Welcome to Boredtown
Looking outside at the world from inside the most boring town in Britain: Brentwood, Essex, known locally as 'Boredtown'. A Grumpy Old Man's take on the absurdities of small-town life, politics and the encroaching forces of bureaucracy.
WILLIAM HUNTER WAY: COUNCIL DECISION
28th February 2009
The Battle for Brentwood
STOP PRESS: Disaster Strikes!
Conservative councillors have approved the William Hunter Way plans ensuring the face of Brentwood's town centre will change for ever.
An inappropriate monstrosity will be a blight on the Brentwood landscape for many years to come.
The shops will be as empty as they are in the Bay Tree Centre, and gradually the graffitti, the litter and the yobs will lurk in dark corners.
Eventually, the new cinema will fold for lack of interest, and be turned into some other public arena - a drinking den or gambling casino, perhaps.
The pretext for this whole speculative venture will disappear, and council-tax payers will be expected to pick up the tab.
This is big business, once again, over-riding the wishes of towns-folk.
BRENTWOOD CINEMA PLANS
8th August 2008
Romfordisation!
It's still too big
The Swan Paddock Local Amenities Group (SPLAG) say they are livid that Brentwood Council is distancing itself from the plans for a six-screen cinema, foodstore, three retail shops and 14 one-bedroom flats.
We are sick of this council continuously getting away with saying it's nothing to do with us. Of course it's something to do with them. Stockland has specifically responded to their brief and the land is only being leased to Stockland.
It's everything to do with the council. They represent the interests of the people of Brentwood.
If they felt it was better for the people of Brentwood to have an underground car park, topped by lakes and grass with a stylish cinema complex in the middle they could demand it.
But they won't because they won't be able to find a developer to build such a project because it's not commercially viable.
This council is therefore happy to let the centre of this historic town be turned into a replica of every other crime-ridden, environmentally dangerous and horrifically ugly town centre in the south east of England.
This Grumpy Old Man agrees with SPLAG! The plans for the development look like they are trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot. The proposal is a classic example of greedy over-development of every square inch of the site. The bottom line is that if retail developments and a cinema with a smaller footprint and lower profile is not commercially viable, then the whole project should be scrapped and the people of Brentwood be asked what they would like to see instead.
Misleading Artists Impressions
The computer generated images released to the press show blue skies and wide open vistas with bright and colourful buildings,
a bright sunny day with a thriving happy community walking around in their shirt-sleeves.
If you examine these images more carefully, they have been cleverly manipulated in order to give the impression of masses of space surrounding the towering 1000 seat Cinema and 4 level multi-storey car park.
The effect has been obtained by a sort of "fish-eye" lens manipulation of the perspective. Not only that, some views would place the vantage-point in the middle of neighbouring buildings - that is, it is impossible to get far enough away from the proposed new complex to obtain the distance shown in these fake impressions.
A six-screen 31,000sq ft cinema with a capacity of 1,020 seats
How on earth is a 6 screen multiplex going to be viable in Brentwood? The old 2 screen Cinema was almost empty on most days. This is just the sort of town-centre building that Wetherspoons would love to acquire.
Although the planners say that they would agree a stipulation in the planning consent that it should not be converted into a nightclub - this would not preclude it being turned into a bingo hall or casino.
This is actually NOT any concession from the planners - the Class of Use for the building is D2, which specifically excludes nightclubs.
Use Class D2 Assembly and leisure allows the building to be used for any of the following: - Cinemas, music and concert halls, bingo and dance halls (but not night clubs), swimming baths, skating rinks, gymnasiums or sports arenas (except for motor sports, or where firearms are used).
(Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987)
A new 38,000sq ft food store with a total retail space of 90,000sq ft.
Is that what we need - another food store to compete with Sainsbury, Somerfield and local shops?
Three additional fashion stores
Most of the shops in the new Baytree Centre can't be filled - why on earth should these expect to fare any better?
A four-storey car park clad in a "living wall" for 654 vehicles over 10 levels
Why isn't this submerged? There no reason to have this towering into the skyline in close proximity to residential buildings.
The living wall - how much does this cost to maintain? What guarantee that this isn't a brown rotting mass of weeds within a year?
A total of 14 one-bedroom flats
Flats? More like tiny boxes! These are designed for 1 or 2 person occupancy. So how many parking spaces have they provided for up to 28 people that will reside there?
Just 14, that's all.
The 2 storey house I've placed on the left of this east elevation plan shows the approximate height of Western Road houses - completely
dwarfed by the height of the Cinema.
As one local resident said:
The scheme is too high, too large and too overbearing on the local area.
It will also generate more late night noise and disturbance to the local residents, me included. We already have to put up with the late night and early morning fallout from the pubs and clubs and the bus loads who come in from Romford and other surrounding areas to party – and a six screen 1,000 seater cinema and multi-storey car park is certainly not going to help.”
Any redevelopment should be of a use, type, scale and design in keeping with the surrounding residential area and allow those of us close to it our quiet enjoyment and not be woken up late at night or early in the morning.”
The planning application can be viewed in full on the Brentwood Council web site at:
Planning Application - Ref BRW/729/2008
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bored@boredtown.co.uk