Council just dropped off their master plan

[Furr]

and the two houses we own seem to have been replace with a shopping/residential complex....

Anyone had any dealing with this sort of thing. We currently own two thouses side by side in the center of town. One we live in and the other we rent. Quite large with gardens etc. Whats the deal on them purchasing them.... oh dear... rather worried. I like these houses...

Its not just us. probably around 10-15 house's they want to replace with a mixed shopping/flats complex.

 

[Chilly]

eerk

Depending on what the plan is - they may just tell you to fuck off and buy your properties from you by force for (probably) reasonable money. I suspect the money is not what is bothering you, though. If they really want the land they will get it unless you manage to get a lot of residents to complain.

 

[Tom]

Apply for listing if they're old and relatively unchanged.

 

[inactionman]

Talk to your local councilor/mp about it, make sure you've spoken to everyone who will be affected first, and tell him/her what you all think.

There are appeal processes for compulsary purchase, but I don't really know what they are.

 

[RandomBastard]

buy a sniper rifle and occupy an upper floor window

 

[Sar]

Well if you own the houses I can't see how they can force you to move out...

 

[yaruar]

Well if you own the houses I can't see how they can force you to move out...

Compulsory Purchase is their friend.

Although it usually gives a very good market value for properties.

As for the listing suggestion, that's all well and good until you actually want to do any work on the property + listing offers bugger all protection anyway if they actually want to demolish and you can't get high profile support.

 

[Furr]

Well i spose if we get offered a good amount of money for them we could be happy. Just depends on the offer and how things pan out.

Houses are quite old, late 1800s, but there are far far older buildings round here including alot of tudour era.

Will just have to wait and see, if its worth our while then yes. if not then i guess a fight!

Balls.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Don't they need planning permission? Try objecting, won't get you anywhere but it'll make you feel better. They do pay market value for the houses they buy though.
We had a similar thing a month ago, but I'm happy because they are developing the land at the back of our house into a woodland for squirrels.

 

[Damini]

Red squirrels?

 

[ECA]

Say it was an ancient red indian burial ground and that they can't use the indians reserve land for their casino!

 

[Yaka]

if the land the houses are built are leased to you then check how long the lease has to run. councils or if the land owners are family estate normaly do this kinda thing when leases have a couple of years left. if the lease is more than 5 years have it increased to 100 years. they can do fuck all then. its wot we did a when the council wanted to knock our place down and build a drug rehab zoo a few years back and purchased the land our shelves last year

 

[Gef]

Bats! Check your loft for bats, if you find any it can delay any demolition plans for a while. Bats, protected, lots of red tape.

I worked along side a conservation officer for a few months searching a load of houses about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass or something. We found this one house riddled with them, took them ages to sort it out. Might buy you some time anyway if your desperate!

 

[Ono]

Fill the inside with concrete and enter the Turner Prize.

 

[DaGaffer]

As a matter of interest, which town is it? Seems a bit wierd in this day and age to knock down old buildings in the centre of town to replace them with new houses and shops; that's the kind of stupid crap they did in the sixties and seventies, unless the other houses in your area are delipidated or there's subsidence or something. I'm sure I read somehwere that there are rules about redeveloping 'brownfield' sites that says they shouldn't knock down old buildings if they can be refurbished*

*may have imagined it, but I seem to remember it from a Sunday Times article about Prescott and his building on greenfield sites plans.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Red squirrels?

Yes, the little ginger buggers

 

[yaruar]

As a matter of interest, which town is it? Seems a bit wierd in this day and age to knock down old buildings in the centre of town to replace them with new houses and shops;

In greenwich (where i reside) the charity which owns the whole of the market area has just proposed to knock the whole area down and buy flats (and are currently pricing all the businesses out of existance to do it) and they have the government backing them as the guy running the charity also happens to be the current Defense Secritary. Suffice to say, the people of Greenwich are a bit miffed about this!

 

[Chilly]

If you have bats, it does idneed slow down demolition, but it speeds up you getting kicked out of your home. If you see a bat in your roof - kill it or get rid of it before anyone spots it else you may well end up homeless.

I'm all for animal conservation etc, but not when it means people having to fucking move house. We are top of the food chain for a reason.

 

[Furr]

Place called East Grinstead, The houses that they are proposing are mainly victorian era terraced, semi detached, and a few larger houses, a couple pubs and the current library, basically all the ones in the town that aren't listed,

The main high street has the longest row of uninterupted tudor buildinds in the country and there are also various churches etc. Problem is that in Mid sussex, house prices although through the roof, people are still moving here, mainly to Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East grinstead. Since the people moving in can't afford new homes they are instead building cheap crappy accomadation all over the place, and now the problem is that the town centers need to grow and be moderised because they can't cope.

All 3 major towns have been pegged for massive regeneration of the town centers due to the influx of people.

Yes its nice down here, crime is generally low, countryside on the doorstep, good schools, bascially a nice place for people to bring up kids and for the older people to retire, You have london just to the north, Brighton south, Crawley west and Tunbridge Wells to the east etc. (crawley is near but the m23 makes a nice barrier)

But it seems that the south east is getting more and more crowded. Labour is constantly battling with the Tory councils demanding more homes be built on greenfield sites. And the Councils keep saying no, F**k off. Rush hour see's the major roads and the country roads gridlocked with people trying to take short cuts.

Too many people trying to live in the same place. Need to spread the love London isn't the only place to work, I have an excuse I've lived here all my life and my family have been in London and the South for over 150 years, apart from those emigrated 50-60 years ago.

More should be done to see why people want to live in the south and replicate the conditions in other areas of the country. Cheap, quick and efficient travel inbetween the main cities would be a start. untill they make it so that is cheaper to take a train than drive i guess there's no hope of that.

Just a pitty really, lots of countryside is being lost, and the bit by bit growth of towns and cities that adds character with the mix of architecture is being lost to massive devolpments and replacement with "new" buidlings, instead of fitting in new buildings slowly and adapted other buildings to new tasks. instead everywhere is starting to look the same,

 

[DaGaffer]

Since the people moving in can't afford new homes they are instead building cheap crappy accomadation all over the place, and now the problem is that the town centers need to grow and be moderised because they can't cope.

All 3 major towns have been pegged for massive regeneration of the town centers due to the influx of people.

Glad to see they're learning from the planning debacles of the last thirty years. Not. Every time a town centre gets 'modernised', it fucks things up. The smart towns are the ones that try to keep the original character of the town centre as much as possible. All the towns where people actually want to live are the ones without modern buildings in the centre; from personal experience, I've lived and worked in quite a few places where there's been a 'modernised' town with a 'traditional' town nearby (I'm thinking Bracknell/Wokingham, Peterborough/Stamford, Hatfield/Hertford) and guess which one people actually want to live in every time?