Gosh. I thought I had it tough trying to cope with my Renault Megane steering wheel and stalk controls. Just, the speed limiter/cruise control options on the wheel supplemented by the phone/entertainment controls on the stalk. Oh and then there is the satnav controls adjacent to the manual gearstick (just the six).
On Saturday 16th September, 2011 our local Tesco Express was burnt out. Along with the Tesco store we also lost our pharmacy and a Chinese take-away.
The News reported Thursday 29 March, 2012 that ….
Officials at Brookton 2000 Ltd, which owns the site, said they were working up a planning application for the rebuild of Tesco and the pharmacy.
Daniel Kaye, director of Brookton 2000 Ltd, based in Chandler’s Ford, said: ‘We have a team of professionals appointed and we are working on submitting an application. Then it is in the hands of the local authority.
‘Once we get planning permission, we can look to appoint contractors.
‘Unfortunately these things take longer than members of the general public think.’
Mr Kaye said the shops would be back open in 18 months’ time at the very latest. But he said he hoped the rebuild would be sooner.
On April 8th of this year I posted about how long it was taking for any work to begin to replace the afore-mentioned business premises.
Fort Lavender
Fifteen months have gone by since the fire and nothing seems to have happened on the site.
15 months on – Our Local Shops – Lavender Road, Waterlooville
The photo above shows that the roof has gone from the pharmacy and supermarket areas. The blue tarp covers some part of the chinese take-away roof where the fire brigade broke through, presumably to ensure that the fire wasn’t still burning out of sight.
The approval of the application, on 21st August, comes with some conditions.
1) The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of 3 years from the date on which this planning permission was granted.Reason: To comply with Section 51 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
So we could be waiting some time before the rebuild gets started. It would have been better from a residents perspective if the council had enforced a more stringent timetable.
3) No development hereby permitted shall be commenced until a detailed soft landscaping scheme for all open parts of the site not proposed to be hard-surfaced has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. Such scheme shall specify the proposed finished ground levels in relation to the existing levels, the distribution and species of ground cover to be planted, the positions, species and planting sizes of the trees and shrubs to be planted and/or retained, and timing provisions for completion of the implementation of all such landscaping works.
The implementation of all such approved landscaping shall be completed in full accordance with such approved timing provisions. Any tree or shrub planted or retained as part of such approved landscaping scheme which dies or is otherwise removed within the first 5 years shall be replaced with another of the same species and size in the same position during the first available planting season.
Reason: To ensure the appearance of the development is satisfactory and having due regard to policies CS11, CS16 and DM8 of the Havant Borough Core Strategy 2011 which form part of the Local Development Framework and National Planning Policy Framework, March 2012.
It’s good to see that work cannot commence until the really important issues have been thrashed out. I would have thought it was more important to get a major part of the local infrastructure reinstated i.e. rebuild and reopen the stores, rather than argue over the type of shrubs to be planted.
4) The buildings shall not be occupied until space for the loading, unloading and parking of vehicles has been provided within the site, surfaced and marked out in accordance with the approved details. Such areas shall thereafter be permanently retained and used solely for those purposes.
Reason: In the interests of highway safety and having due regard to policy DM13 of the Havant Borough Core Strategy 2011 which forms part of the Local Development Framework and National Planning Policy Framework, March 2012.
This condition has me confused. The original goods entrance and specifically the area immediately in front of it appears, according to the proposed ground floor plan, to be allocated as disabled parking. If this is for the “sole” use of the disabled, where will goods vehicles load and unload ?
According to the plans there will be a new construction and entrance at the northern end of the building, immediately adjacent to Lavender Road. If that is intended to be used as the main goods entrance into the building, implying that the goods vehicles are to be parked in Lavender Road, we will have a road safety disaster on our hands. The parking of articulated lorries in this area of the road has already caused several near misses to my knowledge.
I would have preferred to have seen some provision for goods vehicle access or at the very minimum a restriction placed on the supermarket operator to only use small to medium-sized vans for the delivery of stock. It isn’t only Tesco vehicles in the past that have caused problems as I have seen articulated lorries delivering milk and bread to this site.
