The Trick Factory in Bridport “no longer gets close to breaking even… the number of local users in recent times doesn’t even amount to double figures, much to the dismay of myself and the disbelief of those that travel to use The Trick Factory.”
Posts from the “SW Quadrant” Category
NEW plans for the redevelopment of Bridport’s historic South West Quadrant are to go on show on Friday, December 10. People are invited to view landowners Haywards’ latest proposals for the St Michael’s Trading Estate area in the Red Brick Café between about 11am and 2pm. Haywards’ last scheme – for a mix of 175 new homes and commercial “regeneration” opportunities – was intensely controversial.
A FILM about the heights and frights of paragliding is to be shown at Bridport’s Electric Palace to raise funds for Dorset’s only indoor skate and cycle park.
The Trick Factory on St Michael’s Trading Estate in Bridport has seen countless risky moves tried out, but probably none that can really compare with chucking yourself off the side of the Himalayas with only a nylon wing to hang onto.
The Birdman of the Karakoram will be introduced by West Dorset birdman Eddie Colfox, whom many people will have seen over the years gliding like a buzzard around places like Eggardon Hill. At the end of the screening on March 23, Mr Colfox will also take questions.
The movie focuses on some of the paragliding and film-making exploits of John Silvester and Alun Hughes and other Himalayan paragliding explorers like Mr Colfox, who quotes one reviewer thus:
“Ready yourself to be thrown into the heart of a terrifying world of extreme altitude flying that few humans will ever experience.
“On the razor sharp cutting edge of adventure paragliding, The Birdman of the Karakoram takes you from armchair to the most extreme flying location on earth, when high altitude paragliding pioneer John Silvester takes Alun Hughes on the tandem flight to end all tandem flights.
“Supported by nothing more than a ten kilo nylon wing and John’s uncanny paragliding skills, the pair commit themselves deep into a remote and hypoxic world of snow, ice and previously unexplored terrain, where flying to survive becomes the name of the game.
“The Birdman of the Karakoram demolishes any ideas you may have had about paragliding being about serenely floating around the sky.”
It won the 2009 Best Film on Human Adventure award at St Hilaire, the largest flying film festival.
A clip can be seen by clicking on this link
As well as raising funds for the Trick Factory, the screening should also help the people of Hunza in Pakistan, a tribal area in the High Karakoram.
Mr Colfox says they “have recently had a landslide block off their communication link and also trap 87m of glacial meltwater in a dam which when/ if it breaks will flood their town. Twenty people have already been killed and much farmland has also been lost.”
Tickets cost £10 (£6 concessions) and can be booked by calling 01308-428354 between 9.30am and 4.30pm weekdays. Or you could pop in to the Electric Palace box office in South Street, Bridport.
“The bars will be open throughout!” says Mr Colfox.
And he adds, finally: “If anyone knows anyone who might commission our next adventure, please come or bring them along.”
(Teatime write-up)
SO, AS looked increasingly likely all morning, the planning inquiry into Bridport’s biggest development scheme for 30 years was stopped before it ever got properly going.
Late on in the afternoon, planning inspector Simon Rawle decided that landowners Haywards did not have the right to appeal against West Dorset district councillors’ refusal to allow them to redevelop St Michael’s Trading Estate and South West Quadrant land surrounding it.
In very simplified terms, the reason given was that links between West Dorset District Council and Haywards meant that an appeal could not be heard without breaching planning regulations.
The cost of the now-aborted appeal is estimated to be nearly £10,000. Work on failed planning applications may have cost more than £300,000.
Peter Atfield, a consultant to Haywards, asked for his reaction to the squashing of the appeal, said: “It’s nothing printable.” He added that something would still have to be done about the state of St Michael’s trading estate, as it could not be allowed to continue as it was.
St Michael's Trading Estate: Improvements are needed
Bridport-based district councillor David Tett, a consistent supporter of regeneration plans for the South West Quadrant, said: “I am very disappointed. It’s put the whole process back several years to the detriment of the town and townspeople.”
He thought it was a shame that arguments for and against Haywards’ proposals did not get fully aired.
“To disallow the appeal just because of legal arguments – that doesn’t help anyone,” he said. Asked about what might happen in future, he replied: “I fear the worst.”
Artists who led the fight against what was planned said they too were “disappointed” not to be given a chance to put arguments with months of work and masses of conviction behind them. “We would have creamed it,” said Andrew Leppard.
But Mr Leppard also said that he felt sorry at the way things had turned out for Norman Hayward, whose family was noticeably angered by today’s unexpected turn of events.
Mr Leppard added: “I think the whole community now has to work with Haywards and the district council to come up with a more community-based approach, to increase the economy, the activity and the value of the land.”
(Lunchtime write-up)
ABOUT 40 people turned up this morning for the start of the appeal into Bridport’s historic South West Quadrant, which includes St Michael’s Trading Estate.
They heard more than two hours of abstruse but often intellectually exciting debate about whether the planning inquiry – scheduled to last at the Park Dean Holiday Park in West Bay until Friday – should be allowed to proceed.
South West Quadrant appeal documents for perusal at holiday park in West Bay
Landowners Haywards are appealing against West Dorset district councillors’ refusal to grant permission for redevelopment work including 175 new homes, and revamped business opportunities.
Haywards twice applied for permission for this scheme with West Dorset District Council (WDDC) , and it is the terms and repurcussions of that arrangement that were debated this morning and will be discussed again this afternoon.
Potentially the appeal could be stopped before it has even properly begun.
