Redcar
need leadership not pressure groups
Much is being said about nothing, in the battle over whether the Redcar Council
should sell the Coatham enclosure to allow houses to be built. In selling this
building land, Redcar will become the beneficiary of a much desired swimming
pool for the town. The cry of battle is being voiced by such disillusioned Councillors
as Mike Findley and the ever robust pressure group leader/comedian Chris McGlade.
Mike Findley sites the building of the Regents Walk and the demise of the High
Street being as a direct result of Council intervention, unfortunately history
does not back Mikes ebullience. Redcar went into decline with its demise as
a seaside holiday town. Cumulatively the High Street encapsulated by late 18
century terrace houses on one side and the sea on the other, had no where to
build the new shopping centres that emboldened Stockton and Middlesbrough into
centres of commerce. The Councils attempt with Regents Walk was to let the High
Street breakout form these shackles which had restricted it growth, in this
objective the Council was immensely successful. The History
But lets examine the High Street, and it history throughout the 60 years that
my family traded within it. One thing differs immensely between now and then.
Local heroes, Aldermen and the Town fathers that upheld and built the town and
their small but effective Redcar Town council, could anyone remembering these
times in their wildest imaginings have seen this Council knocking down the town
swimming baths in the first place.
Such a decision to rape the Town of this asset was taken by accountant driven
from an unattached Eston based Town Council with little regard for individuality
and the pride of the Town of Redcar. The future
Look no further than Saltburn, to see what a small group of individuals can
achieve in a town outside that of Government.
By Saltburn’s example; the Redcar Town Centre shop traders could revitalise
their business immediately by using each morning a bucket of hot water to wash
their shop fronts and especially the pavements. If anyone within these shops
says. “That the Councils job”. Remind them, that their commercial
rates are paid to the National Government and not the local Council. The Redcar
health department have just about enough funds to empty the public litter bins
and provide a toilet. It is to the shop keepers to embolden the High Street
with colour, polished door steps, flowers and community fellowship. For what
customers first see without, is an invitation to the quality they will find
within.
With a modern trend towards individuality in shopping, Redcar is ideally placed
to capture this opportunity, in providing lots of small exciting shops, fronting
Internet supporting business to enhance their High Street foot traffic. The Swimming Baths
In earnest, Redcar need such a utility! I am a strong believer that it is up
to the Town of Redcar and its people to provide such an asset. If funds can
be created by selling land, so be it. Rather this, than stealing much needed
rate funds away from Guisborough, Saltburn, Loftus and Eston to support a Redcar
desired objective.
Naturally, selling land within a town centre to build new houses will upset
some local residence, but houses provide homes, and in turn the more people
we can have living closer to the town centre with pride and purpose, the quicker
a family fellowship will replace the drunken orgies of the Saturday night in
the present un-residential town centres, this has become such a undesirable
part of Redcar life.
These objectives will not be achieved without a group of Town fathers lead by
a none political Town Mayor, such a group of men and women will then create
opportunities through vision and the self interest, in continuing to make this
wonderful town of Redcar by Sea and a community fit for our children to grow
up in.
Philip Chisholm
My name is already on the ballot paper for Mayor
01642 485322
07802 936 414 philip@das.uk.net or richard
@ marske-by-the-sea-cleveland.co.uk