Kendal Civic Society

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Points to Ponder
Interesting thoughts and anecdotes.

Re-surfacing Kirkland

Misc - Points to Ponder
There has been an enormous amount of disquiet and outrage over the present road/paving work in Kirkland.  All we can do is ask people to wait until the work is completed before passing judgment.  Mr. Dawson was concerned that the wall from Nether Bridge to the Parish Church car park entrance has been lowered to almost ground level.  Apparently, planning consent was not needed and the purpose was to open up the view of the river.
 

PLANNING CHANGES 'THREATEN OUR HISTORY AND COUNTRYSIDE

Misc - Points to Ponder

Tens of thousands of listed buildings and large swathes of the countryside could be destroyed after two key planks of the planning system were quietly dismantled by ministers.

In previously unreported plans, the Government is to downgrade protection on old buildings and those in conservation areas in order to "benefit developers" and "reduce the number of applications for planning permission rejected on heritage grounds".

The professional body representing town planners described the proposal as "unfit for purpose".

In a separate development, the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), a new quango that has been created to speed up planning decisions on "major infrastructure projects", was described as a threat to "valuable landscapes".

The changes to historic building protection are contained in a draft Government "planning policy statement" slipped out during the summer holidays.

It says local authorities should allow the demolition or alteration of historic buildings where the "material harm" caused to an area's heritage "is outweighed by the wider social, economic and environmental benefits of the proposed development”. It says this "is likely to benefit developers" by reducing the number of planning applications rejected.

Martin Willey, the president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, described the policy as "a charter for people who want to knock buildings down".

"This new guidance assumes that heritage stand in the way of development and economic recovery, which is patently untrue. Historic buildings and places are an asset, not a burden," he said.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it had received more than 300 responses following consultation and would give "careful consideration to all the points and comments that have been made" when the draft was revised.

The IPC is made up of unelected commissioners who have been given 'draconian' new powers to grant planning permission, cancel Green Belt protection allow developers to seize private land, remove footpaths and close roads.

The vast majority of applications it will be asked to considered are expected to get planning permission. Two nuclear power stations and five wind farms are among the first it will assess.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England described the IPC as a "mockery of democracy" that will "threaten valuable landscapes".

Andrew Gilligan Daily Telegraph

 

WILL THE BRITISH WRECK BRITAIN?

Misc - Points to Ponder

“Over 600 Societies now exist in this country which should be superfluous and are not, simply because our standards of national and local government are inadequate.

They are the bodies that have sprung up - ominously, the number has trebled in 10 years - to defend what used to be a land of beauty unexcelled against a mixed force of foes the more dangerous many of them, for being blind to what they do. These enemies are public and private development, traffic and population pressure. As camp followers they bring apathy, lack of taste among officials, architects and planners and sheer conscienceless greed. Unless they are soon contained, little will be left in half a century....”

(Extract from the Society Newsletter July 1968 quoting the Daily Telegraph June 15th by S. J. Salfield)

 

AN OPEN LETTER

Misc - Points to Ponder

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

Dear Mr. Darling,

Please find below my suggestion for fixing Britain's economy. Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan : There are about 20 million people over 50 in the work force. - Pay them £1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

  1. They MUST retire. Twenty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
  2. They MUST buy a new British CAR. Twenty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.
  3. They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.
  4. They must send their kids to school / college /university - Crime rate fixed
  5. Buy £50 of alcohol / tobacco a week there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely
claimed expenses and second home allowances.

NL0905

 

WORD ON THE STREET

Misc - Points to Ponder

Why can’t we build new homes that are as good as the old ones?

There isn’t a lot of sticking power in the blocks of new flats that have been thrown up in the last few years - they are losing value as they age, rather than gaining it. It is depressing that, given the technological advances of the past 100 years, we are unable to design a more comfortable and popular machine for living than was available to the Edwardians. Instead we have made our little dwelling boxes smaller, with thinner walls and lower ceilings, to the point at which many people would rather not live in them. At the moment, the developers are trying to maximise profits by building smaller and smaller homes on less and less space, but still cannot sell them at a profit for the simple reason that these homes are not what people want to buy. Maybe a little less hysteria will result in better machines for living - spacious, modern homes we can be proud to pass on through the generations.

