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Blackburn town centre blow as housing development shelved (From Blackburn Citizen)
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Blackburn town centre blow as housing development shelved
8:10am Friday 8th August 2008
A MAJOR blow has been dealt to Blackburn’s town centre regeneration after the final stage of a multi-million-pound housing development was shelved.
Two thirds of the 79 flats in millionaire pub boss Margo Grimshaw’s Cathedral Village scheme will be put on hold with bosses blaming the credit crunch and a lack of sales for their decision.
The complex, which includes luxury flats with outdoor hot-tubs, is seen as a key part of the regeneration, bringing quality town centre living to Blackburn.
Council bosses and traders said they desperately hoped the project would recover.
Project manager Clive Brookes confirmed the largest of the four buildings, containing 65 of the flats, had been “postponed”.
The foundations have already been laid on the land, off Market Street Lane, the site of Ms Grimshaw’s bars and nightclubs The Castle, C’est La Vie, Never Never Land and Mr G’s - all of which have been bulldozed.
Mr Brookes said the area would be “landscaped” until work could begin.
He insisted the final phase would still get built at some point.
Mr Brooks said: “It has been postponed because of the current economic climate. It is terrible at the moment. We have got people banging on our doors to buy, but then they go out and can’t get a mortgage.
“This project was always designed in different phases, to stop and start as the economic climate changes.”
He said “between seven and nine” apartments had been sold so far, with prospective purchasers “struggling to get mortgages”.
Work on the entire project has slowed down because of the speed of sales, he said, adding: “There’s no point in me having 70 flats finished when people can’t get mortgages.”
The £15 million development was initially intended to create 79 apartments and 13 shops. An underground car park will also be added on the Market Street Lane site.
The first phase, a tower with top floor penthouse suites at the top of Mincing Lane, is almost complete, and it will contain 11 flats. The next two buildings to be finished are part-built, opposite the final building in Market Street Lane, and will contain a total of 16 flats. The remaining 52 apartments are included in the final phase.
The first three buildings are already on the market, and investors have already targeted the development trying to snap up the flats at a bargain price.
Mr Brookes added: “We have got offers on all the flats, but whether or not we want to accept them is another matter.
“Some of them are discounted and we are declining. We are trying not to sell to investors.”
Fleming Square hairdresser Jeff Stone, whose shop backs on to the site, said: “I desperately want this plan to succeed, and I have no joy in seeing it stumble at the moment.
“Let’s hope the economic climate improves quickly. Margo deserves this very bold venture to be a success.”
Ms Grimshaw won planning permission to demolish her pubs and replace them with apartments three years ago, claiming the smoking ban would kill the pub industry.
Coun Alan Cottam, executive member for regeneration, said the project was important to the town centre, and said it could be helped by the council-led £70million development around Blackburn Cathedral, which is due to begin next year.
He said: “It doesn’t sound too good, but hopefully it will be a short break.
“I thought it would be a big improvement to the area, and we were hoping it would be successful.”
Labour regeneration spokesman Andy Kay said he felt the problems were caused by the same factors as the delays that have hit Blackburn’s proposed new shopping centre.
He said: “It’s not particularly surprising - in fact I am surprised they have managed to go this far.
“I think the developers were being a bit optimistic with the timescales.
"But it’s shown with the Mall, who are having difficulties. It’s not particular to Margo or Blackburn.
“We need people living in the town centre, and it needs to go ahead as soon as possible.”
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Your Say YourCitizen
Deantwerpen, Blackburn says...
9:16am Fri 8 Aug 08
I find the architectural style of the flats most unsympathetic in relation to the King street area. Sort of Napoleonic Thames gun platform (http://www.bobleroi
.co.uk/ScrapBook/Sol
ent/NabTower.jpgfort
)meets Benidorm.
Who claims that this development was to enhance Blackburn and not for the sake of lining already bulging pockets>?
Perhaps Margartet Grimshaws question as to whats wrong with the UK is answered by her own actions!!
The_Big_Mac, Manchester says...
11:48am Fri 8 Aug 08
Building £200,000 flats in a dying town town which has a a huge unemployment rate, enormous social decay, a crippling racial divide (open your eyes, lefties. It's THERE for all to see) and a council which has driven small business out of town because of its astronomical business rates, was never the greatest idea.
Want to build a sophisticated cafe culture in Blackburn? Building a series of overpriced, Manchester city centre style apartments that the average Joe clearly can not afford is not the answer. Who in their right mind is going to spend £200,000 on a flat which overlooks Bar Ibiza, when you can get a much nicer city centre arrangement for the same price in Manchester?
The whole thing was a joke from the word go.
Robbie, Manchester says...
12:05pm Fri 8 Aug 08
could it be that i said i am glad she has failed? as she is rude and not a nice person?
L-E-T get out of her behind please
harry, Darwen says...
1:23pm Fri 8 Aug 08
brighouse1, Blackburn says...
