White elephant

Published: October 6, 2011

• DELIGHTED as I am to hear that the would-be developers of the site beside pedestrian College Lane have now given up and are trying to off-load their white elephant (Back on track? Former rail workers’ social club site on market, September 29), any firm brave or foolish enough to acquire it (though surely not for a cool £8.5million?) should understand the full extent of the access problems.

It is not simply a matter of shifting materials and builders’ vehicles in and out of the site, daunting as that challenge has proved to be. It is also the fact that the previous developers intended their construction to include an underground garage for 30 cars, which would have turned narrow, cobbled Little Green Street, whose 18th-century cottages and street furniture are all Listed, into a permanent vehicular way for which it is manifestly unsuited.

This plan slipped through in draft, which it should not have done. It was subsequently opposed by a huge body of local opinion, several different national conservation groups and almost the entire planning committee.

Most people in the locality would like to see the site put to some proper use, but any developer making plans should understand that something far more modest than what has so far been proposed will be the only workable option.
Gillian Tindall
NW5