Seventeen Windows

[sooty2]

  Whoopee do !  We Can do that without a crossing

[Dave]

Barbara, the intention is that pedestrians continuning towards Offerton and Stockport will cross the road using the new crossings marked in red on this plan:   http://www.marple-uk.com/misc/2022-17GA-01.pdf

[Barbara]

And you can't continue towards Stockport without crossing the road as the footpath disappears until part way up the hill!!

[sooty2]

Why would anyone spend such a vast amount of money, including the councils 27k on what looks like a cheap childrens playground? It does nothing to enhance the building.also, why has any pavement widening been done? seeing as the pavement up to Hilltop Drive is not, due to the farmer wanting too much money. Shouldnt they have known that before they started? Whats the point of starting such a costly job as this when it cant be finished So pedestrians are still in great danger, all the way from Hilltop, if the hype was to be believed, until they reach a little safe bit at Seventeen Windows!!!

[Dave]

to hire the type of plant  equipment the council needed to hire and the length of time it was on hire to put in the drive for the owner of Seventeen Windows would have well exceeded £27,000

Of course it did - obviously the total cost of all the works will have been a great deal more than 27K.  The 27K was never supposed to cover the cost of bulding the drive, or the retaining wall, or other works within the boundary of 17 Windows.  That's why Cllr Alexander wrote this: 

The cost of the work that has been undertaken within the curtilage of the property in stabilising the ground, regrading and replanting is £27,000.

[alan@marple]

Well perhaps an open prison

[sooty2]

Well I think, that as our council has invested our money in the project, and as it is now for sale, it should be purchased by the council.

In then could be used as a hostel for the homeless

or a bail hostel

or a woman's refuge


or a day centre

Do i detect a hint of sarcasm there Alan?You forgot to mention a prison, Its certainly got the high fenced exercise yard

[Miss Marple]

When the amounts of monies that were to be contributed towards Seventeen Windows was published it was not at the end of the building work.  Council workers were there for several weeks with plant hire equipment which SMBC would have had to hire.  If I told you the world was flat! would you believe it ?  I hope our MP will shed some light on the matter because the costings given were to say the least vague.  To understand or rationalise the councils decision is madness, i would like to bet my bottom dollar that if i was unable to pay my community charge due to sickness or unemployment that the council would not afford me £27,000 even if it was needed to keep a roof over my head.  I do not know what you do for a living Dave but to hire the type of plant  equipment the council needed to hire and the length of time it was on hire to put in the drive for the owner of Seventeen Windows would have well exceeded £27,000   Do you think the £27,000 which we hear so much about  was a cash incentive to sell the land and the cost of the work was not calculated into that amount??  Because I do  !!!!!   

[nbt]

and it would then cost even more money so that it meets the relevant standards to make it suitable for any of those purposes, e.g. fire doors and sprinkler systems all round.


let it lie.

[alan@marple]

Well I think, that as our council has invested our money in the project, and as it is now for sale, it should be purchased by the council.

In then could be used as a hostel for the homeless

or a bail hostel

or a woman's refuge


or a day centre

[Dave]

No-one has suggested that the entire groundworks cost only 27K, sooty - that was just the Council's contribution.   ('Contribution: Something given or offered that adds to a larger whole; An amount of money given toward something')

[Tricky]

 

[sooty2]

In what country can you buy that amount of labour for £27000?Not this one! Poor souls must of been working for pennies. Parts of the groundworks were so labour intensive, Ive counted at least twenty men on site. these men will not be working for less than £100 a day. This went on for days and weeks and months. To my reckoning the wage bill would be well over £30000 in three weeks. Plus the plant hire and materials. Dont you just hate having the wool pulled over your eyes?Ive heard on the grape vine some of those workers were earning in excess of £700 a week,Good Luck to them, especially as there was a lot of head scratching and standing around ;)I wish central government would pay someone to wire up the new lamp posts in my street, they have been in situ about 9 months on the unfinished tarmac footpath that is now home to many weeds 2 yes 2 lamposts and a top coat of tarmac! Its not a lot to ask for, but there again I dont own anything the council want to buy

[Dave]

I guess some people who are determined to believe something will always do so, even if they know the facts are otherwise!

If you re-read this interminable thread, you will recall that SMBC contributed £27,000 to earthworks within the grounds of 17 Windows so that the pavement could be widened.  That's all.  If the Council had not contributed that money, the pavement would not have been widened.  This is not....

public money which has been used for an individual to profit from. 

It was always likely to be a developer (rather than a private buyer) who took that project on, and developers have to invest a tidy amount of money, expertise and time in order to maake a profit (if they are lucky) and move on.

Isn't it time we all moved on as well?   

[Miss Marple]

 I have also noticed the for sale sign at Fort Offerton an felt so outraged that I have requested that Andrew Stunell investigates.  It is irrelevant if the building is in Offerton or Marple it is still public money which has been used for an individual to profit from.  Others on this site may not be angered about the sheer waste of money but I am outraged that in this economic climate the money was used to profit an individual that didn't even need the house to live in.  I am waiting with baited breath to see what the house is valued at and hopefully the powers that be may have insight and enough decency to claw some of the profits back.  I hope it never sells and the owner who has desecrated the whole history and character of Seventeen Windows is left with it as a constant reminder of the folly he has left all us locals to endure on a daily basis.