Metropol

When watching Granada Reports and North West Tonight earlier, there was a report about Skelmersdale, being quite boring, dull, out of date and nothing much happening in it. They even got that Wayne Hemmingway to say his intentions for the town believe it or not. They even had a whole thing on Granada on how they pronounce 'Skelmersdale', some saying that they pronounce it as 'Skem'

But it came to me, that Town Centres are just plain crap at times. If like me you live in fabulous Warrington, you may be aware that they are going to redevelop it, like loads of other Towns or cities. But all they're doing is building a new Bus Station and extending the current Shopping centre in place of it, and a 30 year old Multi Story Car Park. We have been promised a Debenhams too, oh lucky us. :roll:

Now this I find odd, some towns/cities when they are redeveloped get better, the best example has to be Manchester, which has transformed itself brilliantly since 1996, it has become a shopping capital and entertainment capital too. My problem is with Warrington (and many other towns are probably the same too) and why they think that having more shops is going to solve the problem, as they can barely fill the main Shopping centre as it is. They lost Dixons and Virgin, they have lost a few good shops.

I would prefer it if they had a Cinema in Warrington town centre, as the nearest we have to go is out of town to Westbrook, which is miles away. Now if they had one in the town, it would be better, it would make me want to go there, rather than visit Manchester or The Trafford Centre. IMO Warrington has a great night life, as there are plenty of Pubs and Clubs etc, but nothing of interest for your non-acoholic person.

Now it slightly annoys me that Warrington is spending hunders of millions of pounds on this, replacing an old Bus Station and Car Park and getting rid of one street completely.

Are other towns going through the same sort of thing? I personally don't see how adding more shops, is going to solve a problem like this.

(For those who don't know, many towns in the North West have lost alot of trade thanks to places like Manchester and The Trafford Centre, Altrincham seems to have been the worst affected)

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Not much happens in Consett. It used to be a famous steel town until the works closed in 1980. It has however become a bit more interesting in the last 5 years, since EU project "Genesis" relocated the college, and built a business park over the steel works site, which has meant the Western side has benefited. The rest of Consett is quite boring, there's a theatre/Cinema, but it only shows films after UCI have finished with them. The central areas are quite shabby, and the East isn't particularly interesting, just housing and a large industrial area, called No1. It's also bitterly cold and windy almost all the time, as it's one of the highest up towns in England. I tend to avoid the town, and I spend most of my spare time in Western Gateshead anyway.

nwtv2003 wrote:But all they're doing is building a new Bus Station and extending the current Shopping centre in place of it, and a 30 year old Multi Story Car Park. We have been promised a Debenhams too, oh lucky us. :roll:

I would prefer it if they had a Cinema in Warrington town centre, as the nearest we have to go is out of town to Westbrook, which is miles away. Now if they had one in the town, it would be better, it would make me want to go there.

Don't forget the new specialist pastie shop near the skittles -- because of course the town is short on pastie shops.

God knows how you got a starbucks too [how awful].

Isn't the new town cinema meant to be on the road Central station is on, now they finally got the old man in the bike shop to push off?

nwtv2003 wrote:(For those who don't know, many towns in the North West have lost alot of trade thanks to places like Manchester and The Trafford Centre, Altrincham seems to have been the worst affected)

Altrincham's a right dump these days, my local town and there really is nothing worth seeing there, most of the shops have abandond it, though they are ment to be redeveloping the shopping centre, down Rackhams end. At the run up to Christmas though, just how many cheapo temporerey discount shops could they fit in?

Of course there is the arrival of a cinema finally! And a new ice rink on the way, they are trying I suppose.

As for nightlife, erk, I try and avoid Altrincham centre personally, mind, Sale has gone right downhill recently, not that I ever go there.

TVDragon wrote:Don't forget the new specialist pastie shop near the skittles -- because of course the town is short on pastie shops.

God knows how you got a starbucks too [how awful].

Isn't the new town cinema meant to be on the road Central station is on, now they finally got the old man in the bike shop to push off?

Yup, Stead and Simspon finally closed and it became a Starbucks, but I've been in there more than S&S.

That's News to me about a Cinema on the same road as Central Station, that needs redeveloping, it is a dump down there, it has old buildings, a train station and best of all a KFC. I remember a few years ago they were going to redevelop part of the market and add a Cinema in that bit, but those plans were scrapped.

Ilford is total shyte

Murders, muggings & vanadalism have shot up dramatically.

We used to have a Sports Review, Virgin Megastore Express & Blockbuster Video & all have closed down, our biggest name shops are Dixons, Argos Clinton & Allders (soon to be deceased).

We have over 20 pound shops & not one Music shop.

That's why I got to Oxford Street every weekend

There was a book out last year called Crap Towns II. The second book in which it allowed the public who went to the Idler website to vote their crap town. The book had 50 of these towns which read as following:-

50 Chester
49 Cleator Moor
48 Belfast
47 Cardiff
46 Gravesend
45 Leeds
44 Thorpeness
43 Bournemouth
42 Hemel Hempstead
41 Peacehaven

40 Manchester
39 Bradford
38 Mansifeld
37 Newbury
36 Leicester
35 Milton Keynes
34 Totton
33 Bedford
32 Croydon
31 Woking

30 Preston
29 Aldershot
28 Bognor Regis
27 Airdrie
26 Bristol
25 Bangor
24 Portsmouth
23 Wrexham
22 Portadown
21 Winchester

20 Port Talbot
19 Hull
18 Littlehampton
17 London (Central)
16 Brixton
15 Camden
14 Hanwell
13 Kew
12 Hackney
11 Birmingham

10 Middlesborough
09 Corby
08 Nottingham
07 Bath
06 Clapham
04= Edinburgh
04= Glasgow
03 Sunderland
02 Windsor
01 Luton

Ohhh, my home town must be really bad, it appears twice!

33 & 39

Lol, well spotted. I've just edited the document so fortunately Bradford is better off at No.39

Yey! Brighton and York don't make the list! (I've lived in both places!) But how on earth did Cleethorpes and Bridlington escape?! I see Hull is on the list! The only place I've been to where the sea is grey!
I loved Edinburgh when I stayed there a couple of years ago. I didn't find it crap at all!

My town is pretty boring and I notice a lack of towns outwith England on that list... but then I'm stupid so I wouldn't realise if there was any on there.

Here is an interesting fact you may not have know, my town, (Arbroath) apparantly has the best of UK weather all year round ... or it could be the city (Dundee) up the road. That was a year or two ago but I'm sure wherever I heard it still claim that. We never have any major weather goings on, the rain is never too heavy, the winds are never really gale force, the sunshine is never too extreme, there is very little flooding... and snow well you only see that in more extreme cases.

That's the end of today's vital piece of useless information.