The original 2003 plan for Pathfinder in Salford was to bulldoze 8,360 properties in Central Salford by 2013. That would have left the place an absolute blighted ghost town.
In the event the demolition programme had to be scaled back and the final figure of 1,250 was nowhere near this. But it shows the mentality of the idiots who run such public schemes who just don't live in the real breathing world.
In Langworthy, Higher Broughton, Charlestown, Lower Kersal and Lower Broughton we have seen areas of perfectly good housing devastated and left with grass verges and knee rails, or the Salford Prairies as they've become known. Meanwhile, developers and consultants have cashed in big style.
Now, Save Britain's Heritage has produced almost a paragraph by paragraph critique of the latest positive Audit Commission report into Pathfinder which backs up the Salford Star 6 part series on Pathfinder in Salford (see here).
In the SAVE Intro to the critique, Jonathan Brown, a planner and member of Liverpool Civic Society, argues that Pathfinder showed an appetite for destruction...
"Secretive, top-down and target driven, hundreds of thousands of private homes were condemned in back-room deals between public officials and developer interests, before any proper surveys of their residents or refurbishment potential.
"The classic English terraced house was demonised as 'obsolete'" he adds "Whole neighbourhoods were declared surplus at the keystroke of a consultant's lap-top. Bureaucratic arrogance reduced communities to inmates of a 'ZOO' - Zone Of Opportunity - for house-builders. Statisticians assumed compulsory purchase and eviction for demolition were acceptable measures for householders in a property-owning democracy."
He adds that Pathfinder "diagnosed the wrong causes…prescribed a dangerous and discredited medicine…ignored sensible solutions…distorted local democracy…rewarded failure…killed local economies…worsened social deprivation and housing need", and was "environmentally stupid". And this is just the Intro! (read it here)
In the main report by Finlay Research, every single one of the Audit Commissions claims of Pathfinder positivity is taken to task in intricate detail as it performs an "audit of the audit" for Pathfinder in easy to understand English. Read it and weep!
Read the Finlay Research Audit here
See Save Britain's Heritage site here
Read the 6 Part Salford Star report starting here…
(1).JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
