Some folk are wondering whether a compomise is that the shopping element goes ahead and the houses don't. My guess is that without the housing the viability of the rest of the development comes into question. I do not mind the land in question being developed. I don't mind a Sainsbury, I don't mind new shops including a butchers, I don't mind a car park done discretely. I don't mind new houses. I don't want Station Bank to become a nightmare. I do want the location of the hillside and the skills of the estate in gardening to be integrated into the development. In my mind I don't see why Berlin walls are needed if the design was good. I do want a partner who is trustworthy and does what they undertake to do (and that seems an issue at Alnwick). What is so difficult about my aspirations? Or any they just the ramblings of a naive idiot?
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Made a visit to Hexham to study the correspondence files. Many many letters against, very few for. To my mind one of the major lost opportunities of this whole affair is the way it has been mismanaged. The project should have had a website and a name years ago which sold it positively. There should be hundreds of letters of support. It is no good saying the silent majority want it. If they want it they should shout for it. In turn however I am concluding that one explanation for the lack of a strong pro voice is because the project has not been properly thought through in detail. Issues like the drainage, the restictive covenants on the shops, the multi storey car park. Once you start making people aware of those, then people start getting anxious. I have had several conversations. Yes I want it. Oh there cannot be a butchers. That's not such a good idea then. I was in a lovely cafe in Hexham today wondering whether the non-food stipulation means that not only do I not get a butchers, I don't get a cafe? Then I reminded myself of the design and thought "anyhow would the cafe have a valley view" and then I thought "how does this design use the hillside as an asset?". And that is when it all starts going downhill.
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