White Elephant

Lazy morning at home.  Watched a bit of TV.  Did a bit of colouring.  This afternoon I decided to go to Blaydon to do some shopping in Morrisons.  Instead of getting the bus straight there I decided to walk part of the way to get some exercise. I walked approx 1.6 miles.

The weather today was really lovely again.  I could certainly get used to this continuous fine weather.  Hope it keeps up for the weekend so that those folk who have been at work all week can enjoy some sunshine.

I usually pass the house in my blip  2 or 3 times a week but I'm on the bus so no chance to blip it.  As I passed it today on foot I stopped to take a shot.

This building has quite a history attached to it.  The house in its current form was granted planning permission by The Council  in the late 1998.  When it got to the stage you see in my blip some residents living nearby realised that, though the building was being constructed according to the planning permission, the design of the house meant that they were likely to lose their privacy if the house was completed and occupied. The Council  was asked to intervene and to get changes made to the house so that the concerns of these residents could be addressed. There is a long and difficult legal process that has to be gone through to achieve this. The process of overturning planning permission on a building that has been built to the requirements of the same planning permission is one that is rarely used. So nothing happened for years.

In 2008 a detailed planning application for a major re-design of the contentious and unfinished three-storey building were submitted by the owner and The Council  began consulting local residents on the proposals.

Nothing happened until  2010 when The Council  announced that it had resolved the  long-running planning dispute that had left the large house unfinished for many years.

And yet nothing happened.  The current  rumour is that the owner is waiting for compensation from The Council  because the building is now so dilapidated that it will probably have to be demolished and  completely rebuilt.  He won his case regarding the plans, but is now waiting for his money to begin again.  This could take 2 years.  Meanwhile the eyesore remains. 

Steps today - 8,854