Let’s face it, we in Kent don’t like change do we?

Building going to be demolished? We complain. Building to be constructed? We complain. Shop shuts? We moan. Shop opens? Well, we even managed to bleat on about that if it isn’t something we want.

But we need to sometimes take a step back and bear a few key points in mind.

Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, we are personally responsible for many of the very changes we all get hot under the collar about.

Don’t like the direction the high street is headed? Regret the closure of once household name retailers? Well, you stopped going there. Or, at least, most of us did.

Because every time we opted to save a couple of quid and buy online or in a supermarket, it drove a nail into the coffin of the old retail model. If we’d kept going into town centres and shopping there, they’d still be thriving.

Don’t like how our seaside towns are changing? Don’t like housing replacing the amusement arcades we all loved when we were young?

In short, you guessed it, we stopped going. Those former pleasure palaces were built for an era when we didn’t have the option to jet off for a fortnight in Spain or Greece. Instead, we all opted for a B&B in Folkestone or Margate or Ramsgate. We had a choice but we decided to turn our back on UK resorts and they paid a very heavy price. Worth pondering that when you’re at your all-inclusive bar in Turkey complaining about the state of our seaside towns.

Then we moan about the once grand buildings which lined those seafronts falling into disrepair despite the money which once paid for their upkeep literally flying away.

Disappointed at the number of pubs closing? Well, you know the answer. We opted for supermarkets, again, and drinking at home.

Now, before you all start heading to the comments section to rip me to pieces, I’m not suggesting we all conspired to make these places implode, merely that we are living through the latest evolution of how we live, shop and relax.

What we are witness to is good old-fashioned progress. We may not always like it, but it’s been going on for generations. What’s more, it will continue to change in the future too. So we had better get used to it.

Capitalism ensures everything is dependent on generating money. If they don’t – and that only comes about by our changing habits – then they get replaced with those that do.

Don’t like how Whitstable has exploded into a tourist Mecca? Well, surely better that than being a down-at-heel town wondering where its key industries had gone. It, like so many seaside towns, acknowledge now that food, drink and art is the way to lure in the money to keep the cogs turning.

Angry at the latest designs for Folkestone, Margate or Ramsgate? Well just remember what they were all like 10 years ago. These places have been brave enough to embrace change – to recognise that the old models they had clung to were unviable and steps had to be taken.

Donkey rides, piers, slot machines...all yesterday’s fad. Sadly.

Don’t like all the housing in Medway? Don’t you remember what it was like in the 1990s in the years which followed the closure of the dockyard? It has pulled itself up – transforming an area, especially one so focused on one particular industry, is never going to be an overnight affair – and is now emerging on the other side to reap the benefits.

All these places are not perfect yet. But then where is? Find me a town which doesn’t have its problems. We just hear about them more now due to everyone complaining about every little thing on social media.

Local authorities do not – I genuinely believe – permit changes with a view to making the quality of life or attractiveness of a community lessen in pursuit of cash. They do it as they can see an eventual benefit to everyone. You might not agree, but as they take readings on what the future holds it can present some of the cliched short-term pain for long-term gain. That’s the only way change can often be achieved.

Just remember, once upon a time, before all those beautiful Victorian and Edwardian houses we now so cherish were built, people were probably complaining about them being constructed too.