Once again the council has decided to let the grass area in front of the art deco bus station become a weed bad with the weeds vastly outnumbering the few wild flowers….it looks a mess, not the way to impress visitors, it just looks abandoned.
I don’t know who came up with it yet again, is it another box ticking nod to impress the green lobby…? It’s an eyesore.

think there is something about not cutting in may thats the latest fad. funny how councils seem the first to embrace any new fad that someone thinks up. looking out the back it seems i,m in sympathy with them for one but then i,m bone idle where gardening is concerned.

Plenty behind bars with fook all to do, Give one of them a pair of sheers keep them busy.

I heard from someone that it had something to do with "no mow May" to help the insects, bees etc thrive.
TBH it doesnt bother me if it helps and i think we over cut grass. We have been conditioned to expect finely cut lawns which is not natural.In some areas near where i live it looks ok as long as it doesnt create a danger its fine.
I also heard the Womens Institute are fully behind it.

think there is a time and a place for things. agree on overcutting stuff like grass verges, central reservations of duel carriageways etc. but parts of parks and infront of the bus station at seaton need to look the best they can for peoples enjoyment and showing the place to its best.

If we left our grass till ‘May was out’, we’d have pigmy’s in residence.
Another bit of folklore that suits the penny pinchers in the Council.

Or the Save the Planet Brigade.

Such a shame that all the money wasted on Church Street wasnt ploughed into Seaton.

the amount of folk that was there over the weekend - could be a lovely little gem on the North East coast.

I remember the tables and chairs, trees etc in the artists impression, who the hell would want to sit in Church Street with a hoolie blowing off the North Sea.

EXACTLY !

regardless of the urbanisation and no car zone - id much rather be looking at the North Sea than some smackheads or drunks wobbling from lloyds down to the Royal !

doesnt make any sense at all - we should have a shuttle service from the bottom of church street straight to Seaton. South Shields have given their seaside a right good makeover since the 90s and its paying dividends for the local economy. Lovely place that is now and makes seaton look even worse in my opinion !

So very true.
The shit ideas of HBC for Church street have been a total waste of money over many many years.
Creation of a French cafe style culture surrounded by HCFE media and eco-businesses....what a joke.
Reflects the complete bunch of morons we have on the council.
We have the historic headland and its connection to St Hilda a big name around the globe.
What do we do with it.
Totally ignore it.
Seaton despite being surrounded by a persistent bad smell and huge acres of re-landscaped rubbish dumps still has potential, with a good beach and nice promenade.
What do we do about it.
Next to nowt.
How long did it take to knock down Wilkie's place and now the area is an eyesore left looking like a tip.
Agree totally about South Shields and what they have done there.
As with everything depends on who you have running the show.
No wonder the monkey was voted in for mayor.

I was fuming when I found out the plaque to Theo Jones marking the spot where he was killed during the bombardment as the first British soldier killed in action in World War One was replaced without putting his actual name on
What f&£#wit did that?
He deserves a bloody statue…..we really do celebrate the banal in this town and forget the real heroes.
The wife’s grandfather is on the War Memorial at the Headland …. and unlike other medal recipients somehow forgot to engrave his Military Cross on and seeing as how he got killed a week before the end of the war to get it is a tad annoying
Rant over.

Regarding Church Street it was done up by the TDC in the 90’s but for some bizarre reason the Akers Belcher brains trust decided to rip it up and improve it by making it worse., just like Stockton Street outside the college.
On the sub just of Church St, they installed fancy Dan lights that dazzle you when driving and trendy benches that the average drunk is bound to fall off. Clueless.

the lack of investment in and around seaton has been going on for over 100 years now. think there was a 19th century railway poster about extolling the virtues of the place. do not know the truth of it but my old man used to say it was the landowners in and around the place that squashed any new developments happening. i can go back over 70 years remembering the queues in the bus station waiting to be transported back to town and you felt lucky getting there in the first place if there was room on the bus when it reached brenda road. problem is there is possibly less to do there than there was then and can be seen as a missed opportunity where someone needs to be blamed.

Those days were when the majority of people didn’t have cars, the good old days was when there were no flights to the Costas etc, unless the sun is shining there very little to do or see at Seaton, on a good day a stroll on the promenade and an ice cream or fish and chips if your prepared to stand in the queue.

There is too much retail type property in Hartlepool and thats why there are closed businesses/shops all over the place.
The only solution is to demolish areas and concentrate its in one or two areas where it will look good and be vibrant.

true but people do not go to seaton for their 2 weeks summer holidays but its a day trip type of place. people didn,t have cars anywhere and not just at seaton.

I would find it difficult to entertain myself at Seaton for more than a couple of hours not unless you like to play in the amusement arcades, probably a stroll on the promenade then a walk to the Marina.

Remember they built the Longscar Hall then the Wilkinson turned it into pubs etc. both failed.

