General Discussion

Yes but no but, see, the amusement arcade its rubbish like and its not my fault.

Here's the deal - the arcade goes, and in its place a cool hang-out place for Dawlish teenagers, coffee bar, Thai food, MTV cafe, free Pool tables, free internet.

We also blow up that really horrible yoof club out at the playing fields.

I would love to see the Amusement Arcade get demolished. It has no benefit to the town whatsoever. I no longer live in dawlish, but from my past I remember the arcade as being a place where I wasted my life & my social security money. Its meeting place for people on benefits & drugs & when they are kicked out they resort to the lawn. Demolish it. Tell me the date & time & I will be there to watch it.

It show's the last time you were in the arcade! yes it might be a leech on the town but the day's of kids hanging around it are gone as are the drugies

If you did a spot check in the arcade, you would find all ages from children with families to elderly enjoying a go on the nachines or at bingo. Shame to take away the fun of the 2p slide machines, doenn't everyone remember a tub of coins and doing that as a child?
As for 'Thai' food .. I don't think so. You have to remember if you put in 'free' pool tables and 'free' internet, what is going to pay for the business rates? ..just a few drinks will not .. you have to pay rates per the floor space. An internet cafe may have been a good idea say 5-7 years ago, old hat now, as most families have the internet at home, if not, it's free at the Library.
Take away the Amusements at a seaside ..you may as well stop Ice Creans too !

Alex, you are displaying the sort of blinkered attitude that is stopping Dawlish from moving into the twenty first century. If people want amusements arcades they can go to Dawlish Warren. Thai food is what people want these days, not crappy old fish and chips. Your days are numbered me old fruit - Dawlish is on the move and you can't stop it!

Ok.. YOU open a 'Thai' food place ..I have no problem with that ..let's just see the demand. I see no excitement on this forum for one or is there ???

I'm advocating giving the young people in Dawlish somewhere to chill that is better than shoving them out into the periphery of the Playing fields. There are mortuaries in Phuket with more lively people than in the town centre of Dawlish.

I'm saying bring them into the heart of town - the same way the old codgers have that ludicrous bowling green. Its not as if the young people will get to enjoy Dawlish for long, property prices mean they can't stay there.

Whatever facilities are on offer - it doesn't have to be Thai food - it can be bingo and whist, just have the place in the town centre, if not at the site of the Amusement Arcade, then build it on top of the bowling green.

Mine are just ideas i'm brainstorming, but someone needs to go and actually ask them.

"What do you want?'

I sincerely doubt anyone has ever taken the trouble.

The imposition of municipal entertainment smacks of recreational totalitarianism.

"Every year zere vill be a krappy carnival with exactly the same unimaginative floats. Ein overpriced funfair in July and an amusement arcade viz vun-armed-banditzen. Zat is all you are getting, now shut up while vee play lawn bowls."

It was like this in the Hitler Youth.

Everyone has been asked as part of a large regeneration project carried out over the past six months. All the issues you raise have come up and no one who responded wants the amusement arcade.
The trouble is that there exists a 'stick in the mud' mentality in Dawlish and also, various business interests who are very happy to keep catering for the summer visitors from the Warren. This keeps their costs down to a minumum and means they don't have to spend much on maintenance.
I agree with you about the Carnival/Red Arrows/Fairground. A waste of money and its all Dawlish really seems to do.

Lots of people are supporting this idea. The trouble is there is a vandalism problem so you would need CCTV as well.

Well there's me for a start and one or two others I can think of. It won't be overnight but you have to move with the times and get away from the idea that Dawlish exists to cater for the elderly and Dawlish Warrenites. You have some people moving in with more upmarket tastes (ie 95% of the poopulation) so Dawlish will adapt - thats the free market for you. Most of the rest of Devon has.

since the red arrows were added to the carnival program, the amount of people in the town for specificaly carnival day has increased from 2,000 ish to approx 10,000 people, think of all the extra revenue that this gives the buisnesses in town. with out the carnival think of the extra revenue that the town would lose, and as they state the carnival realy is WORLD FAMOUSE, i've had people from all round the world asking me questions about it. yes to us the carnival is dull and boring but that's because the same sucesfull formulae is used every year because IT WORKS. as to the we need to do something issue with the youth things have and are being done, thers's the cdt force wich has been there for som 40 odd yrs, and there have been several youth clubs in the town, scouts,cubs, guides,brownies and the failed youth cafe that cost us 2.1 million to set up, do you now remember! the reason y we have problems with the youth is because none of these are located on the youth 'magnet' the LAWN, get planning permission to build something on the lawn and it might work, but then what do you do with the elderly, tourists etc that want to sit on the lawn and watch the duck's where do they go, maybe scout's,etc.

yes a youth centre is a great idea but as i stated in my previous,
a) there are already lots of established facilities in the town that kids don't go to due to location
b)where are you going to put it (most of dawlish has presevation orders on it)
c) if you use the arcade and or bowling green where are you going to put the people who use them
d) what are the current employees of the arcade going to do for work(because most of them live in dawlish)
e)I don't think Mr Noble will give up his arcade for anything less than an act of parliment/decision in the courts and both of them require compensation that would prob bankrupt the country! let alone the local government. it's called loss of earning due to act of government- it's a legal thing you see.

I agree with alex the arcades shouldn't be demolished they are well ace ive been going to them since i was a kid, and still go to them now when im on hoilday!!! and thai food is crap fish and chips is the traddiotional food in this country we don't wont no foreign food!!

In my view English fish and chips lacks the piquency and fresh aromatic subtletly of traditional Thai cuisine. Comparing the two reminds me of the comment by the delightful hotelier, Mr Basil Fawlty when referring to certain clientele of the Torquay Riviera :
'Why don't we just get in a trough of baked beans and garnish it with a couple of dead dogs?'
A little too close to the truth, I fear!

You belong in a Mental Institution.