SALFORD COUNCIL DEMOLISHED SEEDLEY AND LANGWORTHY TERRACED HOUSES TO BUILD...TERRACED HOUSES - Salford Star

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SALFORD COUNCIL DEMOLISHED SEEDLEY AND LANGWORTHY TERRACED HOUSES TO BUILD...TERRACED HOUSES

Star date: 14th May 2020

YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP!

Over ten years ago, Salford City Council spent millions of pounds of public money kicking out residents and knocking down affordable terraced houses in Seedley and Langworthy. Today, the Council will be considering a planning application from Salix Homes for a scheme that includes back to back terraced housing in the former streets!

Out of 157 properties, only 17 will be for social rent – those purchased from Salix by Salford Council, as the city's crazy housing policies roll on.

Full details here...

Salford terraced homes scheme Kara Street

click image to enlarge

This morning, Salford City Council's Planning Panel of councillors will consider an application by Salix Homes and Step Places for 157 houses and apartments on Kara Street and off Liverpool Street in Seedley. Here, residents were kicked out of their houses over ten years ago after a bitter battle with the Council. Most of the affordable houses were demolished and the sites have stood empty ever since, pock marked with grass crofts and knee rails.

The site was sold to Salix Homes this week for a relatively cheap £3.26million (including a zillion discounts), and 157 units will be built (111 houses and 46 apartments) - but the Council will be buying back 17 units (9 one bedroom apartments, 4 two bedroom houses and 4 three bedroom houses) at a cost of £115,000 each, while the Seedley and Langworthy Trust (aka Inspiring Communities Housing) will have an option to buy five units.

Only 17 out of the 157 properties will be for social rent (via Salford Council), with 66 units for market sale. The rest will be 'affordable' rent, which is 80% of market rent (40 units), shared ownership (29 units), and five would be for community housing via Inspiring Communities Housing.

This rubbish deal was signed off by Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett – but today councillors will be considering a planning application for the site...and OMG! They knocked down rows of terraced houses back in the day – only to be replaced by...terraced houses!

Or as the report puts it..."The scheme appears as a modern interpretation of rows of terraced properties.Terraced dwellings with back yards and/or roof terraces are proposed across the majority of the site and would largely follow the grid-like pattern of streets which is already established within the area..." In other words, no gardens!

"Where back to back terraces are proposed, private amenity space would be provided by roof terraces rather than a traditional garden" the report states "These properties would also be provided with a small rear terrace area at first floor level which would also act as a kind of lightwell to provide light down to ground floor habitable rooms within the rear elevation and also create a courtyard area off the rear of the first floor habitable room..." Etc.

The scheme, imaginatively titled The Neighbourhood, is being marketed as a "reinvention" of the terraced home, which has a whiff of the controversial Urban Splash 'upside down terraced houses' across the road...

The houses, Salix states on its consultation website, are designed around principles of, er, "Encouraging interaction among neighbours" (just like the old terraced houses), "Providing a high-quality home which is accessible and affordable" (just like the old terraced houses), and "Promoting an inherent sense of safety with passive surveillance, wider boulevards and minimal blind spots that may encourage crime" (just like the old terraced houses).

...And the planning report recognises that, just like the old streets, the 'high density' development will have 'tight' separation between the houses.

So why did Salford City Council knock down those affordable Langworthy and Seedley terraced houses at a cost of millions of pounds of money? Er, because the Council was adamant that nobody wanted to live in terraced houses!...

...Or was it just 'social cleansing' as many in the community believed? 14 years ago, the Salford Star interviewed Salford Council's head of housing, Bob Osborne, who admitted "It's never been about affordable housing, per se. It's been about re-building the community..." Once the 'community' has gone, of course...

And, 14 years later, and after bucket loads of public money has been spent on kicking out residents and demolishing terraced houses, Salix states on the website that "Our approach is to create a high-quality place connected to its community, where the terrace is celebrated and evolved for the next generation...

"We love the terrace and feel it is still as relevant today as it once was and offers a great way to create a strong community that own the place they live in..."

You couldn't make it up!

