Twerps at Large

The new administration at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has rather pomously named itself "The Borough Partnership ". It consists of Liberal Democrat, Tunbridge Wells Alliance and Labour councillors and an Independent from Paddock Wood. In order to accommodate this motley crew the Cabinet has increased in size. More pigs at the trough.

So far we have been regaled with dubious claims concerning the council's finances and now we have the farce of plans to introduce or raise car parking fees without any consultation.  The resulting public storm of protest has ensured the proposals will be put out to public consultation - a classic case of closing the stable door after the horse  has bolted.

What a shambles.  The Borough Partnership started with much public goodwill after years of Tory drift but even the Tories could not have anticipated the speed with which the Partnership has dissipated its support.

Royal Victoria Place

 Today I visited the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre in Royal Tunbridge Wells for the first time since March 2020.  The new flooring is impressive as is the spaciousness now most of the stalls cluttering the walking areas have been removed.  Reminded me very much of the look of the centre when it first opened.  I suspect the stalls will return and that will be a sad event as they diminish the character of the centre.

The number of empty shop units was not a surprise and I fear for the long-term future of RVP as shopping habits are changing with more people using on-line shopping and out-of-town retail parks.  Should it close you could build a lot of domestic properties on what would be a brownfield site.

Tunbridge Wells snippets.

The Kent and Sussex Courier informs us that the search gets under way for the first ever town centre manager.

Incorrect.  Tunbridge Wells had a town centre manager in the 1990s.  It ended in tears.

The new chairman of Tunbridge Wells Civic Society informs us that the Civic Society is really the bulwark against the destruction of those things which make this such a wonderful place.

Back in the 1990s I called the Civic Society the Aspic Society. The society is a small private group, with no democratic mandate, seeking to impose its views.  The sad thing is is that some people have been taken in by this regressive organisation.

A dangerous junction?

Following months of disruption the road works in the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells have been completed and buses are running again between Goods Station Road and Monson Road via Fiveways.

Traffic priorities have been changed at the junction of Mount Pleasant Road and Monson Road. There is no right turn out of Monson Road.  Traffic coming from Fiveways must now give way to traffic travelling in either direction on the Mount Pleasant Road/Monson Road axis.

One effect of the changes is that traffic is moving faster from Mount Pleasant to Monson Road and visa-versa.  There is heavy footfall across Monson Road at the junction with Mount Pleasant Road and I fear there will be accidents involving pedestrians.

Who represents Royal Tunbridge Wells?

The quotation below attributed to Grouch Marx is applicable to some central government changes to local government.

On the 1st  April 1974 Tunbridge Wells District Council became the local authority responsible for the areas previously administered by Cranbrook Rural District Council, Tonbridge Rural District Council (except for the parishes of Hadlow and Hildenborough), Royal Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Southborough Urban District Council.  On 20th December 1974 Borough status was conferred.

As a consequence of changes to ward boundaries and Rusthall becoming a parish, out of the 48 seats on the Council only 19 are within the area of Royal Tunbridge Wells. Apart from Royal Tunbridge Wells there is a town or parish council covering all other parts of the borough.  These councils are elected and whilst they have limited powers it is anticipated the present government will grant them new powers.

The current cabinet of the Borough Council has only one member who represents a Royal Tunbridge Wells ward.  Decisions concerning Royal Tunbridge Wells are taken by a cabinet and a full council and this is done in the absence of a statutory body able to make representations.

The Borough Council has floated the idea of forming a Royal Tunbridge Wells Town Council as a replacement to the Town Forum.  See:

http://kentcommunityactivist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/its-called-democracy-freedom-of-speech.html

The anonymous comment is interesting and makes some excellent points but does not address the issue that purely Royal Tunbridge Wells matters do not have an input from a parish or town council as happens elsewhere in the Borough.

Visit to The Barn

A saunter in the heat into Tunbridge Wells to meet two former work colleagues for lunch. We chose to visit The Barn, a pub/restaurant, at the entrance to Lonsdale Gardens.  Most enjoyable in the shade in the garden.  Well worth a visit.

It's called democracy, freedom of speech and accountability

Councillor Glenn Hall (Con) ran into some flack at a public debate on the Tunbridge Wells Regeneration Company for having the temerity to suggest that progress had been blighted by a small group of the elderly and troublemakers who write to the local newspaper but do not represent the views of the wider public.  He was jeered for his trouble.  In one respect I agree with councillor Hall. I have dubbed the group he refers to as the Aspic Brigade, in that the group is opposed to major change to the townscape and in particular redevelopment of the civic complex.

I suppose I am, in councillor Hall's eyes, elderly, a troublemaker and I write occasionally to the local newspaper.  However, my agenda would not find favour with the Aspic Brigade.

The approach adopted by councillor Hall is deeply undemocratic and the negation of the concept of a free society, as pointed out in a splendid letter in today's Courier by the Liberal Democrat candidate in my ward at the forthcoming local elections.

May be councillor Hall will reflect on his statement when the elderly, angered by the 'granny tax' in the recent budget, cast their votes for any party other than the Conservatives.  It is rather dim to be ageist.

On the democracy front the idea has been floated by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council to create a Royal Tunbridge Wells Town Council.  A good idea in my opinion.  However, the chairman of Royal Tunbridge Wells Town Forum has expressed his opposition and commented in the Courier newspaper thus:

...my members don't want to be involved in hustings and putting leaflets through doors.


The simple answer is to have both an elected town council and an unelected forum.

