Nemesis Republic: Robert Stephenson

Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Runways running on...

Molehill Green pic: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/

PRESS RELEASE

ISSUED BY STOP STANSTED EXPANSION 31 March 2009
MOUNTAIN SAVES MOLEHILL?

BAA’s debt mountain seems likely to prevent it from obtaining the compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) it would need to allow a new runway to be built at Stansted. As a consequence, Molehill Green, the picturesque Essex village threatened with extinction by the proposed new runway now seems far less likely to be buried under concrete.

This latest blow for BAA was identified in an Appendix to last week’s Competition Commission report which ordered the airport operator to sell Stansted Airport but gave it up to two years to do so, raising the possibility that BAA might press ahead with its second runway application in the hope of obtaining approval and achieving a higher selling price.

Legally, however, CPOs can only be granted if a developer can demonstrate that he has sufficient financial resources to implement the project within a reasonable timescale. It seems very unlikely that BAA could demonstrate this because its latest financial accounts show debts of £18.1 billion and negative equity of £1.7 billion as at 31 December 2008.

In the light of the new information, Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has written to the Secretaries of State for Transport and Communities and to the Chief Executive of BAA calling for the proposed Public Inquiry to be abandoned.

SSE Campaign Director Carol Barbone commented: “Without CPO powers, plans for a second Stansted runway are dead in the water. The list of obstacles just gets longer and longer. It’s time for BAA to do a reality check.”

Ms Barbone added: “We recognise of course that a new owner could be in a stronger financial position but a change in ownership would give rise to all sorts of other issues. Either way, the current plans are going nowhere and both BAA and the Government must realise that by now.”

A copy of SSE’s letter of 26 March to the Secretaries of State is available online at: http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/second_runway_public_inquiry.html.

The Competition Commission’s final Market Inquiry report into BAA (including Appendix 10.6 on the interaction of Stansted divestiture and the second runway planning inquiry) is available online at: http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2009/545baa.htm.

cbarbone@mxc.co.uk

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/

Pictures of listed buildings threatened:

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/listed_buildings.html

Other threatened buildings:

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/photos.html

Previous posts linked to this:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-mad-mad-mad-mad-world.html

Worrying news also from here:

http://hazel-abearoflittlebrain.blogspot.com/2009/03/newcastle-literary-and-philosophical.html

I have posted before about this magnificent institution:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/interlude-lit-and-phil-newcastle-upon.html

and the sad news about what has happened to the Stephenson Trust:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/derailed.html

Both the Lit and Phil and the Mining Institute are wonderful historic buildings and any threat to their continuing existence, no matter how glitzy the bauble offered in the short term, should be strongly resisted.

Yes we are in desperate need of funds but selling our souls to corporate external funding is not the way to do it...

Apologies for the pauses in blogging, but my mind and fingers have been busy on weighty matters connected with trying to save historic buildings, and no time for much else over the past few days. I think knackered is the technical term.

What I need is a few sessions of R and R and TLC at Nether Cottage:

http://nethercottage.net/

Holistic therapies in a historic building. Wonderful!

Special offer also:
Special offer for March & April:
Recommend a friend: if your friend books and pays for a treatment then you can claim a treatment for yourself to the equivalent value absolutely FREE!

Best of luck Jayne, lovely new website. Great pics!

http://www.colinrose.net/

Nem
HERITAGE FORUM:
http://www.joylandbooks.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
Signing up is easy, do post news and views!

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Derailed!

Robert Stephenson

The news in the blog A bear of little brain (see linked blogs list right) that the Stephenson Trust has been all but ejected from its premises in Newcastle is a blow to all those with an interest in rail history, and is a rotten way to treat a group of people who worked with no other aim than to honour the memory of one of the greatest engineers the world has known, and ensure that the site of his historic works was preserved and opened to the public. I do know some in the North Eastern Railway Association who consider Brunel to be overrated as an engineer and it does strike me he gets so much glory and the Stephensons get a little lost. Indeed, the Great Western Railway opened with Stephenson broad gauge locomotives; you can't have one without the other.

Here's a timeline of his life:
http://www.robertstephensontrust.com/time.htm

and a little more background:
http://www.northeastengland.talktalk.net/Pioneers.htm

Note his association with Newcastle's 'Lit and Phil'.

Strictly speaking the developer of the land, Silverlink, has not ejected the Trust, it has been far more subtle than that. It has upped the rental to astronomical amounts, which naturally is not remotely affordable. Like all such ventures, it was funded mainly by supporters and volunteers. There was of course a get-out clause, that they could develop the buildings into a major visitor centre to bring in huge income (and presumably even more vastly inflated rental along with it). That too wasn't really very realistic, such a venture takes time and funding and the Trust presumably had neither. What it had achieved, however, was not something to be lightly thrown away. It took on dereliction and made the wider public aware of the significance of the site. It raised funds and repaired the building, and collected and had on loan sufficient artifacts to enable it to open its doors for enthusiasts to enjoy.

Alas, no longer - I gather all is packed and the future of the Stephenson Works uncertain. It is a Grade II listed building, listed in 2005 (and without the Trust would that have happened?). Whether or not the building will now attract a commercial venture keen to pay such a rent, or if it will join the several historic buildings around the wider Quayside area lost to mystery fires remains to be seen.

Although there have been numerous alterations to the fabric of the building over time, the listing is quite clear about the historic significance of what remains, and the site in general. Indeed, another adjacent site is also now listed, that of the Hawthorne Works. Make no mistake, in terms of world history this is a very important site indeed, although in far from salubrious surroundings tucked behind the magnificence of Newcastle Central Station.

Naturally this is part of a 'regeneration project' , too many of which seem to be centred mostly on fat developer profits in my experience. In fact this is to be The Stephenson Quarter (a meaningless term, 'quarter', used by any and every local authority devoid of imagination), although whether much Stephenson will remain in future has to be open to doubt.

So important and interesting was this site deemed that Prof Gavin Stamp, in his TV series based on Pevsner, for the Newcastle episode visited the works, and here's a clip thanks to the magic of YouTube:

More on Newcastle Central here:

http://newcastlephotos.blogspot.com/2005/12/central-station.html

Click:

I do hope that the Trust website can remain online, and even be further developed, as a valuable resource and a reminder of what has been lost:http://www.robertstephensontrust.com/home.htm

Listings:http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=492014&resourceID=5 (note the cast iron lintel is in fact a beam from a beam engine - waste not want not).http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=489007&resourceID=5

There is more information and a historic photograph of the works here:
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_age_of_the_engineer/01.ST.04/?scene=10

The age of steam has been in the news in other ways recently, with the unveiling of Tornado, a steam locomotive newly recreated. I have to say I am not totally convinced about this: while of course a magnificent engineering achievement and a display of skills thankfully not lost, I do wonder why, I prefer to be steam hauled by a locomotive with some real history, and here is one of the most famous in action, as indeed it still, thankfully, is:

Steam excursions 2009:
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/index.htm