A LETTER FROM A DISTANT FRIEND.
This letter prompted the building of this website
The letter below was one that I recently received. It is from a good friend
who once lived in Redcar, was educated in Redcar, socialised in Redcar and
had many friends in this seaside town.
This friend emigrated to Australia 25 years ago and recently returned for
a brief visit to Redcar to see old aqaintances.
IT SHOULD AT LEAST MAKE YOU WONDER - IS HE RIGHT OR IS HE WRONG? - MAKE
UP YOUR OWN MIND
THE LETTER:
Redcar - Demise or New Beginning?
It was a long time ago that I left these shores, for the then appealing
draw of a new life in Australia. In those days life seemed harder than it
is today and the exciting challenges was an easy lure. However, upon my
recent return visit to Redcar after more than 20 years away I was met with
mixed feelings, happy memories, and had some very serious questions in my
mind about what I had left behind. More importantly, what had happened to
the town, since I departed?
My story.
It was
a beautiful sunny April day in 1976 that I walked the short journey from
Warwick Road and boarded the 8.30 train out of Redcar East station to carry
me off on the beginning of my journey to shores afar. Redcar in those days
was a modest yet smart town with reasonable services, having outgrown the
dependence on income largely from fishing, it had become a support centre
for the heavy industrialised ICI and British Steel works whose presence
provided a living for many of the residents. I can recall having many a
good night out with ex schoolmates and work colleagues prior to leaving
and in so many ways I was sorry to say goodbye.
In the years I have been away from Redcar, I have travelled extensively,
much of it in the third world and also in what has become known as the second
world. These are third world countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore
who have strenuously pulled themselves out of poverty and improved their
surroundings and lifestyles with fresh investment drawn in by the climate
of attractive possibilities.
It was a nostalgic build up therefore in May 2002 when I passed through
the picturesque towns of Malton, Pickering and Whitby nestled in the still
staggering beauty of the North Yorkshire Moors. Ultimately finding myself
driving down Yearby bank where I had once toppled over the handlebars of
my push-bike and ridden at 100mph as a teenager on a motor-cycle. Then rolling
slowly along Redcar Lane into Warwick Road to check out the old house where
I grew up. The new estates at the top of Redcar Lane looked grand in comparison
to the somewhat standardised designs of the forties that much of the rest
of the housing along Redcar Lane had been built around.
So far so good.
My old school, Ryehills (Redcar Lane Secondary Modern as it was once known)
had just been demolished together with the old girls grammar school. A new
impressive looking building had just sprung up and opened on the same property.
A drive down my old road to number 38 where I lived for over 12 years was
nostalgic and yet strange. Not a whole lot had changed.
I stayed with a close friend who had done much for his family's well being,
especially given the collapse of his employer world-wide, the large power
company Enron. He had managed OK, invested in other properties and improved
that of his own residence, neatly and in character with the locale.
Meeting up with the best of those old mates on the Monday evening was terrific.
Many had come to totally surprise me, as I was not told just who would be
coming that night. Some, I embarrassingly had forgotten. The kinship and
decency of these blokes however, was just the same. The only difference
being was in their matured personas but they had the same wink in their
eyes and still enjoyed a good joke or two. We downed plenty of the good
ale found in the area and everything between us was just as it was when
I left. Except that this time, it was better, we seemed more in tune with
each other, deeper and less cynical. The blokes were all in gainful employment
and were doing quite OK for themselves, they enjoyed their lives and we
shared all our memories. A couple asked what changes I had noticed. Politely
at the time I quipped that there was no longer 3p back on a returned beer
or lemonade bottle and that the aerials on the roofs had been replaced or
joined by satellite dishes. Burglar alarms were also noted in vast quantities
so an increase in crime was obviously a latent change for the worse.
It was not until later when I was driven into the High Street that the full
impact of what really had gone on (or not gone on) in Redcar since I had
left became apparent.
My friend, who drove me through the town, had warned me not to expect improvement,
but what I saw in front of me was mortifying. Ram-shackle dilapidated, old
character-less buildings cobbled together unevenly with tacky plastic signs
emblazoned on tired featureless and dated shopfronts. This reminded me of
those aforementioned countries in the third world (some of the worst of
them!) that had failed to make the improvements needed to bring them into
the New World. The place reeked of decay, neglect and reckless abandon.
