I am so pleased that someone is concerned about Mr Godden's spate of bad luck, I am sure that Jimmy will appreciate this community spirit - after all Mr Godden has always had the towns' best interests at heart. It is good to know that there is one developer who does not behave in a shabhy, corrupting, self-interested manner. There has been so much of that in the past, especially in Folkestone, where corrupt local politicians and greedy developers have scarred our landscape with money-making monstosities ie., Queens house replaced the Beautiful Queen's Hotel, The lovely Royal Pavillion Hotel, knocked down to erect The ugly Burstin. These beautiful Victorian buildings were a heritage of the town - our heritage! - now they have been wiped off the landscape forever. Our latest 'White elephant' - The Bouverie Road Shopping centre, will, in time, become another eyesore, as it fails, to make the profit envisaged by its schemers.
Two things we must concern ourselves with in the future - stop all demolition of lovely buildings in the town - and make sure that Richard de Haan comliments the town with his seafront scheme - what is built now, will be the attractions of the future, or, another nail in the coffin of the prosperity of Folkestone.
This is part of my site The 'Gerald that I built in a fever of excitement when we first moved here sometime in '04. I'd been a regular visitor for a while before that but I am technically one of those Down From Londons you get now. This site was a lot more dynamic with a calendar of events and voting for favourite venues and things, and I hear it was a handy resource for others who were moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though just a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much attention as it used to. Ironic really as Folkestone itself is now becoming the exciting place we knew it was just about to. I am not Gerald BTW, this comes from the name of a pretend paper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are GRATE aren't they? Do contact me if you have anything to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on Twitter.