According the article written by Council Leader Kieran Quinn
in the Spring 2012 issue of the Tameside Council propaganda magazine ‘The
Citizen’, you could be forgiven for thinking that the council is making steady
progress with the building of a £100million marina complex in Droylsden. There’s
even a static web-cam on the roof of the Concorde Suite, so that interested constituents
can monitor its progress! But it’s not the council, who are going to benefit
from this long winded project, nor will it be local craftsmen and construction workers, but
a Private House Building Company, whose base is in Wales!
The article also fails to explain why it has taken 8 years
from appointing the construction company in 2004 to the present day construction
site or gives a date for completion.
Gripped with the uncanny feeling of déjà vu, the article and
the councils web-site tells us that the council’s vision is ultimately for a
high quality housing project complemented by leisure uses such as a restaurant/pub/hotel,
some commercial office development and a small number of speciality shops. At
this point, Stalybridge sprang to mind! But this time, in addition there will
also be a 30 boat secure marina on the Ashton Canal, south of Manchester Road.
A marina also commonly has services like a refuelling
station, stores which stock basic marine supplies, boat repair facilities, and
related businesses.
A point also to bear in mind, is that the council advise
that this marina is to be a ‘secure marina’ which at a minimum, is an area that
is usually secured with gates to which only members have keys, to keep
unauthorized access to boats to a minimum. So presumably there won’t be any wandering
around, feeding the ducks, unathorised fishing or sightseeing!
Now all this sounds very nice and if Tameside was to be
magically picked-up and geographically relocated to the south coast; I’m sure a
£100million marina complex would be welcomed by all. But all Droylsden has to
offer by way of a navigable watercourse is the Ashton Canal; a canal that is
currently only be navigated by a small group of intrepid travellers, who may
want to spend their leisure time cruising the Cheshire Ring.
Why intrepid, I hear you say; well currently most canal
holiday companies who operate canal boat hire, start in the heart of Cheshire,
from where they recommend travelling the Cheshire Ring in an anti-clockwise
direction. This is because most travellers can spend their first 4 evenings in small
villages, where there are a wide range
of pubs and bistros.
It’s only on arrival at Ashton’s Portland Basin, where it
gets tricky, because now travellers will need to navigate the 6 miles of the
Ashton Canal; which according to the British Waterways website, it recommends
no stopping on the Ashton Canal.
Now, provided these recreational travellers have
successfully navigated the few miles from Ashton through Droylsden and East
Manchester without being mugged, pelted with bricks or abused, they will emerge in the trendy areas of Canal Street, Deansgate and the Castlefield Basin/Potato Wharf; a modernised former industrial area
with a large selection of pubs and wine
bars; which therefore begs the question,
why are Tameside council claiming to be spending £100million of European money,
duplicating the facilities that are already on offer a few miles further on? Is
this expenditure really going to transform the fortunes of the many taxpayers
of Tameside, or is this yet another glaring example of the council jumping on
yet another vanity project, funded by the European Community European Regional
Development Fund? After all, if housing is the priority, where are the
affordable dwellings?
With thousands of people on the social housing list, why does
the project only comprise of a choice of luxurious 2 bed mews, 3 bed town
houses, 4/5 bedroom town houses and 1 & 2 bedroom executive apartments?
It also begs the question that given the dire straits of the
rest of the retail town centres of Tameside, why is this huge £100million
budget being concentrated in one place?
Does anybody else think that £100 million could be better spent?
Not sure which part of the british waterways website you were looking at but the only section i can fund concerning the Ashton says the following. "Today, the canal is a green link from the city centre to Ashton-under-Lyne, bordered by an interesting mix of modern and industrial architecture. Improvements to the towpath have made it into a pleasant route, accessible to walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users."
ReplyDeleteJust come across your article. The area around Droylsden Marina is at most frequented by fishermen who, a minority sit there all day with their bag of cans drinking. They then leave their rubbish all over the towpath and surrounding area. The marina only has secure moorings on one side which provide water and electricity for moored narrowboats. It is run by Portland Basin Marina based in Ashton. The chandlry and boat repair services are at Ashton which is 35min by boat. The marina is having new pontoon installed today. I suggest people contact Droylsden Councillors to find out what other plans are in the pipeline as I have, but cannot get anyone to clean the are up.
ReplyDeleteDroylsden Marina is a secure ( key access) marina that can be used with arrangement by the owners at Portland basin ( Ashton-under-Lyne) We paid a fee and arranged it a few weeks in advance.
ReplyDeleteDroylsden is a excellent place to top-up with groceries at the nearby shopping centre and there are plenty of take-aways etc, on Market Street. An overnight at Droylsden Marina (we were en-route to Liverpool) gives a boat-crew plenty of time the following day to complete the journey to Castlefield via the 'Rochdale Nine' locks in daylight ( providing you start about 9am). Ashton canal from Droylsden to Manchester is not the industrial dumping ground it was in the 1970,s - it is clean, tidy and well worth making it part of your journey. Try it.