Three Blackburn & Darwen Councillors last night abstained on a vote on whether to give the go-ahead for demolition of an historic building to make way for a new road. Despite the fact that the scheme was devised and promoted by the Council itself, and despite the fact that before the vote Councillors were given a highly unusual (some might say irregular) presentation by the Council's Highways Department in a clear bid to promote the scheme, the abstaining Councillors felt the project was so badly flawed that they were unable to support it. Amazingly, one of the Councillors backing the scheme appeared unaware, on the day of the vote, that objections had been received - in spite of clear and repeated opposition from English Heritage, The Georgian Group and Blackburn & Darwen Civic Voice. Perhaps he's not reading his agenda papers; or are council officers keeping him in the dark? Either way, ignorance seems a curious basis on which to decide planning applications that involve demolition of nationally listed buildings. We and others are now asking the Government to call in the application for decision by the Secretary of State.
Background
Friday, 18 March 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Just reflects on the quality (or lack of it) of many of our local councillors right across the country.
ReplyDeleteHello. I am an American, and as you might suspect, I have never lived in your town. However, we in America have listened with enthusiasm to councils like yours, and the folks who think deliberately neglected buildings are eyesores, and without any construction experience, declare the money needed to save such buildings would be wasted... (By the way, I will bet a good meal at one of your local restaurants that these same folks recycle cans and bottles. Throw away whole buildings, but remember to recycle those cans and bottles!)
ReplyDeleteThe result of listening to self-serving councilors and no-nothing self-appointed authorities? Cities of mind-numbing blandness, with great roads. We have some of the ugliest cities in the world, but we do have such lovely straight roads. And you can get from here to there so awfully fast.
Our solution solved completely the problem of addressing the needs of tourists and visitors, because we don’t have any. So no tourist dollars.
And our merchants have lost regional market share and the resulting business profits because those nifty straight roads now move all our former consumers to nice suburban shopping centers, with plastic Georgian architectural details to make them look like what we so wisely threw away.
So I hope you have listened to those councilors and self-appointed experts without a lick of construction, planning or regional marketing experience, and destroyed that deliberately-neglected-so-it-looks-like-it-needs-to-be-demolished old thing.
Or better yet, you can just move to the States. We’ve already done all the work for you. Cities of appalling ugliness, but ah, such roads.
Gregory Hubbard
Los Angeles, California, USA
I am moving so fast, I only just realized I posted this in two locations on this site, but perhaps you are now moving so fast, you won't notice.
I didn't expect to get into this as I was looking to see where King Street was as it seems my great, great grandfather lived there in the 1850s. I was also surprised by the debate, such as it is/was, as I live in a listed building now but in a different area and am aware of the issues re planning/councillors odd attitudes which don't make any logical sense.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the ironical take on what happens as a result of these sort of decisions in terms of the quality of environment we can expect. Apart from that it would be good to know what further can be done to prevent this - if that has not already happened - I can't see any definitive result???
Veronica Carey - UK
Re Comment Veronica Carey: there is another link to this building it is on facebook under Save 53 King St Blackburn. I set this up & would be grateful to speak to you
ReplyDelete