FRED DONE WINS SALFORD STAR FEED THE RICH AWARD - Salford Star

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FRED DONE WINS SALFORD STAR FEED THE RICH AWARD

Star date: 27th December 2018

FRED DONE WINS STAR AWARD FOR SECOND YEAR RUNNING

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 12th annual Salford Star Mary Burns Awards, which are given out to honour the most deserving individuals and organisations in the city for their stupid statements, dodgy dealings and iffy activities over the past twelve months.

They said that only Peel Holdings could win constant Feed The Rich awards but Fred Done has nosed in front with his £300,000 flats to pick up the title for the second consecutive year. So, ladies and gentlemen, jingle yer jockeys in yer hat-trick heaven for the winner of the Salford Star Mary Burns Feed The Rich Award...

Full details here...

Fred Done Wins Salford Star Feed The Rich Award

click image to enlarge

Feed The Rich Award

Goes to...

Fred Done

Well, what can you say, as Fred Done has got the hat-trick heaven of Salford Star Mary Burns Awards. Two years ago he won the Heritage Destruction Award for the Black Horse pub trashing (see here) and last year he got the Feed The Rich Award for huge public subsidies and planning fee avoidance (see here).

This year, the judges had no hesitation in handing the Mary to the lucky bookie, as the cost of his apartments in Black Friars and on The Crescent were revealed.

First up is what's now called 'Local Blackfriars', which the developer's website proudly boasts is "a gated community". The two ugly towers are stuffed with 380 apartments, townhouses and penthouses, for which Fred Done's FICM company avoided £1,283,970 in planning fees plus the provision of 76 affordable properties.

Transport for Greater Manchester also wanted two new bus stops "to improve the public transport accessibility of the site" but Done wouldn't even provide these as it would make the scheme 'unviable'.

Instead, the bookie/developer went cap in hand to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) which provided cheap loans totalling of £22.5million of public money, and the properties were subsequently marketed to Hong Kong investors.

In August, the Salford Star revealed that the cost of one of these publicly subsidised apartments in Local Blackfriars ranged from £199,000 to £265,000 for a one bedroom flat; between £253,000 and £400,000 for a two bed and up to £475,000 for a three bed townhouse.*

A car parking space is extra, there's £350 a year ground rent and service charges of £2.60 per square foot per year (flats range between 475sq ft and 726sq ft).

At least Salford Council inserted a 'clawback' agreement in the Blackfriars planning agreement, so there's a chance of getting something back to the city from this development if it makes bucketfuls of profits...unlike at the Crescent, where historic pub, the Black Horse, was demolished in order to build 399 properties in the 'conservation area', and Done avoided an estimated £1.9million in planning fees with no clawback in place.

Here, at the now re-branded 'Local Crescent', prices range from £170,000 to £300,000 for a one bedroom flat; £250,000 to £350,000 for a two bed; and over £400,000 for a three bed townhouse. Again, a car parking space is extra, ground rent is £350 per year and service charges are set at £2.70 per square foot.

This year, the Sunday Times Rich List showed that Fred and Peter Done's wealth rose by £20million, to £1.35billion...

When one of Fred Done's directors was interviewed about the Blackfriars scheme, he said 'This will be Fred Done's legacy'...but, as recent graffiti in Langworthy shows, (see main photo), Salford people have their own views on the matter...

So, ladies and gentlemen, hurdle over your handouts, saddle up your life chances and bet your bottom dollar that you won't be able to afford a 'Local' apartment, as you whip it up for the winner of the Salford Star Mary Burns Feed The Rich Award...

Fred Done!!!

If Fred would like to make an acceptance speech please us the comments box below...

* For a full background see previous Salford Star article – click here and follow the links

See other winners of the 2018 Salford Star Mary Burns Awards...

