Why no more houses?
 

This is a question for someone from the council to answer.

I read in last weeks paper that there are about 3,000 people waiting for houses in Hyndburn.
The house prices in the area have gone up considerably over the last five or six years, so much so that they are pricing first time buyers out of the market.

So, the question is - why was I told that there is a halt on allowing planning permissions for new houses in the area? Or is that no longer the case?

Re: Why no more houses?
 

if there is a halt on newbuild planning then it can only be aa good thing. why erect those awful newbuilds- thats not the only option available to cater for the people on the waiting list. there is so much of so called low demand housing in accrington why dont they just refurbish these properties to a high standard instead of knocking them down. has anyone seen how awful Holland street looks now? it was a really pretty street before the coucil intervened with their clearence programme and there were no empty properties.. the council say those homes are unfit to live in but ive been in those homes before the clearence programme and they were normal clean decent houses. even now that street can be rescued from the council but instead they will replace it with a part concrete mess. enviromentally speaking its not good either.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

the coucil is a joke

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Well gosh spinner, I agree with you, I used to live on Holland St, Unfortunately due to the clearance scheme I had to move on. I have been lucky in that I've only moved a few streets away and into a refurbished terrace house. Number 1 Holland St was worked on last year and the standard that was taken to was fantastic and yet even that has had the metal doors put on it. It was and could still be an excellent little street, just a shame that it is coming to an end. :(

Re: Why no more houses?
 

less didnt you want to challenge the coucil though i used to get a really good feeling when i walked through that street. it was such a sweet cottagy loooking street. i know that no1 was refurbished to a high standard . i spoke to someone about it recently and they said even if 1 person living there objects to the impending demolition it will be stopped as long as the properties have no structural damage or are in serios disrepair

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i dont see how the council are getting away with damaging Accringtons stone heritage. fair enough some streets were tatty but surely pictre postcard streets such as holland street should have been free from clearence. whats going on future generations will blame us for being complacent

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It seems to be an epidemic sweeping the country at the moment. Makes me wonder if it is to make housing more expensive and make developers richer. Everyone should have a home that they can call their own whether rented or bought yet it is in such short supply and what does go up is out of reach or a normal person and their family. Someone for what they would pay for a new house could do up one of the old terreced houses and still have money over. When I see how they build and the materials they use it makes me think those that buy must be mad. To buy a house is to invest in bricks and morter in my view not plasterboard breeze blocks and cake bricks. Those today go up so quick and cheap its unbelievable especially considering what they sell at.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

spinner and spuggie have very valid points to me, i worked in construction early 70s, and the crap that went into "new" was unbelievable to me, i remember commenting that these will be rubble when the 80 odd year old terrace are still standing, they are very well constructed and now most are 100 year old and more, and looked after proper are much better. the areas round here that the money has gone towards so far proves the point. they look very well.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

Re: Why no more houses?
 

According to this, there is a five year wait for social housing in Hyndburn.

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/mo...n_hyndburn.php

Re: Why no more houses?
 

I'm with the majority on this one. The old, well built, stone, terraced housing should have been improved and refurbished, instead of demolished.

I'll bet the new builds won't be standing in a hundred years.

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I do agree with you that older houses are more attractive and have more character. My point is that regardless of what they do with the old houses (I personally think they should renovate) is that they have put a stop on planning permissions for new houses. Surely, given the demand for housing both old houses should be renovated and new houses built.

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One teenage drunken party could bring down a new build style house. There boom boom music would shake it to pieces. :eek:

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I'm in agreement. They are demolishing more than mere buildings, they are demolishing history. I'd take a good old stone built over the modern, government sponsored rubbish any day.

