[Archived] Bri - Infirmary

[SAS]

Think its time this landmark to come down.

contractors have been in stripping whats left, i think they have now left site and i know the local chavs and pikies are now raiding it for copper.

What a sad demise for something the town paid for....

Anyone know exactly when its coming down?

[JAL]

Think its time this landmark to come down.

contractors have been in stripping whats left, i think they have now left site and i know the local chavs and pikies are now raiding it for copper.

What a sad demise for something the town paid for....

Anyone know exactly when its coming down?

Seems like its coming down now from what you say, when the plans were first put out in the local rag it stated that Barrats were the builders now it seems its not Barrats but somebody else.

[Hasta]

I heard there was a delay on when it could come down - something to do with the radiation / x-ray areas. Don't know if this is true.

[Hannah]

Perhaps they could open a subway franchise on the site instead of houses. It would obviously need to sell bacon?

Just an idea!

[SAS]

Seems like its coming down now from what you say, when the plans were first put out in the local rag it stated that Barrats were the builders now it seems its not Barrats but somebody else.

Its been standing there for nearly 2 years without NOTHING being done for it

and is has a team of several security 24 hours, and they are on the ball

I wonder who pays for that?

but with what they are doing now its obvious its being prepared for the big BOOM

[JAL]

Its been standing there for nearly 2 years without NOTHING being done for it

and is has a team of several security 24 hours, and they are on the ball

I wonder who pays for that?

but with what they are doing now its obvious its being prepared for the big BOOM

The old original VICTORIAN part of the hospital that faces towards town that you can see from Bolton Road is supposed to remain and be developed into flats.

Having seen the security fencing around BRI, i saw a sign up near Bolton road saying David Wilson Homes coming soon, how soon who knows, but with the security fencing going up you'd think building work was imminent.

In the local rag it said affordable housing for the site but what is affordable housing and why do they always quote this but never reveal the actual purchase price of an affordable house ?

[SAS]

yeh, the war wing is remaining, that only equates to about 15% of the hospital

[cletus]

i know the local chavs and pikies are now raiding it for copper.

Anyone know exactly when its coming down?

Let`s hope they pull it down with the pikeys & chavs still inside!

[colin]

The site will probably be owned by the NHS. Its has been closed by them as the buildings have been declared unsuitable for a 21st century hospital - it was certainly looking dismal the last time I was in there a couple of years ago when my Mum was in.

The NHS has put it for sale as it is and a buyer has been found. That buyer will have contacted Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council (as the planning authority) to see what development would be permitted. If BWD has said that xyz development would be OK then the potential buyer will have done its sums and bought the land in order to build an xyz development.

Given that a lot of land between the Infirmary & Asda has been demolished for housing redevelopment I reckon that housing on the site would be an ideal solution. The only possible glitch for the redevelopment would be if English Heritage put a Listed Building grade on part of the existing structure (it did this at a disused isolation hospital near Frodsham which really put the cat amongst the pigeons.)

So NHS gets rid of an old unsuitable hospital, spends the money on a new one up at the Queen Lizzie site, new houses appear all over an area of south Blackburn.

Seems like a decent enough result to me. better than the site rotting away for years.

[92er]

I understand foundations have been put in for some of the properties that are going to go up.

'

[Cheshireblue]

David Wilson Homes is part of the Barrats group. They have acquired the site and are in the process of demolishing it. The housing market being what it is, they are in no rush.

The only way you can get planning permission these days is by including some "affordable" housing in your development. It's a complete joke. You want to build a raft of 5 bedroom detached houses because that is what the area befits, but the local council say you have to put a job lot of one bedroom flats in the middle so that they can house some scrotes under their shared ownership scheme. Net result - houses don't sell, or if they do, the area gets run down by the scrotes and the people that bought lose out.

You end up building a lot of very stylish, well designed, extremely well finished flats that only wealthy people can afford anyway so it just defeats the purpose.

