General Discussion

Just been past Salamis Restaurant in the Strand and workmen are in there gutting the place.

Anyone any ideas as to what is going in there?

Also, seems like the old 'Hole in the Wall' the Teen drop in centre, looks like that is having a clear out also.

Costa Coffee ????

Costa had issues with Totnes people...cant see them opening in Dawlish.

Would it make good charity shop, now lets think which one havent we got

theyve applied to open in Teignmouth so why not Dawlish?It comes with the Cafe Culture

Would that be because Teignmouth has more of a retail trade throughout the year.

Teignmouth have got a petition going against it I believe they have over 1500 signatures now, as they say we have several independant coffee shops, somebody has stated you will be able to hop between the charity shops and coffee shops now. Bank St where they are proposing to go is basically the same as the Strand , Coop, Charity shops cafe/coffee shops , Superdrug, Stokes,Lloyd maunders ,Opticians, so cant see it would be any different, and people have come on here advocating the cafe culture and national chains moving in, so whats the difference. Are you saying that Dawlish retail will not survive all year, because if so what was the point of all the upheaval that everybody (lol) was in favour of

Guess they had money to spend.....I would have left it as it was. Cant see by what they have done makes it any more of a 'must go to' place. As you you've said somwehere B ..it was all too late.

for once wondering we agree

Hate to say it but this was forgon conclusion. You can put millions of pounds into anywhere, any town in the country. In history one classic seaside resort comes to mind and that was Morecombe in Lancashire. During the early part of the 1900s Morecombe was THE place to go up north. Then Blackpool started to emerge and since then Morecombe died a death for tourism. Morecombe saw it coming but did nothing about it to attract holiday makers, now very few go to Morecombe. The moral of this is, give people what they want and they will come. I'm not proposing that Dawlish becomes a mini Blackpool,  but what is there in Dawlish to attract tourism. Perhaps locals may not want thousands of holiday makers crowding the sidewalk sorry pavement but local business's need tourism to survive, but what is does do is bring in some postperity. What the regeneration has achieved is a makeover. Until the local council allow more activities on the lawn the town will die, if not already and that's a crying shame because Dawlish IS and always will be a quiant and pretty town with some nice people.

Just my observations, I will now sit back to be whipped and villified.

I think the traders of the town would be far better off and the town itself would be far better off if the concentration was on serving the residents of the town who are here 12 months of the year rather than visitors who are here for a few days or weeks.  Independent shops are great for a town and can help provide a healthy mix of different items for sale on the high street and the surrounding area and those businesses that seem to do well as independents are those who don't just rely on tourists.  Some of the most attractive and prosperous towns you can visit in the country are those that have a good range of independent stores offering a wide choice of good for sale.  This in turn does attract people to visit the town and browse round the shops, so that they then DO get the trade of visitors/tourists, but they don't rely on them.

Dawlish has a huge number of things going for it and there are the green shoots of recovery (to borrow a phrase) with new independents opening up in town and in the industrial park etc.  Dawlish is far from dead and dying.  It just needs the townspeople to make the effort to continue to use these traders and show their support for their town - and of course many people are doing so and being positive about Dawlish so long may it continue.

Most of what you say DJ I was only thinking that coming home from a job in Exeter. Exeter is my place of birth but nothing would induce me to go back there, I love to get to the Welcome to Dawlish sign  we are a small seaside town which caters mainly for families on a budget, we will never be for the wealthy like some places in the South Hams. I agree traders should concentrate on the residents. When I moved here 20+years ago I could get most of what I wanted but times have changed, but I still look to support local shops when I can. All the money that was spent on the Strand I do not think will change peoples habits one iota, in some cases people who did shop in town are now going elsewhere. We must stop thinking that we are some cosmopolitan suberb of Exeter and concentrate on what we have going for us. I personally will not pay exhorbitant prices that Costa/Starbucks charge, but I know some people like them and will use them if they did come here, and they might attract some people who would otherwise not bother to stop. I love Dawlish