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Thread: Demolishing arguments

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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    Default Demolishing arguments

    The problem with appointing a body of "experts" is that their expertise is so often questionable. Cabe, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, was created by New Labour as a successor to the Fine Arts Commission allegedly run as a one-man show by Lord St John of Fawsley. It soon acquired a reputation for making dubious aesthetic pronouncements on new building projects, promoting the foolish and faddish at the expense of the tried and trusted.

    Overall, Cabe often failed to apply the simple rule which it has since formulated about new buildings: that they be of better quality than those they replace. In consequence, many much-loved Victorian terraces all over the Midlands and the North are due to be demolished to make way for indifferent new housing.

    But this week, at last, the developers' poodle has turned and barked. Cabe reported for the first time on one of the Government's "housing market renewal" (i.e. demolition and rebuilding) schemes, and found it badly wanting. "We think the project fails both as urban design and as architecture," say the experts of the site in Sandwell, previously pointed to by the Government as a showcase for "market renewal". The project, designed by Persimmon plc and paid for by John Prescott's amorphous Whitehall department, failed on eight out of 10 of Cabe's objectives for good design. In particular, it lacks sufficient communal space and fails to keep faith with the character of the area - errors sadly familiar from a generation ago.

    The high crime rates endured by the residents of 1960s housing estates testify to the obvious truth that bad design blights lives. "Expertise" and "modernity", no matter how eye-catching on a drawing-board, are no substitute for good building. If Cabe has a reason for existing - which is not yet proved - it is surely to defend unfashionable and worthy styles of architecture against ephemeral and worthless fads. If this report signals a new determination to do so, we will all be grateful - particularly if the commission now turns its attention to the catastrophe pending in Victorian Liverpool.



    Source: Telegraph
    Last edited by Howie; 09-08-2005 at 02:37 AM. Reason: Link added

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Default Ringo's House

    Ringo's House to be flattened. Former Beatle Ringo Starr's birthplace is to be demolished because it has "no historical significance", Liverpool City Council has said.

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    Otterspool Onomatopoeia Max's Avatar
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    Only historial thing about it is that he lived there.
    Gididi Gididi Goo.

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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    Default Welsh Streets homes doomed

    Welsh Streets homes doomed

    HUNDREDS of homes in Liverpool's historic Welsh Streets are facing demolition after an 11th-hour change of heart by housing officials.

    Almost 500 homes, including Madryn Street, the former home of Beatle Ringo Starr, are now set to be bulldozed.

    The controversial plans to flatten the 11 streets and rebuild were shelved earlier this year after huge protests.

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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    Default Your guide to the new Edge Lane

    Your guide to the new Edge Lane



    PLANS to transform Liverpool's Edge Lane with a widened road and new housing have sparked anger from some residents, whose homes will be demolished.

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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    Default Soaring house prices save 7,000 homes from the axe

    Soaring house prices save 7,000 homes from the axe

    ROCKETING house prices across Merseyside have led to a dramatic cut in the biggest housing demolition programme since the slum clearances of the 1960s.

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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    Default Battle as road plan gets the go-ahead

    Battle as road plan gets the go-ahead

    FAMILIES living close to Liverpool's busy Edge Lane were gearing up for a fight last night after councillors gave the go-ahead to a £40m road widening scheme.

    Despite pleas by local people and their three councillors, the council's planning committee voted by a majority to approve the road scheme.

    The battle will now switch to a proposed public inquiry next month to decide whether compulsory purchase orders should be confirmed.

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Ringo's House - Good News

    THE house where Ringo Starr was born will be taken down brick by brick and preserved, it was revealed today. Housing chiefs have come under fire for wanting to demolish the Beatles drummer's first home in Liverpool's Welsh Streets area under a £54m regeneration plan. Liverpool council today announced it will carefully dismantle the Madryn Street terrace rather than bulldoze it along with almost 500 other properties.



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    Quote by Cllr Flo Clucas, executive member for housing: "There has been a lot of speculation about Ringo Starr's former home in Madryn Street. I have asked officers to ensure that the property is taken down and stored. Its future use will become clear over time."

    Translates to "We haven't got a bloody clue what we're going to do with it, but it'll keep 'em quiet for now."



    I wonder if the Council will think to take down the 'Madryn Street' sign before some enterprising chap half-inches it?
    Ermine tastes much the same as sackcloth when there's nothing left to eat.

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    Otterspool Onomatopoeia Max's Avatar
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    When they take the house down brick by brick were will they take the bricks? Will they rebuild them somewhere and make it into a tourist attraction?
    Gididi Gididi Goo.

