I've had a impassioned email regarding plans by East Yorkcestershire Council to rip up the sett paving in the centre of the town, sell it off to the highest bidder, and replace it with summat else.
OK, so we hear about this sort of thing every week, but what makes this different is that the local community has set up a group to campaign against the enforced removal - SOS - Save Our Setts.
This heartens me for several reasons. First of all, they've got the terminology right; they *are* setts, and not cobbles as would normally be reported.
Secondly, this is a local community fighting to maintain the distinctive character of their town and opposing the homogenisation of our urban centres, where everywhere starts to look the same: same shops; same hardscape; same sense of futility.
Thirdly, this is a bid to retain a little bit of local paving history and you don't often get community action to preserve paving. The setts have adorned the centre of town since 1829. That's almsot two centuries of service to the townsfolk. Apparently, the council are trying to make out that, traditionally, the streets of Beverley would have been paved with......bitmac!
The group has a website and a petition, which they'd love you to sign, but if nothing else, please have a look at what they are trying to preserve via this Flickr site.
I haven't been to Beverley for donkey's years, and I've no particular abiding memory of the setts, but surely, if the paving is deteriorating (and there's nothing to suggest that in the photies I've seen) then the setts can be re-laid using modern techniques and materials, and so preserve the town's heritage while improving the usability of the pavements.
This small, local campaign offers an insight into what is happening to too many of our towns and cities - faceless, uncaring bureaucrats failing to see the beauty of what they have and disregarding the feelings of the local community in their soulless quest to turn Britain into one big branch of Tesco-Starbucks-Argos.
lutonlagerlout wrote:tescos and starbucks fair enough but argos?
I've nothing against Argos per se, but it is one of those shops that you see in every town centre, or what's left of town centres.
Not being a big shopper, I'm not thoroughly conversant with what shops are left. A few years ago I would have said Woolies, or Clinton Cards, or Jessops, but they're all disappearing and most town centres nowadays seem to consist of little more than banks/building societies, coffee shops and charity rummage sales.
even all the old workers cafes are gone now
replaced with coffee shops and greggs
sadly the interweb is the way forward for shopping
suits blokes like me who hate shopping with a passion
my missus had a market stall for a year and couldnt make a bean due to the chains like primark and matalan
its a tough one because people always start these
"save our /pub/post office,setts/corner shop" with the best of intentions
but when the tescos or starbucks gets built they are full to bursting every day
Am I the only person on here who has never had a starbucks/costa/or cafe nerro coffee?
had a cup in greggs the other day due to necessity and it was £1.60 for a small coffee
LLL :O
lutonlagerlout wrote:Am I the only person on here who has never had a starbucks/costa/or cafe nerro coffee?
Not sure which one but I've visited one of them when I get picked someone up from Gatwick.
I bought it 'cos it was 2am in the morning and I was bored of waiting.
Other than that I don't.
On 8/12/12 there was a big protest going on outside a Starbucks in central London.
Yet I noticed at the same time people sitting outside two Starbacks in outer London sipping coffee.
I thought someone would've have come up to them and give them a quiet protestive word but no one did.
I suppose I could've done but I'm not that type so I gave them a cold stare instead but I think were too thick and stupid to notice.
lutonlagerlout wrote:Am I the only person on here who has never had a starbucks/costa/or cafe nerro coffee?
I don't drink coffee. It's not that I don't like it, more that I just don't get what's supposedly so good about it. Tea refreshes and cleanses the palate, whereas coffee, even the stuff that aficionados tell me is "the good stuff" just seems sludgey in comparison.
So: I've never had a coffee from any of these chains, but I have, occasionally, been blagged into spending the best part of 2 quid for a tea bag and hot water. For that sort of money, you'd think that they could manage boiling water, wouldn't you?
I'm guessing this was sent to everyone that signed the petition, but for those that haven't seen it.....
Some of you will have the latest news but for those of you who haven't, yesterday it was announced that the work on Saturday market will be rephased, with the setts being the last item on the programme. This is to allow for further consultation. A chink of light and a huge relief to those of us who were contemplating camping out in the middle of winter!
It's wonderful that ERYC are prepared to take stock and equally wonderful that this town rallied to it's own defence. We can allow ourselves a moment of rosy optimism, but not complacency and hope for good news before long......just imagine!
lutonlagerlout wrote:Am I the only person on here who has never had a starbucks/costa/or cafe nerro coffee?
I don't drink coffee. It's not that I don't like it, more that I just don't get what's supposedly so good about it. Tea refreshes and cleanses the palate, whereas coffee, even the stuff that aficionados tell me is "the good stuff" just seems sludgey in comparison.
So: I've never had a coffee from any of these chains, but I have, occasionally, been blagged into spending the best part of 2 quid for a tea bag and hot water. For that sort of money, you'd think that they could manage boiling water, wouldn't you?
I don't drink coffee either. I never get any caffeine so 1 cup would leave me bouncing off the walls for 24 hours