The Leader of the Council is quoted thus:

It's not working as a committee should, it's somewhat aggressive.  Borough councillors are not always happy to sit in the middle and be grilled.

Poor shrinking violets.  Seems to me the Town Forum is doing an excellent job in challenging councillors.  Make them accountable, and not just at election time.

Spot on Bob

The Leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is spot on: independent traders are the life blood of Royal Tunbridge Wells.  They make the town a unique shopping experience and are essential to maintaining its viability.  Far more important than the dreary civic complex the equally dreary Aspic Brigade wishes to preserve.

See: http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/independent_traders_are_tunbridge_wells_secret_weapon_says_council_boss_1_1152970

What the town needs also is a good open market, not just the rather twee farmers' market and the occasional sortie from France. I spent many years in Chesterfield which has a splendid open market, as does Norwich. 

Cannot anything be done about the dumbing down of Royal Victoria Place?  I am fed up with being assailed by stallholders.  The shopping centre has gone downhill.  Open areas have been covered to provide more floor space, coffee stalls have sprung up in the isles. The original concept has been consigned to the dustbin.  I suspect RVP is no longer the destination of choice it once was:  Bluewater becomes a more attractive proposition as car park charges rise in Tunbridge Wells and RVP loses its ambiance.

Town centre redevelopment

It concerns me that there is not a tight timetable for the deliberations of the Town Plan Advisory Group to come up with recommendations for the future use of major sites in the centre of Tunbridge Wells.  Three months should be quite sufficient.  The danger is that the group will descend into a drawn out talking shop and thereby heighten the suspicions of people who believe the group has been formed simply to kick  into the long grass the issue of the future of the civic complex.

There are people who hold the opinion that the group owes its existence more to political expediency and rather less to a determined attempt to resolve the controversy surrounding the future of the civic complex.

The Council should concentrate on determining what Tunbridge Wells needs to improve its vitality and make the town a destination of choice.  To achieve this it needs to build on its current strengths.  This leads me to two conclusions:

• I concur with Councillor Stanyer that we should have a significant university presence in the town to benefit the local economy and provide a range of community benefits. 

• The Council should seek to replicate what has been achieved in Canterbury with its new Marlowe Theatre.

Taken together they would enrich the town's economic, cultural, social and educational activity, building on its current strengths.  Given the sites either currently available, or which could be made available, there are opportunities also for some increase in office and retail space.

Let us hope that we see a step-change in the vitality of the town and do not drown in a sea of aspic.

Advice spurned

Facebook has introduced a feature which publishes 'Status' comments made one year previously. Today the following came up:

From 27 August 2010: The Tory Cabinet controlling Tunbridge Wells Borough Council gives the impression of being intent on upsetting the citizens of the Borough. Is it hubris or a death-wish? Much of the population's ire currently focuses on the future of the Town Hall and adjacent properties. The Cabinet should keep the comment of Dennis Healey in mind: when in a hole stop digging. 

My advice was spurned.  The then Leader of the Council, Roy Bullock, has since  been removed as Leader, de-selected as a borough councillor and was later suspended by the Conservative Party.

Tracy Moore, the then cabinet portfolio holder for economic development  lost her cabinet position when the new Leader appointed his cabinet. She is standing down at the elections in May 2012 and informed the local press that she is disappointed that the Conservative Association will not allow her to stand in the ward where she now lives (Park).  Currently she is a councillor for St John's.

The problem was that instead of stopping digging they brought in more excavation equipment.

Quite flows the Don

From the Wicker Arches, through Attercliffe, Grimesthorpe, Brightside, Wincobank and Meadow Hall to Rotherham flows the River Don.  Along the valley ran competing railway systems, canals and tramways all to serve the steel industry and the communities huddled between the massive buildings producing steel.  If ever there were dark satanic steel mills they were to be found here.  And then it virtually all came to an end as global economic forces and government policies took effect.

I knew the area well. On a visit a few years ago I was stunned by the dereliction and decay.  Vistas that in my youth had seemed unchangeable had vanished.  Heavy industry and the support services it required had disappeared, almost.  Crossing the Tinsley viaduct the scene to left and right had been transformed.  Even the iconic cooling towers by the viaduct had been demolished.

Out of the ashes of heavy industry has sprung a cathedral to consumerism, the Meadowhall shopping centre: 1.4m sq. ft. and adjoining massive car parks.  Property developers have drawn up plans to turn Meadowhall into the UK's largest out-of-town shopping destination which will add 700,000 sq.ft of retail space, although not connected to the existing building.

The proposal has been driven, according to the Daily Telegraph, by the growing shift in retail expenditure from high streets to the internet and regional shopping centres.

How long before there is a proposed expansion of Bluewater?

The issue for towns in the catchment area of Bluewater has been always how to counter the competition and attract people to shop in the high streets. Maidstone has developed the Fremlin Centre, Ashford has  the new County Square complex, but what of Tunbridge Wells?  The Royal Victoria Place shopping centre has gone decidedly down market in recent years as the owners sweat the asset.

Royal Tunbridge Wells has two major eyesores: the empty supermarket opposite the railway station and the derelict cinema site opposite the town hall.  There are ideas for regeneration, policies, surveys and consultations.  The impression one gains is that the local council is beginning to tackle the regeneration issues with much more determination, but the fear is that the Aspic Brigade will dominate the debate and, should they win, sentence the town to slow economic decline. 

We need repeated the bold approach the council took to the development of the Royal Victoria Centre if we are to avert a significant decline in the town's economic prosperity.