Rosie Murray-West

Daily Telegraph 13th September 2008.

NL0905

 

QUOTE

Misc - Points to Ponder

‘Civilisation isn't about functional use. It's about beauty and history and culture and our inheritance of our past’

PTOLEMY DEAN, ARCHITECT

NL0905

 

QUOTE

Misc - Points to Ponder
And if we want our housebuilders to create things of everlasting beauty, with the adornment and colour and individuality that the Victorians took for granted, then we have to shout for them. Housing is in such short supply that we must either make do with whatever we are offered by the developers, on the grounds that beggars can’t be choosers, or else we must fight and protest in the name of posterity and the future reputation of the age of Elizabeth II. If you want housing that is beautiful as well as affordable, if you object to the clap-clinic air of some modern blocks, then join me now and build the movement. Boris Johnson 16/7/08

NL0905
 

Wanted

Misc - Points to Ponder
More to approve. Fewer to disapprove. More doers. Fewer talkers. More to say ‘it can be done’. Fewer to say ‘no it can’t’. More to inspire others with confidence. Fewer to throw cold water on any initiative. More to get into the thick of things. Fewer to sit on the sidelines merely to find fault. More to point out what is right with the world. Fewer to keep harping on what’s wrong with it. More to be interested in lighting candles. Fewer in blowing them out.
 

From an Article on Modern Architecture

Misc - Points to Ponder

We are allowing a pox to disfigure the face of Britain. It is fast spreading, scarring the countryside, towns and cities with eruptions of grotesquely unsuitable houses, built in styles and materials that pay no courtesy whatsoever to their surroundings. The sheer ubiquity of these buildings could brainwash the new generation into assuming they represent the acceptable face of British architecture with all the sense of national as well as local culture annihilated by the corporate culture creating them. Who is responsible for these abominations nationwide: the planners or the developers, the landowners or the architects? How can we stand by and allow this to happen? If buildings reflect the tastes, the dreams and the ideals of the age, what will these buildings reflect of our ideals today? If ever there was proof of mammon reigning supreme, then it is to be seen with these soulless, corporate coffer-filling excrescences which we are allowing to sprawl over the face of Britain. This is not a rant for tradition and ‘revivals’, far from it. It is a plea for architectural integrity. Design with style; build property with proper materials; when possible using what is local to the land and whatever you design.

Lucinda Lambton

 

Word on the Street

Misc - Points to Ponder

Why can’t we build new homes as good as old ones? There isn’t a lot of sticking power in the blocks of new flats that have been thrown up in the last few years - they are losing value as they age, rather than gaining it. It is depressing that, given the technological advances of the past 100 years, we are unable to design a more comfortable and popular machine for living than was available to the Edwardians. Instead, we have have made our little dwelling boxes smaller, with thinner walls and lower ceilings, to the point at which many people would not live in them. At the moment, the developers are trying to maximise profits by building smaller and smaller houses on less and less space, but still cannot sell them at a profit for the simple reason that these homes are not what people want to buy. Maybe a little less hysteria will result in better machines for living - spacious, modern homes we can be proud to pass on through the generations.

Rosie Murray-West (Daily Telegraph 13/09/08)

 

...and if we want our housebuilders to create things of lasting beauty, with the adornment and colour and individuality that the Victorians took for granted, then we have to shout for them. Housing is in such short supply that we must either make do with whatever we are offered by developers, on the grounds that beggars can’t be choosers, or else we must fight and protest in the name of posterity and the future reputation of the age of Elizabeth II. If you want housing that is beautiful as well as affordable, if you object to the clap-clinic air of some modern blocks, then join me now and build the movement.

Boris Johnson 16/07/08