Newton Concerns Parroted in Yet Another Letter From One of My Readers

And on the heels of the recent death and police incident at the Newton Bus Loop, today I received yet another letter from a concerned resident of the area. Derek also feels that the recently announced Newton plan is lacking, and wonders why so much money is going to massive projects and improvements in other areas. Here for you, is his letter.

Answers , Council?

”  Laila,  

I’ve lived in the Newton area for the past 15 years and, like many, have witnessed the gradual decay in the area.  Particularly since a concentrated effort by Mayor & council has focused police resources and our tax dollars  into City Centre (former Whalley core).

As you have previously mentioned, this has been to the detriment of other City townsites, but particularly Newton.   The Newton area, having the highest population base in Surrey, is definitely not getting it’s fair share of resouces.

I was looking forward to the ‘Newton Plan’ from council but am very dissapointed.  The only plus is the increased presence of police but the rest amounts to a cosmetic facelift for the Newton wave pool and a relocation of the troubled Newton exchange a block or 2 south.

What is frustrating is all of the City resources going to such projects as Kwomais Park, $20 million just to purchase the land, development of this park will still cost an additional few million.  We all know how tough the residents of South Surrey are suffering and in desparate need of another park space don’t we?  And what about the millions of tax dollars our Mayor has agreed to pay VANOC to build an Olympic prep. facility in Whalley (Tom Binnie Park)?  Hasn’t Whalley had enough recently?

Why isn’t Newton being allocated some of this money?  The old Surrey Public Market
has been abandoned for at least a decade and is now an eyesore.  It’s been for sale the past few years with no takers.  Couldn’t the City have purchased this land and developed a Park or even an Olympic prep. facility?

Your arrangement for the CBC news story was great but unfortunately the local papers (Now & Leader) didn’t stick with it and it didn’t grab a lot of attention.  The local papers remain surprisingly quiet on the decay in Newton.

This being an election year, provides the best oppotunity to get results.  So far, Councillor Bose seems to be the only one to acknowledge that Newton isn’t get fair political representation.

What’s happening with the John Volken rehab proposal?  It seems that every major development has a plan ‘B’ proposal in the anticipacion of much vocal oppostion of their initial plans.  It’s all very calculated and intended to appear before council (at the public hearing) as the developer making an effort to compromise while the vocal opponents are not.

Whalley is now becoming ‘City Centre” and Newton is being transformed into ‘Social Services Centre’.

…….had to get all that out of my system.

Thanks for listening and keep up your great web site.  I enjoy it every day. ”

Derek .