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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
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Rank: Horsham Forum Junior
 
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Last Login: 22 June 2008
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| I just want to say "Thank you" and "Well done" to Gavin, Mr. Raw, the WSCT and the multitude of folks who e-mailed, snail-mailed or otherwise made their voices heard. I was so unexpectedly gutted when I heard the swans were actually taken out. I guess I believed it was such a stupid idea and, with the spot light beginning to shine on them, the mall officials wouldn't have the nerve to go through with it. And also, this was bigger than the swans and Horsham; this was about normal people with their common sense intact standing up to big business and government and saying, "We're had enough! Just stop it already!" So when I heard the swans had been removed after all of the protesting, I was really saddened and depressed. The news that they are coming back really made my day. And I'm glad to hear someone's keeping an eye on them 
MikeH
http://www.Lindenwald.com
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
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Thanks for the comments Mike. I would just like to add to that we should also be very grateful to Horsham District Council who have listened to public option and acted upon it. It was HDC who managed to persuade the owners of Swan Walk to agree to reinstate the swans. To illustrate this here is the body of a memo that was circulated by the council: Update on removal of Swan sculpture in Swan Walk Shopping Centre, Horsham Please find an update as of 2.55pm today (2 October 2007) Tom Crowley, Chief Executive of Horsham District Council, said: Horsham District Council has been in partnership with Norwich Union and its asset managers, Morley, since the shopping centre was built in the 1970s. I met Chris Paterson, Fund Manager (Retail) of Morley this afternoon (2 October). I am pleased to say we have agreed a way forward and Chris has confirmed the swans will be re-instated within the centre. I agreed that we will initiate a joint consultation with local organisations and the wider community about the details of where within the centre would be best. The intention is that once a decision is made on this point, in the very near future, the sculpture will be returned as part of the planned refurbishment works which will start in January 2008.
I think ultimately we should also be thankful to Morely for agreeing to reverse their decision. In my experiences many other big business would have stubbornly refused to admit they had made a mistake and stuck their heels in rather than 'lose face'
--------------------www.visithorsham.co.uk | www.virtualhorsham.co.uk
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
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| With regard to my suggestion that the WSCT was pandering to the wishes of their advertisers; DNW was right - it was tongue in cheek. I know that the Swan Walk managers cannot influence the editorial. I still wonder why the original press release (12th Sept) was not covered in the following paper and why, the following week the coverage was not as campaigning as it might be - and was the week after that. Anyway, it's a good job done by all, not least of all WSCT & HDC and now we must move on to ensure that the Swans are restored to an equally prominent position within the centre.
www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk 
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
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I made the comment earlier in this thread that I believe Horsham shoppers and visitors do not want a clone of Crawley, Guilford or any other town for that matter. I also said that I think if we end up as a clone of one of these larger towns people will just end up shopping in the larger town anyway since we will never be able to compete as a cut down version of the real thing. Judging by the comments in this forum, the County Times and those that have been made to me off-line, many other Horsham residents feel them same. In today's Independent there is a great article which reinforces those points. An abbreviated version is available on line here: The Independents Editorial & Opinion also features this story: Apparently the the backlash against the "clone town" could be be starting.
--------------------www.visithorsham.co.uk | www.virtualhorsham.co.uk
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Rank: Horsham Forum Member
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| I think this is a very important issue. The concept of clone towns has been getting a lot of coverage recently. The Civic Trust in particular has been campaigning on this issue and encouraging towns to undertake a type of clone town audit. Can I suggest this might be a subject for a new thread and encourage members to identify what are Horsham's unique selling points that we should capitalise on. The separate discussion on fireworks and the switch on of the lights is also relevant. That was an event that really made us different to other towns, and it drew enormous crowds, but we seem to have lost it through penny pinching and a failure to understand that we have to invest in our town if we are to keep it commercially vibrant. Part of the problem I suspect is that the national chains really have no stake in the community and are not prepared to play the same part, or put their hands in their pockets, as small local traders. Yet it is the national chains that could afford to invest in community events. And when we have a treasure - such as the Cricket Week - we fail to get behind it.
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