Meeting in the street
This evening we had a meeting in the street. I think it was initiated by Elaine Stewart, Neighbourhood Manager for South Central Liverpool.
Eleanor, my neighbour, had managed to get a structural engineer to come out just before, and he had very kindly agreed to give us his opinion on how the bay window problem can be solved. Nearly all neighbours in the street came along, we also had a councillor Alan Dean, and an engineer from 20/20, who are contracted for carrying out property maintenance for the council.
The experts, the engineer from 20/20 and our engineer disagreed: 20/20 said that the bays would have to come down, and he suggested to take the stone work (big sand stone lintels and columns) carefully down and store them inside the house for a potential future use for a rebuilt bay. Our engineer said that it would be possible to use steel bands that can keep the structure from falling down. It would be temporary, but can save the bays fow now, and keep the overall look of the street.
The residents prefer the steel band solution, but the 20/20 man was not convinced. He tried to get our man to give him in writing that it is safe, how he would recommend it should be done, and say which contractors would do the work. As if it is suddenly our responsibility to maintain the council's properties. All he could offer was to build a mock bay, maybe from plywood, with windows painted on them. (He said they have done that in Anfield, or was it Aintree?).
'For godsake no...' was Eleanors reaction. The idea of a boarded up house, brick wall where a door was with 'painted on' windows, including curtains, ridiculous!
We managed to talk 20/20 and Elaine Stewart into at least considering the steel band option, and to explain to us in writing whatever decision they are going to take. I asked them if the builders who were here last week, with a JCB, would have tried to keep the sand stone intact. The answer was no, I guess they would have been smashed and probably would now be landfill, or ground up to hard core. That is at least a little victory, that they say they want to save the stone work.
Then we got a little distracted by discussing other options on how you can keep a wall from falling on somebodies head. Steel wires, pulling the whole thing from inside the house with a ratchet? Two metal bands? Three metal bands? "That would be the Rolls Royce job!"
What about cost? All in all not expensive, whatever you do, assured us Mr. 20/20.
It was a good meeting I thought, everybody could join in. The council reps seemed to take our concerns seriously.
Eleanor, my neighbour, had managed to get a structural engineer to come out just before, and he had very kindly agreed to give us his opinion on how the bay window problem can be solved. Nearly all neighbours in the street came along, we also had a councillor Alan Dean, and an engineer from 20/20, who are contracted for carrying out property maintenance for the council.
The experts, the engineer from 20/20 and our engineer disagreed: 20/20 said that the bays would have to come down, and he suggested to take the stone work (big sand stone lintels and columns) carefully down and store them inside the house for a potential future use for a rebuilt bay. Our engineer said that it would be possible to use steel bands that can keep the structure from falling down. It would be temporary, but can save the bays fow now, and keep the overall look of the street.
The residents prefer the steel band solution, but the 20/20 man was not convinced. He tried to get our man to give him in writing that it is safe, how he would recommend it should be done, and say which contractors would do the work. As if it is suddenly our responsibility to maintain the council's properties. All he could offer was to build a mock bay, maybe from plywood, with windows painted on them. (He said they have done that in Anfield, or was it Aintree?).
'For godsake no...' was Eleanors reaction. The idea of a boarded up house, brick wall where a door was with 'painted on' windows, including curtains, ridiculous!
We managed to talk 20/20 and Elaine Stewart into at least considering the steel band option, and to explain to us in writing whatever decision they are going to take. I asked them if the builders who were here last week, with a JCB, would have tried to keep the sand stone intact. The answer was no, I guess they would have been smashed and probably would now be landfill, or ground up to hard core. That is at least a little victory, that they say they want to save the stone work.
Then we got a little distracted by discussing other options on how you can keep a wall from falling on somebodies head. Steel wires, pulling the whole thing from inside the house with a ratchet? Two metal bands? Three metal bands? "That would be the Rolls Royce job!"
What about cost? All in all not expensive, whatever you do, assured us Mr. 20/20.
It was a good meeting I thought, everybody could join in. The council reps seemed to take our concerns seriously.
posted by cairns at 6:45 PM
2 Comments:
Yes they nod sympathetically and "take your concerns seriously" while they are on site with you, which of course the foot soldiers officers are - its only when they get back and take instruction from the Evil Cabal that any empathy evaporates in a puff of smoke and the bulldozers roll back in
We had a letter from our structural engineer, he put in writing his assessment that steel bands can be used and it even sounds as if that would be safer than taking the bays down bit by bit. Will keep you posted what the 20/20 engineer will say.
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