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Interesting Development At Thorpe!

JennyMorgan
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Wussername

Wussername

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21 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

My one concern, unless someone knows better, is the lack of convenient car-parking anywhere near The Green. If that is a problem then I hope it can be overcome.because the run from Thorpe to Rockland is delightful and should attract plenty of punters.

I thought that I read somewhere that the council had in mind a piece of land next to the Rushcutters, Thorpe Gardens of years ago, just off the road leading to the Frostbite's club house.

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JennyMorgan

JennyMorgan

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Was a time when Oulton Broad was on a high, when it was run by the Oulton Broad Joint Committee. Unfortunately Oulton Broad was swallowed up and subsumed by the Waveney District Council, arghhh! Oulton Broad took a dip as WDC took over, pitiful. Suddenly we had a new, enlarged car-park, whoopee, only the 'village' didn't want it, it was several hundred yards further away from the village centre than the previous on-street parking that had served the village well for decades.

The final nail went into Oulton Broad's coffin when WDC inflicted car parking charges. The biggest problem though, where the elderly and children are concerned, is that prospective dayboat hirers and shoppers don't like walking too far. I dare say that if there could be a continuous waterside walk then the distance might not be a problem. Why do people go to Potter Higham? Simple, the car parking is right in the middle of the village, it's free and near to the water.

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MBA Marine

MBA Marine

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Fame at last got my name in the paper!! Thank you all for your kind words.

Was a bit unexpected as its all very early days with T's & C's not even on the table yet alone agreed to.

I live in hope but our friends at the Broads Authority have a big say even if the town council are initially in favour. Early days, it may be something or it may be nothing.

Although Andy and I have helped each other out a little over the past couple of years we have not until now had any joint investment, that said our businesses still continue to operate as separate entities, with me having no say in Freedom's cruiser hire & Kingfisher and Andy having nothing to with MBA Marine. 

What I can say for sure is that Freedom will still have dayboats and car parking down Bungalow lane next year regardless of things at River Green.

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MBA Marine

MBA Marine

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2 hours ago, Wussername said:

The town council has already outlined its plans to regenerate the area with new toilets, a ticket office and centenary garden.

As a matter of interest what is the ticket office for?

Best of luck to you both.

Andrew.

Beats me perhaps its a pay per view round the gardens!!

I might however make myself available for selling tickets.

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Vaughan

Vaughan

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Hearts Cruisers never ran day boats, for the simple reason of problems with the council over access to the Green! We were not even allowed to bring cruisers over to meet customers when they arrived : they all had to be ferried over the river first, with all their gear.

Thorpe parish council were always a blasted nuisance about the green, to be frank, so this represents a "sea change" for them and I am glad to see it. Maybe the fact that they will shortly be taking over the expense of running it, has helped this change of approach.

I think Mark and Andy's main advantage will be that there is no capital investment other than in the boats, as they already have a boatyard on Bungalow Lane to do all the "logistics". As Peter says, the cruise down river on the Yare is delightful, although I doubt they would get further than Surlingham on a battery charge.

The problem will be parking, as it is at the moment in Thorpe anyway! This has happened ever since they built the bypass and so the old Yarmouth road no longer has the same trunk road status. I have heard that the council may have plans to make the field on the corner at Thunder Lane Traffic lights into a municipal car park, which would then allow the Yarmouth Rd to have more restricted short stay parking, for visitors, rather than the long row of vehicles half abandoned on the pavement on both sides, that we see at the moment, where buses have to hold up the traffic as they can't pass each other, and I can't see up the road for parked vans when I am pulling out of the Buck!

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MBA Marine

MBA Marine

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I do have to make a couple of enquiries with regard to a bit of car parking but at the same time I do not want any of my approaches to get in the way of any of the town council's, we need to work together.  Parking is the one factor that people bring up but I hope that this not really an issue, if you are driving in then you can park at Freedom's yard and take a boat from there.  I would strongly encourage people in Norwich and its suburbs to leave their car at home, there is no need to use it, the Bus links around the city are superb and there is a bus stop at river green.

Also we are not talking a Ricco's/Barnes number of boats, we are talking four at the Green with up to four more (plus their Pod & Picnic) boat at Freedom. If im wrong and everyone insisted on using a car and wanted to park around the green area then we are talking a max 6 cars at a time.

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MBA Marine

MBA Marine

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2 minutes ago, JawsOrca said:

Solutions not problems.. Park in the pub... Have breakfast, lunch and or dinner in there... few hours on the river on.. everyone wins... cheers 

But dont park at the Buck for too long as you will get a ticket!!!! I did :( but i knew a nice deputy manager who had it quashed as I had permission to park. :) 

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vanessan

vanessan

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21 hours ago, Wussername said:

The town council has already outlined its plans to regenerate the area with new toilets, a ticket office and centenary garden.

As a matter of interest what is the ticket office for?

Best of luck to you both.

Andrew.

I think the ticket office idea was linked to the ferry being run by Mark Wakelin (?) from Thorpe Green but I believe he has now pulled out in protest at the tolls revamp. I'm sure I read that somewhere, no doubt someone can confirm - or otherwise.

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marshman

marshman

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Not sure that was the reason Mark pulled out - more like he found the number of passengers requiring the service pretty limited! 

It is always nice to see people try new ventures but actual lack of demand is often key. On a warm sunny day on a weekend, there may have been a limited demand, but on most others i guess little, if any, casual trade was forthcomimg - sadly.

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