Survey

Hi, don`t forget to complete the online survey to add weight to the second round of our bidding process.
The more surveys completed either in hard copy or online the better for our ultimate aim i.e the creation of `the net` on North Shields Fish Quay

Thanks
Jan

Access online at:  

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2qxc9j7

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP?

Our first presentation will be in a warm dry venue close to the Victorian Market on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December.
We hope you'll come and see us, look at our display and take part in activities [for adults and children].
Complete a questionnaire asking for your opinion/ideas on a Heritage Centre on the Fish quay, or take one home with you and drop it in at any North Tyneside library later and you'll be entered in the draw to win prizes, mainly vouchers donated by local businesses - for meals, etc.
Have you a couple of hours to spare during those two days, please? We need extra volunteers to chat with our visitors, listen to their ideas, mingle with shoppers telling them where they can find us, distribute questionnaires,etc.

If you'd like to help, please email shieldsfolk@yahoo.co.uk

FISH

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Folk Interested in Shields Harbour

An Introduction to FISH for the Newcomer, adapted from a letter written on 2nd July 2005 by Don Gruer, FISH Hon. Sec. at that time

1. FISH was initially formed as a result of a meeting in a local pub, the Wooden Doll, on 20th June 2001. The Fish Quay business community organised this. They had been

informed by our Local Authority that it had commissioned a firm of consultants, EDAW, to investigate the area. Their commission was to propose a Regeneration and Master Plan for the Fish Quay. The main concern raised by the businesses was compulsory purchase while that of residents was the type & scale of developments and the impact of issues like parking. Clubs and high blocks were also considered to be inappropriate, not wanted. A number of members contributed to the EDAW document which when compiled was presented at a gathering of members of the Local Authority, councillors and officers, and representatives of businesses as well as residents.

The stated objectives of the Group are to encourage, in the Fish Quay and New

Quay Conservation Areas and their surroundings, the following:

• public interest in and care for the history and character of the area.

• the preservation, development and improvement of features of historic interest, of all that

makes up the fabric of the area’s character or which are a general public amenity.

• high standards of maintenance including items like cleaning, lighting, signage.

• the progress and expansion of appropriate businesses and residential developments.

• high standards of planning & the regeneration of the environment, for the good of

the whole community.

• the dissemination of information about what is happening in this area.

• development which fits into the framework of the EDAW Report Strategy & Master Plan,

September 2001, as accepted by the elected representatives and their officers together with

representatives of local business and residents.

• hold & sustain relationships/partnerships with external parties including the Local

Authority

2. The first major activity in which the group was involved was, in July 2002, raising a petition to request that the old headquarters of Richard Irvin & Sons, be listed. In just a few days we had collected a thousand signatures. The scaffold had already been erected and demolition was scheduled for the Monday morning when the listing was put in place, late in the afternoon of the Friday before. This halted the removal of what had been described, by EDAW, as a ‘key building’ on the Fish Quay.

During this exercise we were advised that to provide some protection for the whole area we should be supporting the designation of a conservation area, as recommended in the EDAW Report. Another petition was raised in August 2002 and this indication of the backing from the local community was passed to the local authority, the body responsible for the designation of a conservation area. The necessary procedure was put in motion and the area was eventually designated in December 2003

Since it was created the group have gradually become more involved with our Local

Authority’s Development Team. We normally receive copies of planning applications for sites in the area and in addition representatives have had the opportunity to be briefed on proposed developments by the authority’s officers.

FISH are also represented on the Fish Quay Heritage and Regeneration Partnership, a committee connected to the redevelopment of the Fish Quay where contributions can be made at an early stage. The information gleaned is made available, in the form of reports, to the FISH Committee and, via email, to our members and others.

A number of members of the group took part in a course, ‘Design Know How’. Working with architects, an artist, North Tyneside personnel and a NE Civic Trust representative they prepared a document that, it is hoped, will assist in achieving the right sort of design for the area. The involvement of the community in partnership with experts from a range of disciplines is a key feature. FISHcast, a sub group of FISH, prepared a document called a ‘Character Statement’. The two of these are intended to encourage new development that enhances and complements what already exists within the Conservation Area. Both documents were adopted by our Local Authority as Supplementary Planning Guidance.

In August 2004, at the request of the Local Authority, we organised a number of surveys of the Fish Quay under the ‘Living Street’ banner. The results from these were collated by the Authority and published, copies being circulated within their organisation and our own. In response some action has already been taken to make the area more ‘pedestrian friendly’ and the promise has been made that further use will be made of these findings

3. FISH is supported only by its members, as and when required, so in general receives no outside funding. An exception has been to allow the preparation and printing of the Character Statement. FISHcast, with the support of the Local Authority, applied for and were granted funding for this by the Countryside Agency. This was under the Local Heritage Initiative which is also supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Nationwide Building Society

4. We can only speak for ourselves about our hope for the future of the Fish Quay. In our view it needs to be a commercially viable area with the ability to cope with what we hope will be a revived fishing industry. The development of Clifford’s Fort should be a major visitor attraction, ideally to include a Heritage Centre that will not only explain the significance of the Fort but of the other activities around it. For instance, information about the different types of vessels using the river, the fishing industry past and present, the Tyne as a water supply and the treatment of effluent, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the work of the Marine Archaeology Group and the flora/fauna of the area could and should all be featured. This list is not exhaustive.

It should be a busy, but not noisy, lively area that provides work and leisure opportunities for our community and for visitors, locals and tourists. Alongside this we need to attract appropriate companies into the Food Park and adjacent sites. To satisfy this we will need to provide good safe access for transport and pedestrians, all weather protection for those on foot [i.e. shelter from the rain or shade from the sun] and a variety of food outlets to supplement and complement the excellent fish and chip and others businesses which we have now. An overload of new homes would be a mistake, because of the inevitable increase in cars, though some strategically sited homes could be a deterrent against troubles with their 24 hour occupation.