Rustic antiques shop in Pudsey to go
This antiques shop in Pudsey is to be demolished;
These two properties in Pudsey are looking a bit ramshackle, but there is a Parisian rustic quality to these buildings that gives warmth to the character of Pudsey.It is also sad that a terraced property can still be a victim of the wrecking ball, as I had always hoped that the contiguous relationship to neighbours would be a complexity to deter the bean counting developers. Rough around the edges, but a loss nonetheless.
Victorian Baths in Elland bulldozed without permission
Very sad to see the Victoria Baths in Elland being demolished this week due to structural instability.
There are not many towns that have been ruined to the extent that Elland has. The loss of industry and the town’s train station, followed by the cursory modernist regeneration of the 60s have left this small town without purpose and wholly deprived. Sadly this last remnant of the once striking town centre has been condemned, with the levelling process beginning before any permission has been granted. I suppose expedience like this is at the councils discretion, particularly as it falls falls within a conservation area.
Apparently it would have cost a million pounds to maintain the structure. A (dubiously) large amount indeed, but how much will be spent on whatever new Community Centre/Elland Action Team facility will be built there instead. Maybe if it had gone to tender on a wider platform or a private owner could have been found, slightly more of Elland town centre wouldn’t be condemned to rubble.
Last of the commercial high street, Spring Vale
The former butchers shop on the high street of Spring Vale is to be demolished, along with the neighbouring commercial buildings. The planning statement gives us the reason that ‘current local market conditions will not support the reinstatement of the butchers shop’. But why limit our imagination to a purveyor of meat? I’m no shopkeeper, but high street commercial property is quite flexible. You could sell almost anything from this shop. Aren’t we trying to encourage small commercial centres that complement the larger hubs nearby?
Nope, knock it down, build some houses quickly and advertise them as being close to the M1.
4 townhouses – Spring Vale, Penistone
This was once a high street. There will be nothing left of it once these buildings are gone. A village becomes a suburb.
M62 corridor towns
Those poor old towns along the M62 corridor really will bear the brunt of development in West Yorkshire over the coming decade. Im sure developers will make spurious claims of sustainable locations, but in reality, the West Yorkshire lifestyle will become more dependent on the M62, for going to work, for shopping, and for getting home. The sprawl in these towns means you can barely differentiate between the likes of Morley or Birstall or Birkinshaw any more. If only a strong green belt, and an inviolable conservation area status was given to the highstreets in these towns, perhaps they would be more than dormitories of Leeds.
47 Dwellings on Brownfield land in Drighlington.
The designs are as good as you will get from a volume housebuilder, so even I concede things are improving. Yet still there is no justification to knock everything down. Goodbye to this little gem:
I would welcome this development were they to maintain the street front, transform the cul-de-sac into a through road, and be extremely sympathetic with building materials. A step in the right direction, but still a long road ahead.
More of the same
Three applications to demolish historic buildings in West Yorkshire this week.
Horsforth:
Interesting Victorian quasi-manor house, possibly relating to the railway that passes nearby. The location of this building is very strange, and even stranger, the use of the place as an Italian restaurant. Shame that it will be lost.
Rastrick:
Middle building is to go. Not an especially important building, but theres no need to knock it down really.
Weatherby:
Quaint corner building in this historic market town to make way for a shop.
Also, although not my patch, Mapplewell in Barnsley will be losing this gem of a public house:
Parish School to be demolished by Parish Church
A minor victory this week. Kirkheaton Parish School, which was set to have an application (from the Parish Church) to demolish passed this week, has been deferred for a little while longer as English Heritage are consulted regarding the merit of the building. Special thanks to the Victorian Society who wrote to Kirklees council to request this. I will keep you posted on the outcome of this consultation.
I was recently told that the justification for passing this planning permission was that ‘although the loss of a historic asset would occur, the financial return for the develop would be maximized under this scheme’. Forgive my ignorance, but you don’t need a planning system to enforce the rules of economic calculus. The planning system should literally be doing the opposite of this.
The Demolition Register 