Page 4 - link magazine

4 The Link Magazine • February 2004
The Swindon carbuncle
'We hate it — but that's not enough to stop it,' says councillor
Central area councillor David Nash wrote in the November Link of the ill considered decision by Swindon Council's planning committee to give outline
planning permission for the commercial development of the derelict Mechanics' Institute. He believes it's a decision which will haunt the town.
In October 2003, Swindon Bor- for turning down a planning ap- October decision has already ap- theory, could obtain Listed Build-
ough Council's Planning Com- plication. So, what is? proved this kind of use for the ing Consent.
mittee approved a change of use • We could look at the conditions building; There do appear to be a couple
to the Mechanics Institute based that the planning committee at- • We could protest that the physi- of avenues that could result in per-
on an officer's report that was tached to any change of use for the cal changes to the building will mission being refused. Firstly in
stacked in favour of the applicant building. Forefront's architects contravene the guidance on Listed planning terms we could look at
Mr Mathew Singh of Forefront have thought of that - the full plans Building Consent. No luck here traffic management. The plans are
Estates. I was extremely con- acknowledge all of them and state either. Representatives of English quite vague on this, but appear to
cerned at the time that this action how they will work within them; Heritage have already said that an say that Faringdon Road could be
had effectively tied the commit- • We could complain about the owner could remove the flytower made into a two-way street and
tee's hands when it came to deal- mix of uses, and how inappropri- (which is in poor repair) without the Railway Village turned into a
ing with a future full planning ate a 100 bedroom hotel would be falling foul. Replacing the flytower giant car park.
application. in the Railway Village. Unfortu- with one made of glass, and main- As with most proposals for the
As an early Christmas present, nately, the planning committee's taining the rest of the building, in Mechanics', car parking just hasn't
Forefront Estates gave us some been adequately considered. I
detailed plans to consider. Mr A Link magazine impression of the think this alone will suffice as an
Singh suggested that the plans hotel from the railway village, a blue argument for the committee to re-
would have excited Brunel. Now glass slab looming over a potential ject these plans and send Forefront
Brunel built beautiful structures - World Heritage site. The centre of the back to their drawing board.
you only have to look at the Clifton building would be knocked down and The second issue is Listed Build-
Suspension Bridge or Paddington replaced by nine floors with 104 bed- ing Consent. The Mechanics' Insti-
Station to see that. These propos- rooms. There would he five floors above tute has a Grade 2* listing, which
als on the other hand look hide- the existing height. It's worth look- makes it one of the most valuable
ous, and I'd suggest that Brunel ingat the plans fronton. Visit Swin- buildings in the country. The only
would only be excited with anger. don Council's planning department reason it has the star rating is
Pin no architectural philistine at Premier House to see them. thanks to its social-history. The
dismissing everything modern in fabric of the building is interesting
The British Theatres Trust describes
favour of conservation - glass can
the Grade /1 * listed Mechanics build- but the real value of the Mechan-
be a very exciting material to build ics' is what it did historically for
ing as 'perhaps one of the finest sur-
with. But even the Evening Ad r'er- ^' viving examples of its kind.' the working men and women of
tiser - a paper which has gone out - Swindon. This plan makes no at-
of its way to support Mr Singh - tempt to acknowledge that and so
recognised that his ideas were out removes this aspect of the build-
of keeping with the proposal to ing. I would like to think that this
include Swindon's railway village will make English Heritage ques-
as part of a World Heritage Site. tion whether to give Listed Build-
My opinions, and indeed those ing Consent.
of almost everyone I've spoken to, t ' __ One thing that this plan does
are based on what the building illustrate is that the current archi-
would look like if permission were tects appear to have no under-
given. Yet this is not a valid reason standing of how to deal with a
heritage building.
One has to wonder why Fore-
-i,, .
FOR SPECIALIST ^'i front severed ties with the original
architects Fielden, Clegg Bradley
LEGAL ADVICE who do have a track record in con-
* Conveyancing servation issues. Indeed in 2002
they reported that there were no
(On-Line Estimate Service)
commercially viable uses for the
* Employment Mechanics.'
* Family Law the Link Magazine MrSingh's proposal is little more
* Wills & Probate than a glorified barn conversion,
For more infomnation or Published by jazzed up with a bit of glass. If
detailed conveyancing costs visit: Swindon Publications Ltd. Forefront wants to stick an inap-
www.crd.org.uk Papermakers House. Westlea propriate conservatory onto the
Swindon SN5 7BD Mechanics', they'd probably get
C Tel: (01793) 872282 better value by going to Staybrite!
Five years ago Prince Charles
SOLICITORS Fax: (01793) 878189 "The Link was first published for the West attended a conference at Swindon's
e: [email protected] Swindon community in December 1978. Great Western Designer Village to
D www.swindonlink.com It is completely independent of Link Centre applaud the conservation and re-
and, in fact, won a competition to name the use of historically important rail-
Carter Read & Dove Publisher Editor: Roger Ogle leisure centre in 1984. Distribution in North way buildings. What would his
Commerce House Editorial: Tel: (01793) 872282 Swindon commenced in January 1994." comment be on the proposals for
34/35 Commercial Road, Swindon the Mechanics'?
The contents of The Link are protected
E-mail: [email protected] by copyright. Use of advertisements in I now very much hope that the
' printed or electronic form is forbidden planning committee ignore the in-
Tel: (01793) 617617
• - • unless an advertiser or publisher has evitable recommendation from our
Fax: (017931 SI 1249
sought permission. Articles and photo- planning officers and send this
• graphs require similar authority
Farn^fy, plan back from whence it came -
that is, if they have the guts!
in Eng a z. ._ 3 n = ,istered Off ce-130 High Street, Hucgedord. Berks. RG17 ODL. Printed by pep. Telford