So, when are we going to get our local shops back ?
The pharmacy has been trying to maintain its presence by operating out of a converted industrial container. Word from the container has it that they will be returning to a proper shop around Easter 2013.
Mr Daniel Kay, that’s 20 months. not “18 months at the latest” ….. nor is it “sooner”
Some of the folks who used to work at the burnt out Tesco Express have been redeployed to Tesco’s Grassmere Way Store. Or maybe that’s Tempest Road. Not sure since Tesco can’t seem to make up their own mind according to their own web site. As we locals know Tempest Road is actually Tempest Avenue. But I digress.
Having spoken to some of the Lavender Road expats it seems that they have not heard anything about Tesco resuming operations.
Is this because Tescos will not be coming back ? If not, then who will be operating from the rebuilt store and when ?
By the way, going back to the Tesco website, they don’t seem to have noticed that their store is no longer open. They still show the Lavender Road store as being open seven days a week.
At the age of 91, Dave Brubeck has departed this earth and we have lost another great talent.
I am pretty sure that it was hearing the Dave Brubeck Quartets rendition of “Take Five” that really introduced me to jazz. Written by quartet member Paul Desmond this track always makes me stop and listen. This may seem strange to hear from a dedicated rock music lover. In truth I love all music that is played and presented well and for me the clear airy drumming with the iconic sax “vocal” all underpinned by Brubecks virtuoso piano playing has it all.
Of course Brubeck is more than this one single lifted from the 1959 album “Time Out” so as another tribute to Brubeck I include “Take The ‘A’ Train”
The Dave Brubeck web site is showing a nice collection of pictures of Brubeck over the years to a soundtrack showcasing a selection of tracks featuring Dave’s piano playing. The site is well worth a visit.
Brubeck died of heart failure yesterday, just one day before his 92nd birthday.
Some of you out there will know that I belong to a photographic group: Photography Cafe One of our regular contributors, BigAl, posts various bits of humour on a daily basis. Just recently he started posting, each day, a couple of definitions from “Two Cows” Political Philosophy. I trawled the web and have gathered most that I have found into this post. So, in no particular order, here for your delectation, I present a selection …..
Two-Cow Politics
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you. MILITARIANISM: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you. ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to kill you and take the cows. BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows. PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk. REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk. AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair “Cowgate”. BRITISH DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You feed them sheep’s brains and they go mad. The government doesn’t do anything. SINGAPOREAN DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. The government fines you for keeping two unlicensed farm animals in an apartment. CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. HONG KONG CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows’ milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the feng shui is bad. ENVIRONMENTALISM: You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them. TOTALITARIANISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: You are associated with two differently-aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender. COUNTER CULTURE: Wow, dude, there’s like… these two cows, man. You got to have some of this milk. LAWFIRMISM: You have two cows. You force them to produce the milk of four cows, then act surprised. SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons. CAFEISM: You have two cows. You look around for a third to balance the composition. FRENCH CORPORATION : You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. The cows go on strike to keep out American hormone-fed milk and launch a stampede through a McDonalds franchise at Euro-Disney. The French Cow Liberation Front hacks into the Cheddar website with images of Roquefort and WAV files declaring “Vive la France!” You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.
We’ve all heard about the issues with breast implants bursting.
Well here is another example of why you shouldn’t mess with what nature has given you. I’m not laughing. I really think it is sad the lengths people will go to make their bodies meet their, or someone elses, perceived state of perfection.
This is fabulous. I saw it the other evening after my granddaughter posted it on Facebook. Question raised in my mind …. surely someone gave her a slap. They can’t all have been so wimpy.
Elmore James’ original has evolved into a staple of the blues set. With all the impossibly-talented musicians out there I’m certain there’s a cover that rocks harder than the Paul Butterfield version but I haven’t heard it yet. Check out Mike Bloomfield‘s slide lead. That cat got it, for sure.
WrAnTz 