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    They will sell the house to Japan or USA OR they will rebuild it within the new Museum on Mann Island within the moved Museum of Liverpool Life.
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    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    LIVERPOOL -- CULTURE OF DISRESPECT FOR RESIDENTS
    September 07, 2005

    Over four hundred homes in Liverpool face demolition, as part of the government's plans to raise house prices in the North and Midlands of England. This is another project within the 'Pathfinder' housing market renewal scheme, and is also linked to the preparation for Liverpool's term as 'City of Culture 2008'. To the residents of Liverpool's Edge Lane West, however, the scheme looks very much more like part of a culture of total disrespect for local residents on the part of politicians and corporations.

    Edge Lane West has the bad luck to be chosen as part of the so-called 'eastern gateway' into Liverpool -- the council has plans for roads to be widened and new buildings built, in order to give visitors to the city of culture a smooth and pleasant ride to the city centre. As the council describes it 'The improvements planned as part of this scheme will help to give visitors a positive image of the city, which is crucial in the run-up to Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture in 2008' . This task has been undertaken by a range of 'regeneration' qangos, including the Merseyside New Heartlands Pathfinder, Northwest Regional Development Agency, and English partnerships, as well as much-hated local housing association Community 7, and Liverpool City Council. While the authorities state that half the properties have been acquired 'through negotiation' and through being empty, Community 7, as a major local landlord, has been accused by local campaigners of forcing residents out of their homes in order to cash in on the gateway project, 'Over 100 tenants have already been quietly moved out of the area... Most of these tenants will be moved out of the New Deal area altogether and ghettoised in areas which are not important to the city centre regeneration.'
    However, over two hundred properties still remain inhabited, and English Partnerships (EP) -- the government's national 'regeneration' qango, has rolled out a stream of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) in January, in order to remove these obstacles to progress. EP's chairman is Margaret Ford, also a director of 'outsourcing' specialist Serco -- which runs prisons and military establishments . Other members of EP's board include James Tuckey, an advisor to BP, and various other Qangocrats. Their local equivalents, the Liverpool Land Development Company (LLDC), likewise has a board made up of the usual 'regeneration' professionals -- consultants, housing managers, and local politicians. They also include Alan James, Finance Manager, Jaguar Cars, and member of the Northwest Automotive Alliance. Lobbyists for the car industry will doubtless be pleased that the government, and Liverpool City Council, have decided that widening the roads into Liverpool is such a high priority. The LLDC part-time directors enjoy 'renumeration' from a pot of almost £160,000 and the company, which employs eleven staff, pays an average salary of £60,000. Not that they are keeping the benefits of 'regeneration' to themselves -- the construction companies Birse Civils Ltd, Mowlem plc and Alfred McAlpine Capital Projects Ltd have all been chosen to receive their share of the £65 million of public money set aside for the Liverpool 'gateway' project.

    Ranged against the regeneration industry is an alliance of local residents, many organised under the banner of BEVEL -- 'better environmental vision for edge lane'. While work is not scheduled to start on the gateway project until 2006, the Public Inquiry is scheduled to start in October 2005. BEVEL are facing the regeneration qangos' legal team, and have already had to endure a series of pre-inquiry meetings before proceedings have even started. However, BEVEL have drawn up an alternative plan for Edge Lane West, and are pushing for the authorities to accept it. And BEVEL are not fighting alone -- they have support from a large number of community and heritage groups, as well as from other neighbourhoods scheduled to face the developers' axe as part of this 'regerneration' project. Local campaigners across the UK are all looking at what happens in Liverpool, and hope that the Edge Lane residents manage to face down the corporations and establish control over what happens to their streets.

    For more details on the anti-Pathfinder alliance, see www.fightforourhomes.com

    Source: Corporate Watch

  13. #13
    Senior Member Howie's Avatar
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    'Don't bother rebuilding my house brick by brick so you can still say I was born there'



    RINGO Starr has a message for campaigners fighting to save his old home from the bulldozers: "Don't bother."

    The Beatles drummer says he "does not see the sense" in preserving his former home in Liverpool's Welsh Streets.

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  14. #14

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    Well Ringo has just gone up a couple of notches in my estimation, seems like he's the only one talking any sense! Good on you, Ringo!

    And tell Flo where to get off.
    Ermine tastes much the same as sackcloth when there's nothing left to eat.

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Its a bit of a slap in the face for Flo eh?
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