Going to the Prom

I was honoured on Wednesday to witness the official opening of the new 'Shotley Promenade' a.k.a. King Edward VII Drive.

As I had indicated before, my view is that this new road joining the rest of the world (via Queen Victoria Drive) to the marina, heralds a new dawn for our village. As well as distinguished local celeb Eric cutting a ribbon, this milestone was marked with the publication of a rather classy printed brochure which they gave to all the guests, displaying a pictorial history of this road.

The story isn't finished though - the Marina company will now need to achieve some ROI for the substantial costs of this new facility.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoys the increased access, safety and elegance that the prom will bring us. (And share your views by commenting here?)

Don't miss the bus

One of the issues that almost always attracts the public to parish council meetings, is the local bus service.

This week 16 people watched and participated at the start of the meeting (and also interacted with each other with some passion!). They wanted the Parish Council to support Far East Travel's possible reinstatement of the Kingsland / Queensland part of the 97H route.

For your background - this rather bizarrely took the full sized buses through the narrow streets of the village's largest housing estate, including around the children's play area. Many complaints were made about the safety implications of this, but conversely many people expressed their support as it enabled some of the area's more vulnerable residents to access the town without having to walk to and from The Street with their heavy bags. After a short time, and prior to attending a debate at the Parish Council in December, the company decided to drop this part of the 97H for their own commercial reasons.

Despite the parish council having no power over bus services, the well organised campaign persuaded Far East to reinstate the route if the parish council would support them doing so, thus placing the PC in a slightly awkward position particularly given the division in views expressed.

The outcome could be a very positive one for the village, however. The PC had the idea to enter into a formal understanding with Far East Travel, in which both parties would commit to consult each other on proposed services changes, and share views. Both the PC and the company have agreed to this, and thus, this week the PC felt able to consider any Kingsland route reinstatement. On a vote, it was agreed to support two services a day going through the estate, throughout the year. This is now down to the bus company.

But longer term, we now have a situation where, perhaps for the first time anywhere in the land, the parish council and local bus operator work in open partnership for the benefit of parishioners.

Given the dependence many people have on the bus, and the fact that we live at the end of a peninsula with too many car journeys being made, this can only be a positive development.

And maybe it will also drive an improvement in behaviour of some of the bus drivers - at least in the perception of a number of residents who have complained.

It is a pity that most of the bus 'passengers' leave their seats after the bus discussion at parish council meetings. They miss out on other interesting discussions, and decisions being made, about other matters which directly affect them.

Shotley's Roadmap

These last few beautiful warmish springlike days have attracted good numbers of half term visitors to Shotley Gate, which for me is a good thing.

I felt there was a resort atmosphere, with our new 'prom' along King Edward VII Drive to the marina. If you haven't seen this in recent weeks, it is very close to finishing and looks splendid. Although the big viewing platforms the Marina company used to sell the idea to the community before they got planning permission, haven't materialised, the tall curved black railings, complementing the black streetlamps and fresh black tarmac make it all look very smart. And there are a couple of smaller viewing 'platforms', with the beginnings of what are going to be cobbled ovals.

See what you think, and I'll let you know details of the opening date soon (they still have to apply finishing touches, and to tarmac the road itself).

But of course this road heralds a new future for the village. Leading as it does to at least 70 new properties (eventually 150) at the marina. Plus there are the 14(?) houses with permission opposite the sailing club, and the new apartment block once Shotley Lodge is demolished. This is without whatever happens on the HMS Ganges site there - probably another 400+ properties.

We'll be sharing our wonderful village with more than just day trippers!

Stepping into the breach

Since the storms created two big holes in the wall / path along the River Stour in Shotley Gate early last year, lots of local people have been wanting to know when are they going to be repaired. [background here: http://www.myshotley.com/news-stourpath.html]

There is real confusion and passing the buck about who is responsible for doing this costly work. The (private) owner isn't interested, the county council doesn't have enough money in the rights of way budget, and Babergh? Environment Agency? Suffolk Coast and Heaths? What do you think.

It was looking as if this vital path, which is used daily by locals and others, was going to be lost forever - and potentially soon taking with it the cliff which lies between the vicious North Sea and properties along Estuary Road, Lower Harlings and Stourside.

But there is, I think, some good news coming. At last week's emergency Shotley Parish Council meeting it was agreed to give the go ahead for the work, to the piling / marine construction company currently nearby on King Edward VII Drive working for the marina. Several people have been working behind the scenes to enable the parish council to step into the breach and get the work done via this unique opportunity.

The PC is having to take risks on this project becaase no-one else will, and how else will it ever be affordable?

I'll let you know when I see or hear of progress on this - hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

This Just In

ShotBlast is here to talk about things in the special villages collectively known as Shotley.

I hope you too will contribute - tell me stuff that's going on and comment on things that I mention. The hope is that by sharing views and info, people here will get more out of it (if you know what I mean).

One more thing in this first post...I will be responding to issues covered on the fantastic local community website www.MyShotley.com, plus mentioning things not covered on that site.