byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
Our 'village' is now legally a town. We got a town council, instead of a parish council 10 yrs ago. I moved here in early 1990, and since then 4 new build estates have been added, while a smaller, but still substantial number of terrace houses have been demolished. A fifth NB estate is awaiting a start, next year, probably!
A by-pass was opened 16 yrs ago which resulted in the butcher closing, on the same day, and several smaller shops to close or change hands over the next few years.
Since the second and third new estates were started, both now completed, shops have reopened the village/town looks more prosperous and the primary school is looking to expand, The doctors, chemists and dentists now occupy a new build Health Centre, built on land that was once a terrace of houses and just opposite there are 15 old people's bungalows, again where a terrace used to be, built in 2019 by the council. We also have a controversial biomass power station, which pays money into a community fund which the town council spends.
We were lucky enough to move from our 1880s mine built terrace, 3 up, 2 down , into a new house on estate number 3 in 2016. I wasn't born here, but I plan on leaving in a box.
There are still problem families and streets that need tidying up, where far too many of the houses are owned by absentee landlords who don't give a stuff about who their tenants upset, nor how much rubbish they dump in the back streets. But the village is a far nicer place to live, and for some, work in, we have a small industrial estate on the Western edge of the village, than it was in 1990 when the pit had closed 24 years earlier and the village had declined. Without the new builds the village would have slowly descended into a place for the old, unemployed and unemployable. As it is is seems to have a real future.
A by-pass was opened 16 yrs ago which resulted in the butcher closing, on the same day, and several smaller shops to close or change hands over the next few years.
Since the second and third new estates were started, both now completed, shops have reopened the village/town looks more prosperous and the primary school is looking to expand, The doctors, chemists and dentists now occupy a new build Health Centre, built on land that was once a terrace of houses and just opposite there are 15 old people's bungalows, again where a terrace used to be, built in 2019 by the council. We also have a controversial biomass power station, which pays money into a community fund which the town council spends.
We were lucky enough to move from our 1880s mine built terrace, 3 up, 2 down , into a new house on estate number 3 in 2016. I wasn't born here, but I plan on leaving in a box.
There are still problem families and streets that need tidying up, where far too many of the houses are owned by absentee landlords who don't give a stuff about who their tenants upset, nor how much rubbish they dump in the back streets. But the village is a far nicer place to live, and for some, work in, we have a small industrial estate on the Western edge of the village, than it was in 1990 when the pit had closed 24 years earlier and the village had declined. Without the new builds the village would have slowly descended into a place for the old, unemployed and unemployable. As it is is seems to have a real future.
