Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Wind

Thankfully we're not suffering from wind as much as those poor pasty-munching buggers down in Cornwall are at the moment. But as this picture of the hoarding around the Granville Eyesore here in the Millionaires' Playground shows, one or two things have nonetheless blown off. I'm glad it wasn't my Lamborghini Veneno parked there at the time!

It's the second occasion in a month that the fan's hit the shit, as it were. Property developer Jason Hough, who owns the site, really should have read January's notice on the excellent FixMyStreet website a bit more carefully. If he had, he'd have seen that one more hefty puff was about to bring the rest of his hoardy house down.

Still, by this afternoon Kent Highways had bulldozed it from their road and crammed it back into his hole, so that's not bad going.

Speaking of eyesores, the Pleasurama Eyesore rightly gets all the coverage when it comes to the Cannes of Kent, but the Granville's just as 'orrible in my humble proverbial, as is this in Bellevue Road, which is rapidly becoming the local flytippers' landfill of choice...
Not to mention the old cop shop on Cavendish Street.

I dunno. At this rate it might be worth resurrecting the old Eyesore Tours from 2008!

9 comments:

God help us said...

Richard the land next the cop shop has had workmen on it and Cardy seem to be building something in the seaside eyesore but what it is I have no idea, unless they are preparing to repel TDC workmen as they take back the site as per the BBC

Anonymous said...

Sadly this is the inevitable result of every development suggestion for every site being met with protests and cries to - save - whatever fell over/burnt down/got washed away/was bulldozed in a previous lifetime.

Anonymous said...

How can 700 staff at TDC for 3 small towns do so badly?

Anonymous said...

"Sadly this is the inevitable result of every development suggestion for every site being met with protests and cries to - save - whatever fell over/burnt down/got washed away/was bulldozed in a previous lifetime."

You cannot seriously be siding with the developer of this site can you? He failed to do his research when he bought the land. If he had he would have seen that not only does he have one of Kent's most prolific and nimbyish bloggers practically on his doorstep but would also have recognised that there is a strong feeling in the local vicinity that any development would be welcome if it was appropriate to the surrounding architecture and did not specify something like forty flats with only nineteen parking spaces. His architects, Clagues of Canterbury, also blew it by failing to engage concerned locals and refusing to respond to concerned emails and inquiries.

These days building a substantial development involves more than just whacking in a planning proposal and bunging the local councillors a few lunches, and the built environment is better for it. If, for example, he had consulted locals they may have suggested he looked at the recent Liverpool Lawn development, where a number of town houses have been built in keeping with the Regency architecture that surrounds them, and jolly successful it's been too.

You, on the other hand, seem to be suggesting that developers should be allowed to bung up any old crap they like, a view which is rather backward in my opinion, and one which I very much doubt you would adhere to if it was in your back yard.

Anonymous said...

The designs by architect Geoff Mitchell, of Claque Canterbury, were in my opinion, out of keeping with Granville House. The buildings materials and styles did not match the neighbouring properties. It was a good thing Thanet Cllrs voted against their own case officer and threw the plans out!

Anonymous said...

We only have to see the mess TDC made of the beach shelters before Ramsgate Society took them over for their ability in town planning.56 councillors and 84 KCC councillors is far too many especially if they are the same ones just topping up their pensions. And 700 TDC staff (and the same in the other Districts?) and 14,000 KCC staff too? For what? We need FOI and a clearout.

Anonymous said...

I could do with a clear out. Gadds. It's a killer.

Michael Child said...

Quite simple really, you have a major Gothic Revival building, part of it is destroyed by a WW2 bomb and part of it is demolished, leaving about half of the original building, then about a third of the part that had gone is rebuilt in Gothic Revival style, this really only leaves two options. One is to rebuild the remaining part in Gothic Revival style the other is to produce a mess. Before part of it was rebuilt there may have been a case for replacing the missing part with an iconic modern building, but one you go down the mock mock gothic next to mock gothic road there is really no way back.

Anonymous said...

The Port isn't the only council item full of sh*t! Where is the TDC Airport Commitee nowadays? They cancelled it then reinstated it but only silence.