New plans for Captain Cook Square.

DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
So the council raked in £315,000 for the car park and what ever amount for the sale of the existing college land. (I'm presuming they own the land)

The new build is budgeted to cost £14.5 million
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Will the council own the land at Green Lane Art College?
 
BlindBoyGrunt said:
There are many, many more densely populated places in this country than Linthorpe and most of them manage ok. What we need to concentrate on is infrastructure, public transport and improved cycle routes. Many of the private vehicles belong to people who live on the southern outskirts and drive into town on Marton Road and Acklam Road, and people driving their children to school. I drive all day every day and Acklam Road is a nightmare in the mornings but when the schools are on holiday it's a totally different experience.

I live in Linthorpe and most of the time the roads can cope easily and there is very little congestion, even after all those new houses were built on the Kirby field site.
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In normal times evening traffic on Green Lane/Acklam Road is a nightmare. Traffic systems cannot cope with the volume of traffic. The traffic lights at Green Line/Acklam Road and at The Coronation cause massive backlogs.
 
DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
Fair enough but it looked like you were aiming the nimby quote at me.

Traffic in Middlesbrough is an issue.

The roads are a disgrace that no one seems to want to address

The volume of cars on the roads far exceeds existing capacity and the road traffic management systems cannot cope with the volume of cars causing major backlogs at peak times.

Its only going to get worse.
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Didn't mean it to sound like it was aimed at you.

I can't understand why the art college isn't going to be built around the Middlesbrough College area. Lots of land doing nothing there or cheap to buy up.
 
DCI_Gene_Hunt said:
In normal times evening traffic on Green Lane/Acklam Road is a nightmare. Traffic systems cannot cope with the volume of traffic. The traffic lights at Green Line/Acklam Road and at The Coronation cause massive backlogs.
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You're talking about rush hour. There are far more congested cities than Middlesbrough.
 
The plan was to bring the Art College into the centre of town. The council own a large chunk of land and buildings between that site, Broadcasting House, Bus station, Captain Cook Square and then not far away the Town Hall - they could build in different linked developments and make an integrated plan. Some of the land near to Middlesbrough College is very prone to flooding. Some of it Mbro College may have designs on.
 
Does anyone know how many houses are planned for the Green Lane site and how many people drive to work at the existing college? Could there actually be a reduction in rush hour traffic if houses were built?
 
HarryVegas said:
I know from experience up here that councillors are often powerless to oppose. We had a bit of a tussle a couple of years ago over library cutbacks and Labour councillors, even though personally opposed to the cutbacks, couldn't vote against them so one or two abstained. If they'd voted against, they could have been deselected by their own party.
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That's not powerless, that's gutless.
 
Councils often are powerless though. You can have 100k people sign a petition or object but it doesn't go on who is unhappy about it, there are certain planning rules that need to be followed, and developers know exactly how to craft an application. If the planners review it and it meets the guidelines, they cant decline it. Or more accurately they can decline it, but at appeal they have to defend the reason why and it will get overturned if no real reason why, and the council has to pay the developers costs. This costs our local councils quite a chunk of change in recent years, and it was a change brought in by the conservatives to simplify planning laws.

Ironically, every time planning for something gets approved, we get the whole "brown paper envelopes" line trotted out, despite the fact it was brought in to please tory donors, but the powerless councils cant really do anything about the majority of cases they would otherwise like to decline. It's a bit like council tax rises, where the councils get the blame despite massive funding cuts from central government over the past 15 years. I think stockton council gets about £80m less a year but everyone makes a fuss over the cost of high street improvements, the globe, the Hilton etc, but they could do those projects several times a year with the money they've lost in funding, which is precisely why they have to do so in order to try replace lost revenue

meanwhile saddled with debt for the airport and air travel is looking peachy for the next few years obviously.....but everyone loves that because its PROPPA TEEESSIDE INNIT.
 
JackG said:
That's not powerless, that's gutless.
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Pretty much what I thought at the time. But here's a scenario. Half a dozen councillors vote against. They're expelled from the party they've served for years and replaced by 6 who'll toe the line. Nothing changes, except for the 6 brave ones who disappear from the local scene, lose any influence they had - and nothing changes.

After thinking it over, I decided that the system is the problem, not 'gutless' individuals. As it happens, my local guy took a risk in the first place by bringing the plans to our attention, we'd never have known until it was too late otherwise. He helped organise us into a group to oppose it but couldn't really do much more without losing his position completely.
 
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