22 years and still standing waiting

07/08/2009 by Steve Barclay.

Chatting with local building David Humphreys in Wisbech high street, he tells me that 22 years ago he put in the wooden frame to keep the walls up either side of Cooks after the building fell down. This building was then left empty so long that the wood rotted, and a steel frame had to be put in (as shown in the photo below).  Over 22 years on - it is not a typo it really is 22 years not 22 months! - and this building is still an empty shell.  Opposite, scaffolding has been up for 6 years on No 11 without the landlord taking any action to sort it out.  This is in the heart of the town next to the market square.  Residents and tourists to Wisbech, and traders in the shops next door, have had to put up with the state of these buildings for far too long. 

So well done to Fenland District Council for taking action to sort out the building at No 11 & 12 in the high street, which is now at risk of collapse. This episode though shines a damning light on the issue of absentee landlords leaving properties in a derelict state.  The Labour Government wants to give some of these dodgy landlords a reward in the form of a cash handout (see my blog on the £400K being offered to them in Littleport).
 
Any high street has to be atrractive to compete and bring people in to shop in town. Small shops face enough challenges as it is, and the Conservative Party will bring forward positive proposals to support them - in particular making the small business rate relief automatic.  It is often the third most significant overhead for small shops yet many don’t claim it because of the bureaucracy involved, and this paperwork will be scrapped.  Yet good though this scheme will be alongside our proposed cut in small company corporation tax, we also need to help local groups like WisARD (Wisbech Area Regeneration & DevelopmentTrust) who want the town to look its best. 

Locally a great deal of excellent work has been done on schemes like Anglia in Bloom which make a real difference.  But this work should not be hampered by landlords - often living miles away - who care little for the state in which buildings are left.  Wisbech has wonderful architecture, and we need to treasure and protect it.  If existing legislation makes acting against these landlords expensive and difficult, we should streamline it.  We must be able to track the landlords down via the Land Registry as owners of the land.  They have an asset in terms of the value of that land which action can be taken against.  Alternatively we should look to assist those entrepreneurs who want to bring these buildings back to life.  Without a change, we risk Cooks or a similar building still being a shell in another 22 years time and shops with scaffold outside for 6 years at a time.  Surely residents should be able to expect a clear timescale for such issues to be resolved?

Pictured below are the Cooksons building which remains a shell, and work being undertaken after Fenland District Council stepped in to act on Nos 11 & 12.

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