Brave New World - - ?

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 09:02

This has been mentioned before but this is the first I have seen of concrete proposals. We are to be included in a Regional Park, which will cover the whole of East Lancs. If successful, it will mean significant change. To understand the actions/inactions of HBC I think it is important that we all have a look at this document.

http://www.elp.org.uk/downloads/regionalparkbid.pdf

More importantly, it contains a whole forest of sticks with which to beat the council.

simon · 21-10-2004, 09:25

That is a lot to read Bob. It look's like a nice dream with some lovely Pic's, but unfortunately it read's like any legal document and I get lost in mumbo jumbo very quickly,

If anyone gets any gems out of this please interperet it for me...

Thank's for letting us look A-Bob.

Less · 21-10-2004, 09:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

This has been mentioned before but this is the first I have seen of concrete proposals. We are to be included in a Regional Park, which will cover the whole of East Lancs. If successful, it will mean significant change. To understand the actions/inactions of HBC I think it is important that we all have a look at this document.

http://www.elp.org.uk/downloads/regionalparkbid.pdf

More importantly, it contains a whole forest of sticks with which to beat the council.

Well A-B, I'll be leaving it to you to wade through that one my p.c. isn't designed to work with micro-fitch & if I have to turn the contrast up much more on my monitor just to see those God awful pictures, I think I'd rather go blind.

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 10:54

One of the first changes you will see is that your postal address has now changed from Lancashire to East Lancashire.

The plan groups all the authorities in the area; Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Ribble Valley into what is now to be known as a Regional Park. This regional park is to become a rural city, referred to as East Lancashire.

The plan recognises that the area is in a pretty awful condition and sets out a ten year scheme for improvements, we are currently in year 4 of that scheme.

This is where Elevate East lancs, Project Phoenix and the Panopticon originate from.

The main thrust of the scheme is to increase tourism in the area by a whopping 15% over the life of the scheme.

We are expected to wish to become hyperactive in getting out and about to do conservation work and bags of healthy outdoor activities, such as White Water Canooing (I kid you not, it is in the details of the bid) . Additionally there will be what are referred to as Gateways to the regional park/rural city, where large publicly funded art works will announce to the eager thrill seeker that they have arrived on the doorstep of a whole new life experience(groan!). There will also be interractive maps on the web which will show just what is available and where it is. I have just had a look at the map for Accrington - Stocklys Sweets, Ossy Mills and Haworth Art Gallery- Oh be still my beating heart !

Not content with all these joys, we are to be surrounded by 2,450 acres of new woodland, hedgerows, cycle paths, and walk ways with community art projects, which means more of those god-awful primary school mosaics.

The Scheme also recognises that a disproportionate amount of the jobs available in the area are poorly paid and require low skills, and it aims to rectify this by taking on, as a major sponser, Time Computers at Altham, one of the poorest Employers in the entire borough.

Oh there is so much in this that is poorly thought out, unfeasable, inappropriate, desperately fashionable, and just plain wrong! that it will keep Tealeaf and I in business for ages.

Go on, make the effort and read it, it really is worth submitting for the Booker Prize under the heading of Humourous Fiction/Satire.

WillowTheWhisp · 21-10-2004, 11:47

My initial reaction is raise the questions:-

a)If we are in year 4 of a 10 year plan why haven't we noticed a marked improvement in our lot so far, to date, up to now, as it were, so to speak?

b)Have they any plans regarding how to prevent these works of community art being vandalised such as happened to those we already have/had?

AND - more importantly,
c) Can I opt out of the White Water Canoeing? My daughter did some of that at school camp and got very wet.

I shall endeavour to set aside time to read the rest of this interesting item A-b. Where would we be without you bringing these little gems to our attention?

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 11:58

In response to your questions:

A. I would have to say that your guess is a good as mine.
B. The preventative measures have already been outlined by Peter - £16000 a year - Britcliffe, when he wrote in the observer a month or so ago, that it was his intention to keep things in Hyndburn plain and simple, so there would be no public art.
C. No. There will be no opt outs. It's for your own good, just be grateful and get on with it. You never know you might enjoy it. Though quite where this activity will be carried on is a mystery to me. Ideas anybody?

Darby · 21-10-2004, 12:04

Quote:

C. No. There will be no opt outs. It's for your own good, just be grateful and get on with it. You never know you might enjoy it. Though quite where this activity will be carried on is a mystery to me. Ideas anybody?

River Stink as it goes underground in Church?.........or Tinker Brook? Hodder? Ribble? Calder?

WillowTheWhisp · 21-10-2004, 12:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Though quite where this activity will be carried on is a mystery to me. Ideas anybody?

Absolutely! We could get that dream of mine going at the bottom of Oak St/Black Abbey where the 'town centre countryside' is under threat from a proposed health centre. Get rid of the junk, enlarge a picnic area and develop the river so that it is suitable for the white water canoeing.

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 12:16

I always imagined that "White Water" implied immense torrents of water, huge waves and dangerous obstacles. Quite like the terrifying courses laid out for the sport at the Olympic Games. I dont recall any of the watercourses in the vicinity coming anywhere near an approximation of that, except on the odd occaision when they are in serious flood following a prolonged spell of heavy rainfall, which would be far too unpredictable to base a tourist attraction/health activity on.

Or am I being too picky. Perhaps "white" refers not to the volume of water but to it's contamination with industrial pollutants, in which case the local watercourses would be eminently suitable, particularly the Calder.

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 12:23

A bit like this... Better get the wellies out Willow

WillowTheWhisp · 21-10-2004, 12:25

Oh yes! I can definitely see me doing that.

lettie · 21-10-2004, 12:25

Can't think of anywhere round here suitable for white water activities. I wish there were as I'd be first in the queue. Had a do at white water rafting in Chamonix a couple of years ago and it's great fun...

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 12:30

There you are Willow, Lettie say's it's great fun, besides, you get to wear a nice plastic crash helmet! Honestly! I can't see what all the fuss is about.

Tealeaf · 21-10-2004, 14:30

You'd also need a polio/typhoid/cholera/smallpox vacination if you were to go white water rafting on the River Stink. Plus you would need full body armour to avoid impaling youself on the Asda shopping trolleys when you fell off. No need to worry about drowning, though; you'd be killed off by the pollutants well before then.

Acrylic-bob · 21-10-2004, 14:36

As I said, I can't see what all the fuss is about.