Housing Planning Application For Former Railway Sidings

Just been informed by Ali - I haven't looked since early last week - that there are plans in at AVBC for housing on the old railway sidings ... the same ones of ecological value that were illegally dumped on with excavated waste when they finished building Asda ... thus obliterating any wildlife and making damn sure any future plans couldn't be objected to.

AVA/2014/0790

Former Exchange Sidings (Bridge Street)

Outline Application for up to 58 Dwellings, with access into the site unreserved.

30% of the dwellings to be 'Affordable Housing'

17 - 2 Bedroom Apartments
37 - 3 Bedroom Houses
4 - 4  Bedroom Houses

Not bad to say it was only for storing flatbeds, but I suppose it's marginally better than what the teenagers are doing on it.

Hmmm, it goes a long way, right past Argyle Street, I bet they're impressed. Oh bless, they're retaining some existing trees, well there would have been a lot more trees to retain if RG Group, Asda and Heanor Haulage hadn't seen fit to bulldoze them down and cover them with crap.

I will look at the rest of the plans when I have time. Thanks for the info Ali ...

Update 8.12.14

Having just had a check at AVBC to see if a decision on these plans - expected Dec 2014 - has been made. We're now informed that the decision has been put back until May 2015. 

Update 20.06.15

After checking daily from the 29th of May,  I now find the decision has been put back again until 23rd July 2015... 

Just Another Friday Night In Langley Mill

I say Langley Mill, it's most likely happening across the entire country in varying degrees but I can only moan from my point of view.

.....

It's no secret what I think about Langley Mill .... I have described it as a sh*t hole in a previous post - I'm not about to alter my opinion on the place or a fair few of it's scummy inhabitants - and if the cap fits ...

Last night was yet another reason to intensely dislike the place a tidgy bit more.

12.14:
A group of youngish teenagers went grunting past with their usual caveman finesse, I couldn't hear what was being said and I wasn't trying to listen, they may even been comparing kn*b sizes as there was much jollity. Where do their parents think they are? The old trick of saying they're staying over at so and so's, I suppose. Don't parents check or indeed care?

01.45:
I was woken abruptly by what I took to be next door's cat screaming in pain ... this is guaranteed to get me out of bed in a flash. It turned out to be four drunken witches returning home after a night out via Chavsda [yes Asda, you've earned the name]. There were two of these mad bints straight across from us - one using her phone, both clutching their Chavsda bags - screeching at the other two to 'HURRY UP!! ...YOU'RE TAKING THE P*SS!!'

I noticed whilst looking upon this veritable tragic display of young womanhood, the completely invisible Chavsda delivery lorry waiting at the gates to be let in - remember they don't have deliveries in the night [according to one of their security men].

The ladylike reply to the - so far - one sided conversation came a few minutes later when I went to check through the back bedroom window on their somewhat staggering progress ... 'WAIT FOR US, YOU SCREECH, SCREECH $%*%%' - lovely. My annoyance was then made complete when I trod on the foot of the fan that some complete di**khead had left in my way - bending back a previously broken toe ... ouch!

I limped dramatically back to bed and woke grumpy up - I was awake ... this entitles me to make sure anyone in my immediate vicinity is equally awake. Then I explained in great detail why I was awake ... yes, feeling better already - a grievance shared and all that.

01.49:
SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK, clatter ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK! And yes, Asda's delivery gates still haven't been oiled - wa****s!

SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK - lorry reversing, presumably because the driver had driven up to the bell on the gate to announce is arrival - rather than get off his ar*e and walk to it. BRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ... SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK - lorry reversing again. SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK, clatter ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK! - gates closed. Bang, boom, crash, bang, rattle  - the lorry was emptied.

02.11
BRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK, clatter  - gates opening ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK! BRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM - lorry leaving ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK, clatter ... SQUUUUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK! gates closed.

Peace at last - yeah right.

04.20:
A relationship ended - hopefully ... It didn't end quietly - no such luck, there was much bellowing along the lines of ... from him - 'YOU AND ME ... WE'RE FINISHED!'... from her - 'Wah, wah'. This went on in the same vein for a good fifteen minutes, mostly him telling her why they were finished, interspersed with a bit of sobbing and a lot of effin.

