On the 9th of January 2008, Gateshead indoor market and a lot of associated business closed: nearby pubs, cafes, banks etc. This was because that ugly lump of concrete that makes up the Trinity Square car park and the buildings around it were to be demolished to make way for a fancy new Tesco superstore.

I wasn’t mad keen on my town centre being turned into a big Tesco, particularly since the car park — awful eyesore though it was — was actually a useful public amenity, and a Tesco just doesn’t really cut it for me. But as I hated the car park with a passion, I thought fair enough…

But eight months after all the businesses were forced to close, nothing has happened. The car park is still open; there’s seemingly no demolition work going on anywhere, nothing.

Furthermore, according the official website, bugger all is planned to happen any time soon:

…dates for the car park closure and demolition of the buildings on the site have not yet been set…Your Trinity Square — Our Vision: Gateshead Council & Tesco

The town centre has been left without amenities for eight months, during which time little or no work has taken place. I understand that during development, we’ll be without shops and amenities, but it’s damaging to Gateshead to lose these and seemingly no-one be in any hurry to replace them.

Furthermore, the route to the car park is between a series of metal barriers through which you can see the old ’square’. Nothing has been done; rubbish and plastics — including containers of liquid with those ‘warning diamonds on them — have just been left in the square.

At a time when we’re being asked to conserve energy, there have been lights on in the old Gateshead indoor market all day, day after day, for months on end. Indeed, there’s also a burglar alarm there which has been seemingly sounding continously for the last two months.

Can someone pretty please turn the fucking lights out and switch off that bastard alarm? I don’t wish to sound rude, only not only is whoever it is wasting electricity that they have to pay for — although if Tesco are paying for it I don’t really care about this bit so much — they are wasting the earth’s energy resources, which are finite, and they are contributing to global warming.

But maybe they just think “being green” is allowing weeds to grow everywhere?

They are certainly ‘doing their bit’ for the environent, all right. They are doing ‘their bit’ for global warming. Only I think they’ve missed the point somewhat, it having been to avoid unecessary energy consumption, and not leave hazardous chemicals all over the place.

I understand — and indeed support — the need for Gateshead town centre to be regenerated, but at present it seems that nothing is happening and it is just being left to rot. And that is just not good enough. So if you think it’s wrong that the alarms are allowed to ring constantly, that lights are constantly switched on wasting electricity, or maybe you think that big plastic bottles of chemicals with warning symbols shouldn’t just be left lying around — well, don’t forget you can contact Your Trinity Square and tell them what you think.