Re: Barnoldswick Forces Memorial Gardens

[David Whipp]

Thanks Kev.

School children may use a path through the gardens as a route to school, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view.

However, such children would use the side street at the gable end of Essex Street in any event. So there'd be little difference to any effect on residents.

[David Whipp]

Have just got home from this evening's area committee meeting.

There were three speakers on the proposed access to the Memorial Gardens.

Alan Tudor said that he only found out from the builders that an access was being proposed and that no one knew about it. When the residents' meeting was held, "everyone" was against the idea. Alan's main concern was health and safety; children could run out onto Mosley Street. He believed that there would be car parking problems with parents using Mosley Street as a drop off. The access would affect the garage owned by the Broughtons.

John Broughton said he wondered who the land belonged to and that they had deeds which showed they owned the land. The access to the garage was dangerous and people using the access to the Gardens could be affected by exhaust fumes.

Azhar Ali (a county councillor from Nelson) said he was concerned about safety, the anti-social behaviour in the Memorial Gardens and drink problems in the gardens. He asked 'who owned the land' and stated that "most of the land is private".

When the matter was opened up to councillors to discuss, Lindsay Gaskell, Ken Hartley and myself explained the details of the wider Memorial Gardens scheme and I ran through the chain of ownership (which I've gone into previously in this thread). I invited John to show us the deeds that showed the land belonged to the Broughton family where the access would come out. (This didn't happen in the meeting, but I've arranged to meet John later in the week to go through his documents with him.)

The upshot was that the committee agreed to create the access, subject to including some pedestrian barriers on the path as suggested by the county council highways' section and nothing coming to light through an examination of the Broughton family's deeds which would prevent the access (in which case, the matter would go back to committee).

[Stanley]

Sounds like sensible progress....

[Big Kev]

It does indeed. The next question is; who is going to remove all the graffiti on the wall and surrounding road? It looks horrible.

[David Whipp]

Donald rang to tell me about the additional 'signage' that's been put up.

Here's another positive picture, with Pendle's Parks' gang working on the rose bed in the sensory garden area yesterday.

[Big Kev]

It is starting to look good, a great improvement.

[Big Kev]

Your hard work with the Memorial Gardens, and subsequent "other" works is greatly appreciated.

[David Whipp]

Thanks Kev.

At last night's meeting, other members of the bloom team took some of the load; it is very much a team effort and I'll pass on the thanks.

[Stanley]

I'll second that and it's a good example of why David was re-elected in May. Hard work trumps Party Politics in local elections and is hard earned.

[David Whipp]

Thanks as well Stanley; teamwork, though.

Here's the new writing on the wall that Kev referred to:

[PanBiker]

I take it the wall is part of the Memorial Gardens and owned by the council. If that is the case can it be treated with anti graffiti paint? Surely a prosecution would then be in order if repeated for defacing public property?

[Big Kev]

The yellow paint marking out disputed borders is the worst bit.

[Stanley]

Ignore it till the dust settles, then do a quick clean of the wall....?

[David Whipp]

Anyone who has expressed an opinion to me has said that the wall is ugly. A fellow councillor (who's not involved with the Bloom group) suggested that it should be knocked down entirely. Though that isn't practical, it could possibly be rebuilt, in part, with stone. This would be one way of getting rid of the graffiti on the wall. But a rather expensive one. In the long run, it may be the best solution. I'll ask for the idea to be looked at.

(You can see me thinking aloud whilst I typed that...)

[Big Kev]

It looks to be red brick underneath the render. Might be easier (cheaper) to knock the render off and repoint.

[Stanley]

And then get Banksy in to do us a Muriel.....

[David Whipp]

That'll get the wall taken down in no time.

Imagine the arguments about ownership then!

[Thomo]

Masonry paint of the graffiti proof variety.

[David Whipp]

I've now got a copy of a plan showing the land in the owned by the Hewitt-Dean estate at a point in time (June 1935?) following the disposal of the parcel to Collins and Collins between Mosley Street and Kelbrook New Road at the end of Essex Street.

Besides the relevance to the discussion about the ownership of land around the Memorial Gardens, the plan has lots of other details of interest.

Hewitt-Dean ownership shown edged in red.

0889_001.pdf

[David Whipp]

And here's a copy of the layout of the Memorial Gardens scheme showing the access onto Mosley Street.

E0371 D2.pdf

The hatched area at the back of the gardens is the large new bed where Barnoldswick in Bloom volunteers will plant shrubs.

Interestingly, when I went to see John Broughton this morning he showed me an aerial photo of their yard, the Kelbrook Road garage and most of the Memorial Gardens taken in 1966. This was before the garages were built at the back of the site. At the time, the area which is now garages was open onto Mosley Street. The picture clearly shows the steps at the southern end of the Loggia which were an access onto Mosley Street.

The steps are still there, very overgrown and leading nowhere apart from a piece of wasteland behind the garages. The access to these steps will be fenced off as part of the Memorial Gardens work.

These steps can also be seen, but less clearly, on the 1963 aerial photo posted by Stanley earlier and reproduced below.

[Big Kev]

The upshot was that the committee agreed to create the access, subject to including some pedestrian barriers on the path as suggested by the county council highways' section and nothing coming to light through an examination of the Broughton family's deeds which would prevent the access (in which case, the matter would go back to committee).

Has anything "come to light" from the Broughton family's deeds?

[David Whipp]

I've given John copies of the deeds held by Pendle Council but haven't seen anything of the Broughton family documents. Not aware that anything has been produced to the council's legal people.

[Big Kev]

Hopefully it's all systems go then

[Stanley]

Good.

[Big Kev]

Did the stone arrive on the 23rd?