The Salford Council Planning meeting starts at 9:30am this morning – click here to view

Update: 3pm - The application was approved at a stormy panel meeting - with 7 councillors voting in favour of the application, 1 voting against and 4 abstentions. Full details...click here

See also previous Salford Star article on today's Planning Panel meeting – Huge Ordsall Luxury Apartment Scheme Has No Affordable Housing – click here

Mighty Quinns wrote
at 19:20:15 on 25 February 2021

Lived there and loved the area. Agree with most comments above. We were happily part of a Large (but eventually unsuccessful) community group - GROWLA - Genuine Residents Of Whole Langworthy Area - we saw what the Council - led by Hazel Blears - had in mind. We met with lots of locals and sadly ‘ you can’t beat the system’ . We always said the land / housing plots is what they wanted - especially after Salford Quays was developed. Unfortunately there were a lot of ‘ Community voices’ impressed by a bit of cake and flattery who, with local Councillors / Vicars / Resident ( all 1 person) aided Salford’s LABOUR Council to STEAL homes and break Community.

wrote
at 07:18:51 on 17 May 2020

evil tory scum refuse to scrap bedroom tax refuse to give pensioners and disabled extra money for heating no money for the 2 million people on legacy benefits and now threaten to throw the homeless back on the streets cherry tree court empty on churchill way use it to house people.

wrote
at 09:55:53 on 16 May 2020

and the trouble with tories is they rob peoples money they rob peoples labour and they have wrecked and ruined many communities and one filthy hypocrite john major was knocking off a married women cheating on his wife and preaching family values and do you remember sleaze and the expenses theft. and as for the no such thing has society pig it should have been put on trial as a war criminal for sinking the general belgrano just so the pig could get re elected the pig then went on to sell all our state industries and assets privatise the nhs care in the community what a con that was throwing the mentally ill on to the streets and of course the pig thatcher when it had past its sell by date was thrown out of power and dumped in the waste bin and left to die a recluse her tory chums having nothing to do with her . tories are corrupt lying scum and in the near future when the truth comes out about the ineptitude and neglect of the people of this country by johnson and company during this pandemic we wont be hearing much from you bob you arsehole.and i would say jeremy corbyn never killed anybody he is a decent man and he cared and it is a tragedy labour led by him are not in power and when this gang of tory scum get nasty and make you pay the bill bob the arsehole you and the other clowns who think you have got your country back will be squealing like the pig thatcher justice is coming to england.

Bob the sniper wrote
at 17:59:50 on 15 May 2020

Thing is though,loads of public cash would have been saved, and the people who owned them could have sold them when they wanted, for the price they wanted. As the grocers daughter said ,"the thing about socialists is that they soon run out of other peoples money".Trouble is, many people here just hate the grocers daughter,for example, even when she went out of her way to fulfill the carrying out of core labour policies that were the backbone of labour thinking, policies that the previous labour government had started, but were to difficult for them to carry out due to their incompetence and stupidity.If Thatcher though a Labour idea was good,then she carried it out ,despite loud opposition from her own party. She carried out these policies, and the labour lot didn't even say thanks. Well there you go,I am going to look at the seedley plans, comments later.

Bob the sniper wrote
at 17:59:45 on 15 May 2020

If it had been up to the grocers daughter, the old but solid houses that were there would still be there, but by now, market forces would have made them a bit more desirable, like notting hill and islington in London Where our labour party high command all love to live. Thats where mr Jezza lives, and his former fancy woman Abbott,and Thornberry as well.Loads of cash would have been sa

Liar Liar pants on fire wrote
at 15:00:42 on 15 May 2020

Felse. You also gave your word that you would not post on this site again. Since then you have returned more times than Michael Myers, who, while we are at it, probably has a better chance of becoming mayor. GO!

wrote
at 14:43:50 on 15 May 2020

you followed the grocers daughter from grantham turned your back on council housing so stop moaning and felse you little creep a decent mind would want to end food banks not support them.

sense of reason wrote
at 10:12:25 on 15 May 2020

looking at the planning report, 91 of these homes will be affordable housing which is a mixture of social rent, affordable rent capped at local housing allowance or shared ownership. previously the terrace streets were cleared due to their state of disrepair, and abandonment. These two sites have been left vacant for a decade. I may be a minority but I fully support any proposal to build more social/affordable homes in Salford. I also note that Salix is paying full 106 obligations so perhaps some credit is due or as the Star says 'You couldn't make it up'!