[colin]

The only way you can get planning permission these days is by including some "affordable" housing in your development. It's a complete joke. You want to build a raft of 5 bedroom detached houses because that is what the area befits, but the local council say you have to put a job lot of one bedroom flats in the middle so that they can house some scrotes under their shared ownership scheme. Net result - houses don't sell, or if they do, the area gets run down by the scrotes and the people that bought lose out.

You end up building a lot of very stylish, well designed, extremely well finished flats that only wealthy people can afford anyway so it just defeats the purpose.

Chesh,

Your "I'm considerably richer than you" stance is OK and quite funny, but when it comes down to people not being able to afford to buy a house then it's a bit out of order.

How many people in Blackburn need a 5 bedroom house? To descibe people who need "affordable housing" as "scrotes" is plain insulting to people who just cannot afford the price of a house. The fact that a housing development is forced to include "affordable" homes should be a matter of national shame rather than some kind of condemnation of the people who cannot afford a home being catered for by an artificial lowering of house prices.

[stuwilky]

The only way you can get planning permission these days is by including some "affordable" housing in your development. It's a complete joke. You want to build a raft of 5 bedroom detached houses because that is what the area befits, but the local council say you have to put a job lot of one bedroom flats in the middle so that they can house some scrotes under their shared ownership scheme. Net result - houses don't sell, or if they do, the area gets run down by the scrotes and the people that bought lose out.

Any chance of an example of this happening Chesh?

[Cheshireblue]

Just done it on the Wirral. Permission for 47 dwelling houses, 9 of which have to be "affordable". An "affordable" house on the Wirral is still £250k, so what's the point? You just end up selling it to a young professional rather than a couple that genuinely need somewhere to live. The only thing it achieves is a reduction in the viability of the site. We had to sell a site on in Timperley because the project that we had planned would not have worked financially and because the locals were up in arms about having affordable housing on their doorsteps. This an affluent manchester suburb, why would they want to put affordable housing in the middle of it. The site is now going to be a care home until the current planning officer is replaced with someone with an IQ above room temperature.

Colin, if you read the post carefully, you will see that I was giving the example of building 5 bedroom houses because that is what the area befits. I'm not suggesting that all developments need 5 bedroom houses. Some developments are absolutely right for high density low cost housing, but that should be reviewed on a case by case basis. The fact is that local councils are insisting on affordable housing for practically all developments not just those where it is appropriate.

And besides, for every executive house you build, somebody buys it. They have upgraded, so a slightly smaller house comes on the market that they have had to sell. And so on and so forth. No matter what size the house is, it frees up one more house down the food chain.

As for your national shame point, get a grip Col! We live on a tiny island with a population of 60 million people. The cost of building houses has remained largely static (although building control are doing their best to increase it) the only thing that has increased is land prices. That is hardly surprising given the number of people crammed into the country.

Land that you can build on is like rocking horse muck. Accordingly, it costs an absolutre fortune to buy it. That is what is sending your house prices up, not greedy developers. Demand outstrips supply significantly. The only way to cure that problem is to increase supply, and you don't do that by forcing developers to build affordable homes. You do it by freeing up more land to build on, thus lowering the cost of the land in the first place.

The site in the Wirral that I mentioned above is projected to make us £240k in total. £5k a house. Would you invest £12m for a £240k return? We'd make more leaving it in the bank. We took a view on the planning permission restictions having spoken to the council and the council subsequently went back on their word. It took the secretary of state to reverse his deision, and did we get our legal fees back? Did we hell. £250k wasted, which halved what little profit was left after the ridiculous affordable housing conditions.

Planners are a joke. They waste everyones time and money. If they want houses for scrotes, then designate land for the construction of scrote houses and they will be built. It serves nobody's purpose to force these houses into areas where they do not fit, are not required and benefit no one.

As for the BRI site, as it's David Wilson homes, they will not be cheap affordable houses in the main. They will be 3/4 bed family homes probably with an apartment block at one end to keep the planners happy. Probably a reasonable mix given the local demographic.