1:38pm Fri 8 Aug 08
I have to agree with most of the comments already posted on here. I mean, who in their right mind would spend £200,000 to watch drunken people stagger around below on friday and saturday nights. The noise, anti social behaviour, Let your children stand on the balconies to watch people urinate in the alleys. The list is endless. I also agree with the comment regarding B W D borough council. I have never known a council be so successfull at driving out shoppers. Increasing parking charges. And has for any FREE parking spaces? Well thats a pipe dream. You can no longer pop into the town center anymore to pay a bill at your bank without being charged for a simple 10 min visit. Hyndburn are now leading the way with EXTENDED free parking.
Lancashire Telegraph have looked upon Ms Grimshaw has some kind of local celebrity for quite a while now, we have been subjected to her dreary writings in the said paper for far to long.
I know of 2 local old timers who spin a fine yarn about local history. They often have the entire pub captivated with their tales of local folk and happenings of years long forgotten.Ther knowledge of local history really is amazing.
Maybe its about time we heard tales of things besides what margo had to eat for sunday lunch.
Mick L, Highercroft, Blackburn
brighouse1, Blackburn says...
1:44pm Fri 8 Aug 08
james08, Blackburn says...
2:10pm Fri 8 Aug 08
dougie, blackburn says...
2:41pm Fri 8 Aug 08
aggressive.onion.vendor, blackburn says...
2:41pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Blackburn has become a mirror image of the country, its people corrupted by hedonistic self obsession and a ignorance of anything that conflicts with their crass, xenophobic bigotry.
The critique that follows could just as easily be leveled at the country in general;
1) an extraordinarily, inept, corrupt and philistine local authority/goverment made up of a dynasty of corpulent, whiskey swilling sham socialists
2) a bigoted, apathetic white working class, ranging from feral pond life at one extreme to those for whom a chemically induced tan and a boob job is the height of urban 'chic'.
For both there knowledge of the outside world is derived from tabloid newspapers (including the l.e.t for whom some newsworthy item in Preston would require the dispatch of a 'foreign correspondent'), reality TV and annual pilgrimages to rhodes and corfu where having donned union jack shorts they'll proceed to brawl, puke and attempt to spawn.
I would also include
3) an asian community as bigoted as their white counterparts and whose male members are spoilt and misogynistic and
4) a smug middle class who hide there ignorance behind there conspicuous material affluence and (second rate) degreee's.
Somewhere in between all these groups are the decent, honest people of this town/country, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age or chosen lifestyles...they are as ever caught between the cynical and ruthless and the ignorant and brutish.
This isn't a tirade of hatred, i was born and brought up in this town and i though I remember it always as 'scruffy' it undeniably used to have a heart and soul.
Be under no illusions, Blackburn is in crisis and the local authority, your council is in denial, it believes its own lies of the 'blackburn renaissance' which a casual glance at the town centre would disprove. This is a dangerous psychosis, when any individual, organization or community is locked into a spiral of decline that they choose not to acknowledge.
AccyDave, Accrington says...
3:34pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Joseph Yossarian, London says...
4:13pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Were the flats to be more realistically priced to reflect market conditions (and include decent security to stop the local feral skanky chavs trashing cars) then there would not be any problems with getting loans on them.
Demand and supply affects prices, simple as that.
Mon, Blackburn says...
5:01pm Fri 8 Aug 08
iced-all the reprabates that hang around there,etc.But nobodies mentioned the fact old Margaret hasn't payed the builders for what the've already done yet. Ahem,bet we wert supposed to know that, eh.
slater9251, aspul says...
5:35pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Gary The Snail, Darwen says...
7:45pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Para Handy, Blackburn says...
10:20pm Fri 8 Aug 08
Blackburn needs planners to move the town forward out of it's decay but it needs a town centre first that creates an environment where people would want to live!
Kevin, Colne, Colne says...
8:22am Sat 9 Aug 08
amazed, Darwen says...
3:45pm Sat 9 Aug 08
Blondie, The Back of Beyond says...
11:59am Sun 10 Aug 08
Someone didn't do their homework correctly and i hope these flats don't end up being another blot on the landscape.
They are ugly and the view uglier and way over priced.
The credit crunch has been looming for some time and all the evidence was there but Margaret was optimistic and chose to ignore what was so obvious and now she and her investors are reaping the rewards of having their blinkers on.
Margaret appears to think she is the answer to Blackburn's problems when clearly she isn't but what can you expect from someone in Never Never Land who once called herself The Baroness and lives in a fantasy land.
Para Handy, Blackburn says...
1:02am Mon 11 Aug 08
Blondie, The Back of Beyond says...
12:22am Tue 12 Aug 08
There's an old saying the higher you climb the harder the fall or maybe she has just got to big for her boots?
Bootsox, Blackburn Rovers says...
12:27pm Mon 8 Sep 08
Bootsox, Blackburn Rovers says...
12:29pm Mon 8 Sep 08
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MOVING OUT: The sales cabin is taken away from King Street site
ON HOLD: A finished part of the Cathedral Village.
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katiemac, Accrington says...
9:00am Fri 8 Aug 08