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i felt so strongly about holland st that i contacted julian hickenbottom from the council. he laughed when i told him that i saw no reason for it to be demolished. he said they were in poor condition internally- that is simply not true ive been to a few homes on that street and its simply not the case. internally they are no different to other terraces which have not been knocked down. the only reason they are being replaced with shoody new homes is that the developers will be able to make a tidy profit by building cheap semis with gardens which will command higher prices/rents than the old terraces. theyll get the land for next to nothing too under the pretext of regenerating run down areas.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

those so called new homes are shoddily built and even worse the styles are awful. some are even victorian stlye with pathetic looking bay windows to make them seem homely. those are the sort of new builds that im against. they are truly awful. new homes should have modern styles and swanky materials spent on them.i really like modern buildings if they look modern and stylish. of course they wont make any sassy new builds in accy. its going to be cheap and nasty newbuilds like on college court which was erected on the former accy college site. honestly its a shame that the likes of hickybottom are allowing this bulldozer worthy trash to be put up in the name of social housing

Re: Why no more houses?
 

Are there any links to say what houses they aren't building, and why? Is it brown as well as green field sites that have the restrictions?

Although there is still a need, especially for social housing in the area, there has been loads of new houses built in Ossy in the last two years. Hundreds of homes have been built behind Roegreave Road on the site of the old mill, for instance, but there have been no new schools built to accommodate the new families. It's pointless building new homes if there isn't also the infrastuctue and facilities the new homes will need.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

What is 'modern and swanky' soon dates, and looks tired and out of fashion.

Post war town planners thought everyone from the slums would love living in 'modern and swanky' tower blocks. They didn't.

Most people are traditionalists, and don't forget what is modern and fashionable soon becomes unfashionable by it's very nature.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

i dont think those tower blocks were ever considered to be swanky ,modern, free from fussy details yes but not swanky and expensive. it was also about maximising the potential of space
there are many examples of 1960s houses(not tower blocks) which are fantastic and visually stunning. they are stlye statements and are very of their time but dont look dated. they still look really smart.if something is nice its always looked very nice. im sure those tower blocks always looked pretty awful but maybe not as grotty. i love traditional buildings especially because of the materials used in their construction but hate cheap copycat 'victorian' style homes.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

i have lived in terraced, semis, a bungalow, and even a maisonette, over the years, whilst the others were nice, the best and most economical is terraced,built from a far sounder structure than anything modern, and for the council guy to say what he said about holland street property interiors all i can say he is either (A) badly misinformed, or (B) a liar. simple as that.!

Re: Why no more houses?
 

liar and a greedy one id say . i sensed it in his voice.
i must admit ive had the misfortune to live in a typical newbuild. it sounds cliched butits true what they say they just have no character and this applies internally too. in my old terrace you could 'sense' the character. maybe it was the lime plaster and natural old bricks breathing. it just feels so much nicer

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i sorta guessed that spinner, but as i didn,t speak to him, i put (A) in.;) :D

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Plaster? -I aint got none!! - My flat was built circa 1970 and the walls are 'dry lined' - ie - no plaster. It is a nightmare trying to get wallpaper off raw plasterboard.

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The last lot I had with that trouble got several layers of cheap paint then the wall paper as it was easier toremove the paper later on.

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Just wondered if the 3,000 waiting for houses was the council list Gayle as seems in lots of areas .. perhaps ours ? there are plenty of private houses to let and a council will encourage people to go for these rather than wait for a council house ... so this does reduce the figure tremendously.

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Notice there is a planning application been registered this week for 32 houses and 6 bungalows on the Great Harwood Football site and ex Monroes night club .. so will see if gets turned down.

Re: Why no more houses?
 

I know on our list in Blackburn with Darwen there are over 11,000 but not all actively waiting to move... we advertise the properties and people ring up and express an interest into the one they would like to move to ...it is not unusual to get upto 200 people putting their name down for one house... and we are building new houses too! :eek:

Re: Why no more houses?
 

It would be interesting to see how they measure waiting lists ( and I don't mean the obvious method of counting them :D )

I have my name down but my cirucmstances have changed so I won't be needing one now. If I don't go and tell them to remove me from the list there seems to be no method of checking if applications are still required. Therefore the list basically grows and grows but the real requirement is probably much less.

One of the housing associations has a policy of 3 monthly renewal for their waiting list. If you don't tell them every 3 months you still want a house then your'e off the list and have to apply again.