Date Published 08 February 2019
This week at Matthew Anthony we have had Caitlin from Durrington High School enjoying her Work Experience Week with us. We asked her to write a piece on future developments in Worthing and how that affects her generation. This is what she had to say:
After years of standing derelict, Teville Gate is being redeveloped from a multi-storey car park and renamed to Station Square. It will include 374 apartments, a health and fitness centre, cafes and restaurants, a cinema, food store, offices and will also include around 320 parking spaces for residents, visitors and supermarket users. The square will have buildings between 5 and 12 storeys high each with their own identity and will be made of different materials and colours that will take different elements from the beach and the art-deco heritage.
The positives of redeveloping Teville Gate are the creation of an estimated 250 jobs, increasing the opportunity of employment in the town, more housing will be built that will be affordable to buy, there are new pedestrian routes from the station to the town centre and there will also be a cinema which is entertainment for the younger people living locally to the area. This is good because it will give teenagers more things to do, as there is not much for them now.
However, there are negatives and some possible problems with the changes to come in Teville Gate. One negative is the loud noises and vibrations caused during the construction of Station Square that will take up to two years to build, this may cause disruption to the residents. However, they have contacted the local-residents and key stakeholders to apologise in advance for the noise that will be made during the construction. Another difficulty that they may face is the amount of car spaces available for people living there. There are 375 apartments being built with one to two bedrooms per flat and around 320 parking spaces available for all residents and visitors. A lot of the flats will have more than one person living in them, so they will have more than one car meaning that there will not be enough spaces for everyone living there and the people visiting for the day. This will lead to roads being busier due to people not being able to park in the car park provided. However, not having enough car parking spaces may encourage more people to walk to the square.
My question would be, has the infrastructure been thought about? Having 375 apartments being built and people moving in from the outside of Worthing means that there may not be enough jobs available for everyone that lives in the town. Also having children living in there means that there may not be enough spaces available in local schools for them to go to. Local health care needed such as doctors and dentists may have an insufficient number of spaces for the people living in the area
In my opinion, I think that the redevelopment is a good idea. I think that there should be more teenagers wanting to go out to places like the cinema and restaurants instead of staying at home and Station Square being built will give them the opportunity to do that. Having it in town can help them be more sociable rather than talking to their friends online and this should make them think more positively and make them want to go out and visit the square frequently.
What do you think about the redevelopment? Do you think it is a good or bad idea?