Fae Sidhe wrote
at 08:39:53 on 15 May 2020

Nice going, Salford Council! At this rate Salford will end up with all the actual Salfordians priced out of living in Salford and scattered all over Greater Manchester.

Alice wrote
at 08:39:44 on 15 May 2020

I wonder what the residents who had to move house ten years ago will think when they see these new terrace houses going up. They will remember the stress and possibly distress they suffered. The only people to benefit from this clearance would be the developers and the builders. Just the same as those who pulled down the high-rise flats to rebuild as unaffordable apartments. It’s the repetition of behaviour to create new money from old actions. Those that lose out are the poorest again and again.

Kenny wrote
at 08:39:31 on 15 May 2020

Why does Paul Dennett hate Salford so much,he is destroying it piece by piece and giving it away to planners. Never in the History of Salford has there been a worst Mayor for the people of Salford. He should be ashamed of himself,how he can look the residents in eye and sell them out with his untruths.

Cannon Green Resident wrote
at 08:39:05 on 15 May 2020

I don,t think there left hand knows what there right hand is doing.We have had a lot of problems with these Salix homes people on our block and the work these people are carrying out there. We went to our councilor to get advice and to put things right for us. We got a sympathetic heering and told things would be sorted out, but they haven,t. Why are our council doing busness with Salix? Good job they cancelld the elections. It will give us a chance to vote them all out. They did down kersal. Who would have thought they would vote for the conservatives down there. The labour dont stand for working people any more. They used to but they dont now. They are worse than maggie thatcher.

Bob The Sniper wrote
at 08:38:53 on 15 May 2020

Well, a pound to a pinch of shit they will not be facing these new houses in the good old Accrington Red Brick. The best brick in the world.I went round the works a few years ago.They keep opening it and closing it.The labour council up there make ours look like einsteins. The factory is in the ward of the council leader, so local jobs depend on it. There is tons of cheap unwanted council owned land around it.Youth unemployement is very high round there,but they are good kids who want to work. There is a big housing shortage round there.From my experience , a lot of good brickies come from east lancashire, Burley,Blackburn ,accrington etc. Can you think what they should do up there? Well, Miles Parkinson ,the labour council leader couldn't when I spoke to him a few years ago. It seems it is not only us that has labour stupidity to put up with.

Felsey wrote
at 08:38:44 on 15 May 2020

I love the indigenous residents of Langworthy great friends live their and many care workers. I would be honoured to live in one of these new properties. If I was Mayor I would insist 25% of all new build goes to people from the housing waiting list. And would be gifting the Mayor’s pay to the Salford food banks. What is our Mayor doing? Oh and by the way “wrote” yes I give my word to be standing in the 2021 election to maximize funding on Salford Care Homes.

wrote
at 08:38:17 on 15 May 2020

But didnt Salford council say that "nobody wants terraced houses" when they were demolishig them?

Wolfie Smith wrote
at 14:58:58 on 14 May 2020

So take the total sale price Salford Council sold the land for, question the tender process, question who valued the land, work out the total unit cost of the houses the council will buy back, and the total value, put the equation together and it looks like the purchaser got a good deal, the site is in a prime position for Manchester so should raise good prices, and yet viability is an issue for affordable home it stinks.

Darren born bred wrote
at 13:13:31 on 14 May 2020

66 houses for market sale half a mile from clean swanky media city. What price we all wonder on the litter strewn streets of Langworthy full of rubbish, household bins overflowing, dumped bin bags everywhere, dumped fridge freezers everywhere, dumped takeaway cartons everywhere, all dumped by a small minority of people in Langworthy. The local chimney pot park is a disgrace, the play area is wrecked and the place has got a few people smoking weed day and night and there is dog poo(shit) everywhere. Would people still buy one of these properties on the new Langworthy neighbourhood.

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