| Written by The Editor, on 04-11-2007 00:00 | ||
|
||
|
(0 vote)
As Gateshead Council starts the regeneration of its town centre by demolishing one of its most famous landmarks, Whitley Bay District Council has seen the perfect solution to two of its longest-running and most controversial problems.
The multi-storey car park in Gateshead, immortalised in the film Get Carter with Michael Caine, is shortly due to be demolished to make way for a completely regenerated town centre.
12 miles away in Whitley Bay, where demolition is still ongoing after starting over 60 years ago and there is far less hope of any regeneration actually ever taking place, the Council has come up with a plan to move the Gateshead multi-storey to the Spanish City site.
The car park would completely fill the Spanish City site and fulfil the Council's obligations to provide the town with a useful facility. Furthermore, the multi-storey car park would
The car ramps, stairwells and lift shafts would provide an exciting children's adventure playground, while the upper levels would be used as additional car parking to compensate for the loss of the Bournemouth Gardens car park. Mayor Harris Johnson is enthusatic about the scheme: "Although the car park would be some distance from the town centre, by using a chute similiar to the emergency chutes found on aeroplanes, shoppers would be able to slide down to their desired shop, or even, say, the fiction section of the library, while their kids play in the 'retro' 60s playground below."
In fact, a scale model of the 'slidey bits' is currently being built in Whitley Park next to the Library to test out the concept.
In a gesture thought to be designed to placate the Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade, the Mayor has even suggested that car parking on the top levels could be free. However, the Chairman of the Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade, is not convinced: "I believe it is just a ploy fromt he Mayor to get me up there and then chuck me off, like Michael Caine did with Alf Roberts off Coronation Street."
It is not the first time the car park has been earmarked for the Spanish City, as there had been plans for a Get Carter Heritage Site in 2001 (see story), however at the time Whitley Bay District Council could not afford the £5.99 expense of moving the multi-storey and instead opted to create its own car park with some fine gravel and lots of mud.
| Published in : News, Whitley Bay | |||||
| Keywords : get carter car park, parking, spanish city, regeneration, £5.99 | |||||
|
Users' Comments (0) 
|