You might, but families with kids don’t, the place is a handy location to most people with decent beaches.
Saltburn gets a good press, but the beaches are no better than Seaton and you have a big trek down and what’s up top is hardly exciting
One place I now avoid like the plague is bloody Whitby so far up it’s own arse it’s unbelievable….all the fools say the fish and chips are the best in the country yet every other shop is a fish shop and from personal experience nothing special.

I doubt the kids of today would enjoy spending time on the beach they would rather be playing on the slotties or on their tablets/games machines, building sandcastles wouldn’t be on their agenda not unless they were toddlers.

there is worse than whitby. brighton where you pay the earth for anything and spend the day looking for sand under the pebbles. must be the most overated seaside place in the country and you never hear anyone knocking the place.

The beaches from Steetley to the North Gare are very good though but i am not that keen on going in the water.

The biggest industry in the world is tourism. Hartlepool has the potential to be a thriving tourist destination, but the council , in my opinion , lack vision. The reason for this is that many of the paid officials do not have a strong affiliation to the town , they know little about the town and it’s history and quickly move on. I would like to see a group of long term residents, unpaid,co-opted to form a committee with the sole remit of formulating a strategy for the development of tourism in the town. I am not talking about big events like the Tall Ships but initiatives that improve the tourist experience. For example Hartlepool is the birthplace of a world famous musician called Lionel Tertis. If you have never heard of him Google him. Yet there is no recognition of his achievements here in his home town. Something could be built around his musical achievements. Likewise our sporting heritage. What about a sporting exhibition highlighting the achievements of the many Hartlepool sports personalities. I am sure there are many other ways that tourism could be encouraged if there is the will. What do others think.

Yes i agree with your comments on tourism which would boost employment prospects and put money into the local economy. HBC seem not to take it that seriously and are more interested in keeping large areas of retail/buildings on life support. Its really a job of HBC to develop tourism.

Unless you have a councillor/councillors interested in sport noughts going to change, sporting facilities are usually heavily subsidised as they are not used during the day but you still have to employ staff.

Investment in Seaton, new toilets costing over £400000, must be gold plated taps,
https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/

That means 40,000,000 pennies will have to be spent to get payback.

No it’s going to 30p entry so not quite as many pennies.
I remember the super loo outside the library years ago 20p, it disappeared like Doctor Who’s tardis.

The beach at the North Sands, featured in one of the Sunday broad sheets a couple of years ago as one of the top ten hidden beaches in England.
As for the water, one of my instructors told me…..” it’s there to go on, not in!”

An irritant of mine for years, the senior officials tend to live out of town and travel in to administer to the ‘natives’ and ride out again unaffected by their own policy’s.
Like football managers they come and depart as the wind changes, there is no continuity, just blah, blah, bloody blah.
While we’re at it, most of the Councillors are just nodding dogs toeing the Party line and putting Party before people and lead by the bland.

[quote="Corner Flag"]The biggest industry in the world is tourism. Hartlepool has the potential to be a thriving tourist destination, but the council , in my opinion , lack vision. The reason for this is that many of the paid officials do not have a strong affiliation to the town , they know little about the town and it’s history and quickly move on. I would like to see a group of long term residents, unpaid,co-opted to form a committee with the sole remit of formulating a strategy for the development of tourism in the town.
thought that was a discription of what councillors used to actually be until the money came flooding in for them.

They’ve struck again ..the playground in the bottom of the Burn Alley has a grassed area next to it where kids from the terraced streets adjoining it play games on…..Council ploughs it up ad fills it with wild flowers…

if you are bursting then that would be cheap. there are so many places nowadays that bogs do not exist and force you to go into a shop or pub where you get dirty looks if you do not buy anything. its something that should be compulsory everywhere and not at the whim of the council because it costs money. just cut back on non jobs if they want to balance the books.

Problem with public toilets is keeping them clean. The one at the bus station and the one in the car park at the other end of prom stink.

I was on the Southside of the Thames many years back busting for a piss. Dident have a quid coin on me. Anyhow thought me look was in when someone come out and door hadent shut. Miserable bastad slammed the door shut were a northeast person would of kept the door open n said there you go mate.
So into the nearest pub for a £12 piss.
Priceless at the time.

Our lass used on of those automatic toilets at Abingdon when driving down to Pompey and got locked in ….put the money in again and it let her out….she was f#@£ing fuming I couldn’t stop laughing.

all the toilets in halifax cost 20p to get in. always shove a bit of fag packet in the lock when i come out till the next person gets a freebee. you do not get many chances of robbing the councils.

Was in Worcester last month and tried to use the toilets in the big car park down by the river. It was like Alcatraz Jail all barred doors and put money in twice and it still wouldn’t open….. gave up in the end

About ten years ago, purely by chance, I found myself on this beach and was impressed. Not many know about it, from out of the area obvs.

I have an interest in Seaton as my father when he was small used to live in a rather posh house on the front. As a child in the 60s/70s I was taken there so that Dad could have a trip down memory lane. Personally I have memories of being told I could swim in the sea by Dad, and being told to get out by Mum - she didn’t like the big sewage pipe thing. Ugh.

Did the boxing day dip years ago and i was ill for 2 weeks.