The Donald Trump Award For Media Dissing - Charlie Winstanley - click here

Disappearing Salford Award – Urban Splash/Alliance Investments – click here

Universal Catastrophe Award - Conservative Government - click here

International Award - Manchester City Council - click here

Real Digital Council of the Year - Salford City Council - click here

Cuadrilla Award for Attempted Protest Stifling - Bellway Homes - click here

Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government - Salford City Council - click here

Grenfell Tower Memorial Award - Salford City Council, Pendleton Together and the Conservative Government - click here

Radio Ga Ga Nursery Award - Salford City Council - click here

Art Appreciation Award - Salford City Council - click here

Main photo by George, tarted up by Louise

Bob the regular wrote
at 06:09:48 on 05 January 2019

I knew this would rattle the cages,that's why I said it.OK then.Why don't our elected tossers at tosser hall just draw up simple topograhic plan of that depot site divided into 8 sections of about 12-14 000 sq metres each, just one house each plot, no ifs or buts, and ask £1million each o.n.o. This would cost about £7or8hundred quid. Are they to stupid to do this? I know they are. Absolute mint houses would cost say another million to build. This is sweet FA to these telly types. And it's handy for work. This way , the council could get the best restoration people in the country to do it up. These top restorers are good people , not rip off and do a great job. £4million to tart up this old mansion is taking the piss. Remember when Windsor castle burned down. The Queen got that completely re done for £30 million, with fantastic craftmanship involved. I know people who worked on it. look at the size of it, and only 7.5 times the cost of our shity old mansion. We are having our plonkers pulled, but who cares, it won't be the first time and it won't be the last. At the end of the day, there will be a lot more than 8 dwellings on that depot site, closer to 50. And they won't be social housing.

Rayofsunshine wrote
at 16:26:36 on 04 January 2019

No,Bob the regular,what you are advocating is flogging off land,valued in your opinion,at £8 miĺlion,to Fred Done for £4 milliòh - asset stripping,pure wnd simple!

Bob the regular wrote
at 09:21:38 on 04 January 2019

No Ray. what I was proposing was getting a good price for derelict land and using the money to fix that mansion. At the same time, building as few as possible houses. Your socialist mates as they have proved time and time again have not got a XXXXXXX clue how to do anything. What they will end up doing is putting a load of crap on that depot site and not having enough cash to fix that mansion. They get stung each and every time because they are prize mugs. Where is the sea of squalor around the park. Is it the £300 000 houses on weaste lane , the7-800 000 mansions on millionaires row or the large detached private houses and super luxury appartments on the pendleton high site?

ian c wrote
at 19:00:45 on 03 January 2019

Re Chimney Pot Park. To be fair to the councillor he wanted ideas to make the area attractive to private developers for the whole area as the council could not finance social housing at the time.I was told the councillor immediately rejected the idea.

Rayofsunshine wrote
at 10:39:35 on 03 January 2019

At least Bob the regular is honest - in his latest post he openly supports asset stripping! As to the issue of "gentrification",the question to be asked is whether the proposed development lifts a whole area or is only an oasis of luxury in a desert of squalor!

Dave wrote
at 05:37:20 on 03 January 2019

What are Salford councilors doing thinking about gentrification? (comment by Ian) At least we know what the true motives of these people are. wonder what Ray will say about this

Bob the regular wrote
at 05:36:41 on 03 January 2019

The only land I was refering to with a view to be built on, was the existing parks dept site next to the mansion. If you take a look at it on google earth you can see how big it is. It is huge . At a guess I would say 1 hectare (10 000 square metres). Since I was a kid this has always been gated off as parks maintainance workshops. It is like a builders yard. Like it or not, this is the area going to be developed. Like I said 8 plots only,8 families. £1million per plot. Up front.To give you some idea how big each plot would be, you could put the mansion on there on each plot. Come on Fred Done, rise up to the job. Offer these turds at the council £4million for the site, on condition they get someone proper to fix the mansion. flog the plots for a million each. the deal stacks up. (at least have a look at it).

Mary Ferrer wrote
at 19:08:11 on 02 January 2019

Bob and Dave I can't see anyone in the here and now building anything like our Mansion.all I see around our city is apartments and houses being thrown up and with little or no caricature. We don't want any houses built in any park within Salford.we need what open space we have. Why can't Done give something back to the city where he has remove buildings of historical interest.He or his brother have donated £5M for a sports/ sports centre somewhere in Manchester

ian c wrote
at 19:06:57 on 02 January 2019

Re Bob the regulars comment on housing in the park. Some years ago when the council CPO'd the houses North of Chimney Pot Park, a town planner I knew was asked informally by a councillor how they could gentrify the area. His answer was to replicate the park to the North where the houses are and sell plots in the original park to millionaires and make it a gated community.I believe the suggestion went no further.If it was raised today who knows?

