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More on KentOnline
A lot of hard work is being done to boost the town centre.
The Sheerness Town Team is committed to making sure the area is the best it can be.
Here the group’s chairman John Nurden talks about why we should all take pride:
Mrs Nurden looked at me in absolute horror and disbelief when I told her what I had done.
“You must be out of your brain,” she announced, before flouncing off to feed the cat.
To be fair, she has put up with a lot during 36 years of marriage.
When I worked in TV with the likes of Gaby Roslin, Neil Buchanan, Pat Sharp and Andy Crane I gave up all my Saturdays.
As a newspaper editor in Whitstable, she seldom saw me. When I decided I wanted to become a rock god she nearly left me.
But volunteering to become chairman of the Sheerness Town Team was almost the last straw. “There’s nowhere to park and when you do, there’s nothing to buy,” she said.
Now, that’s not strictly true. But, unfortunately, she is not alone in those views.
The more I use Sheerness shops, the more surprises I discover. After a fruitless trip to B&Q (sorry) to get tubing for my pond I found exactly what I needed in Cuddles and Bubbles pet shop in the Broadway.
Yep, should have gone to Sheerness first. We have free parking for 20 minutes in the High Street and relatively cheap parking elsewhere.
And, whisper this, free parking for 90 minutes in Aldi (but a huge fine if you stay too long) and up to three hours in Tesco.
So, we have time to pop into the supermarkets and then saunter along the High Street for, say, a haircut and coffee.
The Town Team was created as part of a Mary Portas bid to get government cash to raise the profile of the town.
The money went to Margate instead, although Swale council gives us a little to work with. Membership of the Town Team has changed radically since it was first formed.
We now have a core of dedicated people all passionate about breathing life back into Sheerness.
Some are shopkeepers, some are from organisations like Peel Ports, the Oasis Academy and the Swale Campus of Canterbury College.
Some are just people like me who believe in Sheppey. We all have one thing in common; a commitment to bring back the pride in our Island.
Obviously, there are naysayers who dismiss our aims as just hot air. One told me: “There is nothing you can do for Sheerness.”
Well, let me say that Sheerness is not half as bad as people make out. When I did an audit of shops there were just three empty ones.
We have a choice almost as wide as Whitstable. What we don’t have are art galleries, souvenir shops and a range of restaurants. But that can be changed, if we want it.
And we have the Millennium Way bypass, which means we could easily pedestrianise the High Street on Saturdays.
Already Town Team events like the Christmas Market and last weekend’s Classic Car Show have proved there is a demand.
In the 1960s we were a top tourist attraction. Leysdown is still busy in the summer. The Island has a huge number of holiday parks with excellent facilities and entertainment.
Visitors come to enjoy our beaches, marshes, sunsets, soak up our history and drink in our pubs. It’s time we realised what we have, and then set about making it even better.
Brown tourist information signs on the M2 and M20 directing people to the Isle of Sheppey would be a start.
