There are various sites around the town that do not do it any favours such as:
- Haydon Cars on Salisbury Road
- The Old Tannery on Shepherds Spring Lane (images below)
- Anton Laundry on Marlborough Street
In addition there are various empty shops in town that also do not do it any favours.
The following is a 4 point plan on how this could be resolved:
- The council inform (and enforce) that all developments must be properly secured and kept in a reasonable state.
- All sites must have a prominent notice of the landowner, developer or agents details. This would be the people liable for any fines.
- TVBC have a procedure for dealing with complaints and details on their website with updates.
- The owner should be given a period to get the work done, and if it is not then TVBC can instruct a third party to do it and charge the owner.
Whether this is done with current powers or by introducing a by-law, this would be down to TVBC to decide.
It would be worth having a page where people can see if a site has already been reported and TVBC can add brief updates to keep people informed. This should reduce the amount of duplicated reports sent in as well.
If it is going to be done then it needs to be done sooner rather than later!
Photos courtesy of Paul Bevan
Updated 8th July 2013
Amended name from Wessex Fixings Building to The Old Tannery
They give such a bad impression of the town!!!
The Haydon Cars site is on the way into town from the A303, all visitors coming in drive past it!
Nearly 20 years this siter has been like this !!!!!!!
TVBC have powers to force landowners to tidy up their sites under the Town & Country Planning Act 1990, sect.215 to serve statutory notices but have singularly failed to do so, why?
Please can we make clear, Wessex Fixings sold the freehold of the building and surrounding land, known as The Old Tannery in Shepherds Spring Lane to developers back in 2006.
Wessex Fixings have traded from South Way Walworth Business Park since then.
We fully agree the site is an eyesore!
Hello Nicholas
Thank you for that. I don’t think anyone thinks the issue is down to Wessex Fixings, it’s just how the building is referred to – as some of us still call it The Folly Inn. Will make sure we use The Old Tannery on future posts.
Richard