Mary Ferrer wrote
at 06:51:43 on 02 January 2019

Bob the regular wrote
at 06:50:28 on 02 January 2019

Like I said, I have been chatting with a couple of old pals about that site in the park. The old depot for the parks dept. Does anyone know how big it is ? how many sq metres etc? A few years ago I would have loved to have got stuck into a big job like that. There are still plenty of local high quality people local who could do this.

Bob the regular wrote
at 12:39:50 on 31 December 2018

There's nowt wrong with rich people. I know lots of them. I don't mean some of our snobs who have not much more than ordinary people, but think they are something because they live in a posh suburb, I mean rich people. There are are a few obnoxious ones who think they are the bees knees, but most are ok and pretty clever, mostly the self made ones. We could do with a lot more of them in the Salford part of Salford. Mary suggests Mr Done brings back to use the park mansion. Well here is one for you all. Looking at the site map of the council depot in the park, I reckon you could get 8 very good sized mansion plots in there. plots much much bigger than the one opposite the park gates on millioaires row where uniteds old manager O'farrell used to live. Having housing in parks is common in London. 8 big mansions in a gated complex would be no big deal. Starting bid price for each site would be £1million each. Let them build what they like, the more extravagent the better. There are plenty of these media types at the BBC with that sort of cash. There would have to be restrictions on one house per plot. Very rich people create jobs, cleaners cooks , housekeepers, drivers, security etc. Add to this,they would not take shit from the council. Rich meadia types also like to champion the rights and worthy causes of the peasantry, who seem to idolise them. So with our at least £8million, we could do a lot with our old mansion, (which given an original build cost, of £20,000, index linked to todays values, did not cost £4million to build). We could do what we liked with the £5million profit. Doing it this way means we would have the cash upfront from the sales of the plots.We could give the profit to Dennett and Merry to see what they could build with the cash, and who they would house. I ran the idea over a mate of mine who is a pretty smart developer. He thinks it may have merit. We would rather spend on second rate rubbish though wouldn't we?

Alice wrote
at 12:39:17 on 31 December 2018

'Little boxes, little boxes, all built of tricky tacky!' Remember this song? Makes me think of Fred Done's pidgeon loft apartments. No creative design, no architectural features to admire. Just big boxes divided into more boxes. The Amazon plan to get them done quickly and get in the money! To add distaste to these featureless buildings is the knowledge that they are being built on the proceeds of betting. To think, some soul has hoped for a win by putting in his last few quid and come away with nothing but disappointment. Meanwhile Mr Done adds another pound to his millions and doesn't even drop a coin into a paper cup!

Dave wrote
at 06:20:51 on 29 December 2018

Might be a good idea of Bob's for Fred Done to build lots of affordable low energy houses for the working classes of Salford. They would then have more spare cash to spend in his betting shops. As for £4million to renovate the Mansion, well, you could build 3 new ones from scratch for that sort of money.

Bob the regular wrote
at 10:11:55 on 28 December 2018

Why have a go at Fred Done? He is a businessman not a charity. He is there to make a profit. The law says he has to pay a lot of tax on his betting shops. so he does. The law says that the council can make him provide a proportion of affordable houses. Is it his fault that Dennett and his mates do not make them do this? The law gives Dennett ,in his position as housing fund boss the right to invest housing fund cash where he pleases. Why did he not attach conditions to all this, and demand planning fees ect? When people like Fred Done and Whitaker from Peel come up against bully boys like the council, they have to be tough with them. Ruthless even. Perhaps if you wanted people like Fred Done to build cheap public housing, then perhaps you should give him some free pathfinder land that the council got for nothing,together with some government housing cash and let him get on with the job. Just look at the masthead of this journal to see what our council does with public money for housing .

Mary Ferrer wrote
at 10:07:47 on 28 December 2018

This award could not have gone to a more deserving person.Thanks to the loads he has reserved and all the money our lovely Labour council have saved him by not taking planning fees and allowing him to keep all his over priced apartments, with not ONE AFFORDABLE apartment. SALFORD COUNCIL have moved him out of the list of millionaires and into the BILLIONAIRE list. Wonder if Mr Done could find £4M under his mattress for the renovation of the Mansion, then he would at least be giving something back to our city. So Mr Done please make up for the historical buildings you have stolen from us and bring our grade 2 listed building back to life for the generations to come

wrote
at 10:07:07 on 28 December 2018

Good luck too him can't take with him x

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