It lacked a soul, an inner pride and heart and the promise of uplift seemed
further off than the ships on the horizon.
There was no pride or character in what I could see in front of me.
It was like no one cared.
A short drive around the back streets opened up a Pandoras box of filthy
shopfronts and the boarded up windows of abandoned houses. Even the boardings
were shabby and some partly unfinished or broken down.
Of those that appeared occupied, many begged a lick of paint and a tidy-up.
A club had bricked up some windows (for an improvement!) and had not even
the pride to match the new bricks with the existing bricks. The result was
a gaudy half-baked and totally inappropriate frontage. That club was not
out of place, however. It seemed every second building fell into this same
category of tacky.
We then bumped around the sea front. The extensive road-humps jarred my
back as we sailed through at only 20 MPH, reminding me to get my Osteoporosis
check done before Christmas. These awful road-humps, reminiscent of the
kinds of military paraphernalia found around Gaza Strip checkpoints could
be one of the things driving tourists away from Redcar.
I can remember the fun days as kids, (with this same gang of now older kids,
my mates), when we'd get into all kinds of mischief in the many places of
entertainment in Redcar and then we'd go and eat the yummy seafood. The
entertainment has waned and the seafood is no longer edible, a possible
victim of many years of industrial effluent pouring down the Tees?
The townsfolk, many trudging around the High Street with long faces seemed
bereft of a challenge or goal. Perhaps something had seriously gone wrong
here and I was seeing the result of that. All this in a town that houses
the worlds oldest lifeboat and close to the smallest church in England.
Redcar town centre however, is sick. Its people, capable and kind, caring
and friendly have somehow come to accept as normal, their dilapidated surroundings.
Isolated in the cradle of the north-east Tees coastline and surrounded by
the smoke-stack industry on one side, a hostile North Sea on the other and
hemmed in by Saltburn cliffs along the coast and the imposing Cleveland
hills to the south, perhaps Redcar has been cut off and forgotten, its people
isolated and cut-off from the outside world. Long ago, Redcar was an 'everybody
class' holiday resort. A day at the races, followed by the bucket and spade
brigade to the expansive (and by the way, decent) beaches, down to the rocks
from where we looked for fish and crabs. They came from far and wide in
droves on a good summers day. Today I would think it gets by-passed. There
are too many more attractive places for people to go and visit now. Redcar
needs renewal and an infusion of refreshed spirit. Old ways and old practices
must give way to new and purposeful insight, which will be enduring, to
build a Redcar of the future for our children and their children.
Do Redcar folk want their children to leave home and return to a similar
story 20 more years hence? I don't think so. That this could in fact happen,
beggars belief.
I have told you what I feel is wrong with Redcar, now let me outline some
ideas which could help to put it right.
TO PUT REDCAR BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK AGAIN:
For a start, the High Street from where the Red Lion Inn once stood (now
the site of Kwik-Save), out to the Park Hotel needs a thorough bulldozing
(or at least a major facelift) from end to end. No patch-ups this time.
Do it right Redcar, build classy Malls and kitsch precincts, use careful
planning and style in the town plan. Regulate and enforce a unified scheme;
a true character-style and not on a rigid or tight-fisted budget. Entice
tourists to travel the whole length of the coastal strip from Scarborough
to Coatham. Redcar has a sound basis, now it needs the vision and the courage
to see it through. The place needs an entertainment centre - the racecourse
has expansive and vastly underused areas which could accommodate such a
facility.
Spending money wisely in this way will attract more investment. What's going
to happen when competition from India and China sees the end of the British
Steel plant at Redcar and Lackenby? Aside from MASSIVE job losses, there
will be a raft of land that will become available. Plan NOW as to what it
could be used for and set out the design concepts for public comment.
Lee Kwan Yew (one of Asia's elder statesmen)in Singapore would be planning
what he would do with the space in even 20 years time!
The townsfolk need to stand up to a seemingly uncaring and lazy council.
