We used to live next to a disused box factory. I loved the quiet and the privacy and the view up over the roof from our living room window.
Then the council sent us a letter saying they were going to knock it all down and build some townhouses and did we have any objections? We decided that we didn't want the bedroom windows of 3 of them to be able to see into our windows (especially Torby's room) so Nw made a submission with drawings and everything and presented it at the relevant meeting and it seemed that yes, that problem would be fixed.
A few months later and we start hearing thump and crashes etc from the factory site and rightly deduce that the demolition has begun.
Then we notice that the roof that we used to look out over is now gone.
Then I was home on Monday and dozing on the couch (I can haz lurgy)when I'm awoken by an all mighty noise and look out the window to see the arm of a digger (I'm sure it has a real name but anything that's not a forklift or a crane is a digger) pulling chunks off the roof and clearly they've ripped out the other wall etc.
I watch this in fascination until the digger rips down the wall that I can see (oh the loud screechinesss) and I get to wave to the nice man.
They swiftly sort everything into piles..bricks, other useful stuff, waste and stop for the day.
I boggle at just how different my view is now. I can see the backs of houses from the next street over and the trees in the park and and and.
Yesterday they came back and demolished the next section of the wall which was an old brick building that was overgrown with some green vine at the back corner of our property.
Nw and I were having a sleep-in when it all started but Torby was watching in fascination from the living room and having a chat/shouting through the window to the man whenever he could.
The swiftness of the change startles me and I'm oddly looking forward to the construction and seeing it all change again...if they could do it silently that would be awesome though.
Photos are over at Flickr
Oh and we got another letter from the council that seems to suggest they've left off the modifications that we requested for privacy so Nw has to go back in and visit them. Lucky lucky Nw.
2 comments:
Yeeeees. Councils are very very good at requesting comments and holding hearings, and nodding intently... and taking their bribes off the developers and going right on with whatever they were planning on doing in the first place.
you've got to keep on their tail or funk all will be done. it's not that they're not trustworthy, it's just that they don't care enough, and/or there's too many people with fingers in the process. you have to find the balance between being a concerned neighbour and being a pain.
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