Dawlish Discussion

This is a real gem of an asset for Dawlish. Not only for those of us who live here but also for those visiting at the nearby holiday parks.

Whilst I know that other areas will have SANGS (which is what this countryside park is) nontheless perhaps this park could become, locally, Dawlish's unique selling point?

Already it seems there are always cars in the car park whenever I pass by on the main road or go there to take a four legged friend for a walk.

My daughter has just come back from there. She says the car park was full to capacity and not only were there lots of dog walkers but also lots of kids running around playing chase and playing ball.  

Lovely, lovely amenity for Dawlish.  

(and yes, I know, and before anyone tells me, it is not in the town centre and therefore does not add to the town centre's economy in any way).   

Where else in the Dawlish town centre or very close to it, is there any real open space that could be used for maybe other purposes to attract others. I can't think of any. The buffoons of the past has packed us in like sardines, and they are still doing it.

Well, there are the green spaces which are Sandy Lane playing fields and the Manor gardens.

And whilst neither are town centre located, neither are they miles away from it. 

I completely agree with Lynne’s posts here. Dawlish Countryside Park is a fantastic amenity that has rightly proven to be really popular with loads of locals. As is often the case in Dawlish, when this location was first mooted, the usual negative voices were loud with their criticisms and doom-mongering, but they have yet again been proven wrong. Well done and thanks to all concerned with making this a great facility. And yes, that includes those who fought to prevent it being located on Warren Road. 

And Sandy lane would have been even smaller, had tesco's had their way. Remember the building opposite Sandy Lane that housed all of the equiptment that was needed to look after the play area of Sandy Lane (it now has two houses built on it) Cricket pitch, and the Golf course. All that equiptment is now kept under the swimming pool which does not meet ELF & safety. the ceiling is too low and on many occasions, the two brothers who did a marvelous job in looking after the grounds, would spend hours shunting equiptment from one place to another to get at the piece/s they required for that day. I have no idea what the situation is at the moment. Perhaps someone would like to go and have a look and report back.

But Tesco's didn't have their way, did they.

And Sandy Lane Playing Fields is (are?) presently protected from development by dint of its (their?) being designated part of Dawlish's green infrastructure in the Teignbridge Local Plan.

(and yes, the Local Plan can be altered but if anyone thinks TDC would be stupid enough to suggest that protection gets removed they are living in cloud cuckoo land. There would be uproar from all and sundry in Dawlish and across all party political allegiances if there was any threat. And the politicans know that. Public opinion has done a lot to protect those fields). 

Tesco didn’t get their way - but Sainsbury did. And didn’t that cause an almighty uproar from the usual people foretelling the death of Dawlish? 

Talking of Sandy Lane, the same could be said of the wonderful Red Rock Centre when that was proposed. All sorts of unfounded allegations and slurs were being flung around. Again, all proven to be utter hogwash. 

Er.........isn't the main driver of this needing to have a play park in the town centre due to the town centre business needing to have a greater amount of money spent in them?    

That is what is meant by foot fall, the more people you get to visit one part of any town, the more buisiness is likely to be generated. There are no estate agents down the other end of the lawn.

I wonder if that explains the ulteriour motive why a buisiness person of the town is motivated to get more people up his end of the lawn. Makes sense if you were lacking in something that you wanted a piece of.

Err....... Every town centre throughout the country needs investment in order to ensure people spend their hard-earned money in them. Dawlish isnt dying, it’s only the people in it who moan about progress that are. 

Majorp, the way you talk with your ill-founded allegations of malfeasance, anyone would think that the town centre was a mile long! It’s just a short and pleasant stroll from one end to the other...

Progress might also mean acknowledging that town centres are now so passe. 

Online buying and out of town shopping centres might be more of the times.

Once again Diana Mond is oh so wrong with her statement, "Majorp, the way you talk with your ill-founded allegations of malfeasance". If only you knew.

So, Lynne thinks that town centre shops should all give up the ghost, whilst majorp is accusing David Force of malfeasance. The world has gone mad!

I did not say that the town centre shops should give up the ghost. Stop putting words in my mouth. I made a statement about what I believe are present day shopping habits. If my statement has some truth to it (which I believe it has) then town centre shops need to adapt to what the market (ie consumers) are telling them.

Market forces and all that. 

It seems that some believe that having a small, aimed for under 8s only, play area at the top of the lawn will help increase the town centre economy.

Personally I have my doubts.  

@majorp

"I wonder if that explains the ulteriour motive why a buisiness person of the town is motivated to get more people up his end of the lawn. Makes sense if you were lacking in something that you wanted a piece of".

Are you implying that all those people attending the play park from miles around will be buying property in Dawlish?

To return to the topic of this thread - the country side park.

It has been suggested to me that great as it presently is, it could be even better if some outside exercise equipment were to be put on it.

I thought to put that idea on here. 

http://www.freshairfitness.co.uk/our-products

I have just visited this park for my first time. All I can say is that it is so lovely, and marvellous to see how so many other people were enjoying it so much too, most of them with their lovely dogs. How anyone can find anything to moan about this facility is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps they should be left to wallow in their own misery, where they are most happy!!!

An update on the outdoor gym equipment idea.

I did make enquiries about this but got told that this could not happen as SANGS are not allowed to be built on. (therefore no children's play equipment either).

That's absolutely fine by me not least because having children's and/or adults' play equipment there might prove to be the slippery start to even more development of other kinds sometime in the future (which can't happen at the moment because the country park is subject to EU environmental legislation but come post March 2019........?)  

So I suggested some outside adult gym equipment got put on Sandy Lane Playing Fields instead.  

Been up to the new country park a few times now. Only a couple of dog poo bags seen, so that's good.  Will get even better as the whole place matures a bit too.   And I am sure I caught a couple at it by the woods as well, but I wasn't really paying attention to them until they jumped up!

Have been told that the powers that be are aware that more dog poo bins are needed and that getting more of them installed at the park is underway.