Having seen the fruits of their labour, the Council has earned its place
on the scrap heap. Fire the lot of them and start with a clean slate. Nominate
only self-less men and women with a sound track record in commerce, urban/social
development and business - but only those who can show they have contributed
extensively to the community. Those who will serve the people graciously,
effectively and without fear or favour. Usually this means by-passing the
door-knockers that SEEK to be nominated but also empowering those who do
not want the position such as Xanana Gusmao the new President of East Timor.
(NB: If they can do it in Dili it can certainly be done in Redcar!)
This
council has twice rejected a resident's suggestion to improve the ambience
and safety of Redcar Stray area at night; by lighting the footpath on the
seaward side between Zetland roundabout and Green Lane. The council has
seen fit however, to install a pointless monument for about the same cost
opposite the Stray, adjacent to Zetland roundabout. Sex attacks, mindless
vandalism and gatherings of youths in dark places along the stray are more
likely to continue because of this inaction.
The monument, presumably a testament to Redcar, is representative partly
of what is wrong with the place. The placard on the monument should say:
"Redcar, the discarded town, it's plight ignored and forgotten, a child
lost in the woods, dragged through the bushes and left to rot by a negligent
council, voted in by a people who wanted change but were badly let down."
I say shame on this self-serving and arrogant council who have seemingly
forgotten their mandate to the people.
A walk along the Stray told me its name was given by someone with vision.
It is like a stray dog; it has an inner beauty but has been sadly neglected
and left to fend for itself. Park benches, with concrete ends, had seen
their rails smashed out and burned on the spot by vandals, were reminiscent
of the bones sticking out from the rib cages of hungry goats in Africa's
hinterlands. Broken glass and litter added to the mess of one bench I viewed.
When we were kids we played up and got into some right trouble, but there
was always a healthy respect for personal and public property. In Redcar
the current trend in lack of respect for property has gone too far. When
damage has been done, beef up the security and for goodness sake, clean
up the damned mess.
The Stray Cafe, which I knew as Pacittos Ice Cream Parlour, is also dilapidated
and forlorn. The place is calling out for someone to come in, do it up and
make a killing in doing so. Make it a place to be seen, perhaps a restaurant
or at least a smart welcoming cafe that greets you as you enter the towns
interior. Yes, you cynics, this is all possible in a town like Redcar.
Along the Stray to the children's paddling pool and playground was a startling
puddle of more carnage at the hands of vandals. It bore no resemblance to
what I remembered. The Kids Park was stripped of play equipment and roundabouts
that had once been there. There are now only 2 play objects left standing
in the whole of the playground - a swing and a slide. Total abandon was
the keyword. Again, all that is needed is COMMITTMENT from the people who
make the decisions on the town's spending.
Redcar's
people can change all this. It needs an urgent action group. Funds from
national and local government will no doubt be needed. Before anything is
done, the right management infrastructure needs to be put in place to ensure
the problems are not perpetuated.
So, in anticipation of my next visits - yes it's a plural - I have planned
to come back more often.
Within the next 20 years, there can and should be a new Redcar. I say to
all my good friends back there:
"Get on your soap-boxes and shout, every last one of you, demand more
for your town to make it more enjoyable to live there and to pave the way
for the future. It may need to rely more on tourism than on chemical and
steel processing for a living. You owe it to yourself and to your families.
When I come back we will deepen those friendships that have survived the
years, we will laugh and we will joke about times past and when you ask
me next time what changes I've seen I hope it will be more than satellite
dishes and threepence back on a bottle!
Long live Redcar; it's great people and those who visit her."
END
I feel that the letter from my friend has highlighted some of the things
that those of us who live here have missed due to our over-familiarity with
the town.
When seen through the eyes of someone who has not been part of the local
community for many years, I feel that we should heed some of the warnings
within this letter and act now to make a difference.
In a further 25 years time our children may be writing a similar letter
- let's just hope that it is not in the same vein as this one.
ADD YOUR OWN COMMENTS ON THIS SITE. LET REDCAR TOWNSFOLK KNOW HOW YOU FEEL.
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