In very simplified terms, much hinges on whether WDDC should be regarded as a developer or not. WDDC said this morning it should, because (for example) even if it never planned to undertake any building work itself, “development is not just the physical manifestation and execution of that, it is the process that is gone through.”
If WDDC is regarded as a developer, planning regulations bite, and the appeal should be declared invalid.
But Haywards said this was unfair, because WDDC “invited and persuaded” Haywards to work with them, with Haywards understanding that regulations would not bite because the two parties remained essentially independent. As such Haywards should retain their indepedent right to appeal and the appeal should be declared valid.
The scheme being proposed is the biggest in Bridport for at least 30 years. Hundreds of livelihoods could depend on what the planning inspector Simon Rawle decides later today – or perhaps even tomorrow, such is the intensity of the debate.
If you’d like more immediate updates, you can follow RealWestDorset on Twitter. See link in top right hand corner of screen.
THE EXTRAORDINARY range and number of people working in Bridport’s South West Quadrant can today be revealed for the first time.
Officially, the number of full-time jobs in and around St Michael’s Trading Estate is 112. That is the figure previously used in planning applications to redevelop the estate.
But foot-slogging research by the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate suggests the true number is nearly double that – more than 200.
To be exact, the Quadrant hosts the equivalent of 202.5 full-time jobs.
This figure suggests that there is an urgent need to revise official calculations about the economic value of redeveloping the Quadrant, as those calculations worked with the figure of 112.
Aside from that, the list compiled by Andrew Leppard has a fascination all of its own. It’s a snapshot of Bridport’s economic and cultural history, captured before it could all be changed forever, depending on the outcome of a planning appeal starting later this month.
Think of it as a kind of Bridport Domesday Book…
Here you will find theatrical groups, cleaners, an environmental consultant, an archaeologist, bathroom sellers, printers…. Read more
Bridport: South West Quadrant. Developers want to build a 5-storey block of flats on the site of the Stover Building (behind Burwoods). Photograph by Pete Millson
SHOULD the inquiry into the biggest proposed development in Bridport for 30 years be allowed to go ahead?
That is the question that will – unexpectedly – be decided when landowners Haywards’ launch their appeal into the future of the South West Quadrant, at the Park Dean Holiday Park in West Bay on January 26.
Costly preparations for the appeal have been going on for months, but if planning inspector Simon Rawle finds that Haywards’ appeal is not valid, the inquiry scheduled to last for three days will be stopped before it’s even properly begun.
Good news for the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate who have been campaigning against the proposed redevelopment of the area? Not necessarily.
Andrew Leppard, of the Friends, says: “We do actually want the appeal to go ahead because it’s the first time that someone from outside has had chance to have a look at it.”
Different parties involved in the appeal have recently been corresponding about the grounds for it. The situation is complicated because Haywards (the appellants) twice applied for planning permission in conjunction with West Dorset District Council, and twice elected councillors refused to give permission. It was thought last summer that planning regulations might not allow Haywards to appeal, but then it seemed that a way through had been found. However, a lot could now hinge on the question of how the council has decided what it might do in future with land it owns in the South West Quadrant.
A letter from the planning inspectorate (intended for circulation) states: “We note the contents of the recent letters / emails from both main parties on this subject and the contents of the appellant’s Counsel’s opinion is noted, as is the fact that the Council’s Counsel has confirmed that s/he agrees with the solicitor’s interpretation of the Regulations.
“However, we are not in a position to determine the position ahead of the opening of the inquiry.
“With the above in mind, the parties (including any interested parties that wish to raise this matter) will need to make submissions to the Inspector at the opening of the inquiry. It will then be for the Inspector to judge on the validity of the appeal and thus whether to proceed.
“However, the parties should make sure that they are prepared to proceed should the Inspector decide that the appeal is valid.”
The letter goes on to state that the planning inspector “will be fully briefed about this matter prior to the inquiry”.
LESS than three weeks to go until the start of the appeal into the biggest development in Bridport for 30 years, and Dr Sue Farrant is backing the campaign against plans to redevelop St Michael’s Trading Estate.
Dr Sue Farrant with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg
Dr Farrant, the Liberal Democrats’ contender for West Dorset at the forthcoming General Election, says she is unhappy with the way that Conservative-controlled West Dorset District Council (WDDC) has behaved over the issue of the South West Quadrant of Bridport, which includes St Michael’s Trading Estate.
WDDC was initially in league with landowners Haywards, until its own councillors rejected what was planned and Haywards then decided to appeal. The hearing will begin at West Bay on January 26.
Dr Farrant says: “I entirely support the campaign by the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate against the current proposals to develop the South West Quadrant of Bridport.
“I believe that any regeneration plan must maintain both the community of small businesses and working artists and an adequately-sized public transport terminal, as well as include other essential community resources, notably the Trick Factory.
“I think the behaviour of West Dorset District Council (WDDC) over this issue has been extremely heavy-handed and it appears to me that a number of important issues which were raised by tenants and residents and by the Town Council have simply not been taken into account.
“I don’t make these comments lightly because I am all too well aware of the need for more housing in the area and the pressure on WDDC to meet government targets.
“However, the inclusion of 100 units in addition to the 70 in the Local Plan seems to me to fly in the face of WDDC’s wider responsiblity to promote the economic, environmental and social well being of the communities it serves. That means taking all factors into account rather than pursuing a single goal to the exclusion of all others.
“I am a great believer in local communities coming together to work out solutions to issues like these and in my experience that is the only way that sustainable outcomes can be achieved.”
For other stories on the South West Quadrant and the Trick Factory, look on this site in the Category called South West Quadrant.