money that could have been better spent...but again another project that was cut and dried regardless of what the residents of the borough felt about it.
The public not listened to. This seems to be a common thread in both local and national politics.

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Neil

Where is this person because I need my the front of my house re-paving?

https://democracy.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/...o.aspx?UID=139

Don't you already have him on speed dial?

[Margaret Pilkington]

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitio...orough-council

If anyone is interested in signing this petition over the loss of the two lovely trees that were removed from the front of the Market Hall, that link above will take you to the page where you can register your protest.

[AccyMad]

Just read in the LET that Councillor Tony Dobson & other conservative councillors are going to try & get the town square plans stopped tonight at a full council meeting - too little, too late probably & no doubt for their own ends, pity they didn't try harder before the trees were felled to make room for the project

[Margaret Pilkington]

Like you I think they have found their principles(and their voice ) a bit late in the day. Certainly too late to do anything about the trees.

It was a cut and dried decision from the outset...the council was not in the least bit interested in what anyone in the borough felt.
Their idea of consultation is to ask as few people as possible and then filter out those who gave the 'wrong' responses.

[Neil]

Principals will have nothing to do with it and the county election in May everything to do with it. No way the Tories wouldn't have agreed to bringing HLF funding to Accrington centre if they had been in power. Peter spent 11 years working with the Friends of Rhyddings Park to get HLF funding only to turn against the group putting the whole project at risk to keep a few voters happy and attack the Labour party.

It's just politics. He used Labour deselecting Clare Pritchard as a way of attacking the Labour party at a full county council meeting this afternoon. He was praising Clare and how hard she has worked for Hyndburn.