05.10:
Gobby teenagers passed by again ... see the bit above.

05.55:
Ditto.

06.00:
Asda delivery ... you know the routine by now - but this was somewhat overshadowed by someone down the street going on holiday and loudly announcing every item placed in the car. By this time I didn't really care and probably wouldn't even be awake if I wasn't already thoroughly disgruntled and determined to wake up at the drop of a hat - although I don't recall hearing a single train.

Yawn ...

My GOM - who told them at Chavsda this afternoon about their bloody gates for the fourth time - had a worse night, but that's for another post ... I'll just say that I wasn't grumpy the entire night and I still keep tittering to myself ...

Let It Snow!

Well, I can't honestly remember snow like this and I've been around - like, well - forever. On the other hand the grumpy old man can remember much worse snow, but as he says, they always seemed to do a better job of everything in the olden days, including the weather.

There has been a lot of pedestrian activity on Bridge Street with people walking to Asda - including me, I went yesterday for a bit of idle comfort food - frozen dumplings - and they'd run out. This meant that not only did I manage to spend over £30 and not get what I went for, but I also had to do dumplings the manual way by getting my fingers all sticky and floury - yeah, yeah I know I'm not meant to get gummed up to the eyebrows with suet, but this is me.

I might add that my home made dumplings were far better than the frozen variety - even with the addition of the pink work dye which no soap removes from my left hand in over a week, but amazingly suet does in seconds [note to self - wash hands in suet], so in future I will suffer the indignity of sticky hands [yuck] and use the old fashioned method of dumpling making ... or not.

The wheelie bins haven't been emptied, tut, you'd think they'd have struggled to get here to wake me up wouldn't you? I've since found out by doing a bit of light reading on t'interweb that we can put 3 extra bags of rubbish out with our bins next time but must still ensure the lids on the bins are closed  ... wheelie. Oh well 'rules is rules'  ...

The Eyesore

I'm referring to the lamppost opposite - the top light on the post works OK but is no longer necessary as it was to light up the bridge steps, whereas the bottom one [in the photo] hasn't worked since E.on fiddled with it a year ago. Of course with Asda's ultra-bright security lights, everywhere is lit up. In fact we no longer need electricity in our bedroom but I really must invest in something to block out the light, I keep waking thinking it's time to get up!

Now that we're all smartened up with a wooden fence and plants - yes, maybe the houses do spoil Asda's view of Bridge Street, but tough, we're staying - this street light is an incongruous mess. It's mottled green, having been painted years ago by the Groundwork crew to match the mural on the side of the bridge steps.

The lamppost is actually on the road, not the pavement, so not the best place for it - no the road hasn't been widened before you ask, it was always on the road but now the bridge extension has gone, it's in the way. It's covered in electrical tie-wraps to keep essentials fastened on, rusted at the bottom, albeit not rusty enough to fall over when I witnessed someone leaning heavily against it [note to friend - push harder].

We contemplated bribing a nice man with his digger to knock it over by accident whilst he was removing the temporary ramp next to it, but tut, he was way beyond careful.

The planting is now complete right up to the fence, so there's no immediate need for me to go out armed with spade and my own trees - shame, I was looking forward to that.

I'm not even going to mention the mess that is 'security fenced' off at the top of the street - oh, what? I did mention it, well it was only a teeny weeny little gripe. We can see the security man's kennel little shed from here, ahh, bless, and lots of old PMB Pallet Express mess.

The detailed plans haven't gone in yet for the new housing on Heanor Haulage's land - I don't mean the outline plans that were passed at the same time as the Asda store - but as soon as they do I'll be having a nosy [and no doubt a little moan].

There's still quite a lot of HH's crap to be moved before anything much can be done. Every so often they come and rearrange the odd scrappy bit of metal with their crane and then re-park it behind our house, possibly to annoy me [so my neighbour thinks], but as I've not been at home most of the summer I'm pleased to say that this would have been a wasted exercise ...