Should be sell off Canon Hall for housing developerment

Have you seen how much land we have there which is prime for prestige housing developement?

No we are talking mega bucks here. We could build 200 5 bed mansions and attract some real wealth into the borough though clearly not enough blue ***** to make any political impact.

Same goes for Locke Park for that matter though not quite as prestigious.


We could also shift the cenotaph to a field in Athersley and build some flats in front of the newly residential town hall. The tower which could be converted into a penthouse block with THE 1 thrown in.,

I could go on and on but I dont want to expose too many of my BMBC property rationalisation plans.

 

We can anall if we want.

Sumbody had to.

 

parks and gardens of cannon hall are free for the public to use,parks in particular were created to give people somewhere half decent to go for a walk or take their kids for a picnic,they certainly shouldnt be sold off for 'prime' developments for the wealthy.
having said that the country has sold nearly everything off trying to balence the books,so it will probably be par for the course.

what will we do once we've sold everything off????

 

Start by lowering inheritance tax thresholds and increasing the amount payable to cover peoples old age care. That's the most unsustainable area of public finances. Plus it would start to redress the balance in the housing market ultimately leading to a reduction in the spend on housing benefit - another major drain due to flogging off all the council housing.

 

People come from other towns and cities across yorkshire to visit and spend money at Canon Hall. I've never heard any of my colleagues in Leeds and beyond mention how they are coming to Barnsley to look at a stupid number plate.

 

If you want to take that to its logical conclusion then Cawthorne Park and Cannon Hall cost the council vast amounts of money every year on upkeep. The 1 costs nothing.

People may come form other towns to Cannon Hall, but they don't spend money there because everything is free apart from the parking. The bits you have to pay to get in to are part of Cannon Hall Farm, which is nothing to do with the council.

Should we get rid of Cannon Hall? Of course not, it's beautiful. But neither should we get rid of The 1, which gives the town a bit of prestige. Which is exactly the point Spartacus was making.

 

I used to work at a similar site for EH called Kenwood in London. It has a 113 acre estate making up part of Hampstead Heath. While I am 100% committed to preserving historic sites and green spaces it did cross my mind that a high end development of 5 acres of some of the most valuable real estate in the country, would provide finance that if well managed would provide the 2 million annual operations costs in perpetuity.

That place is protected by a bequest and act of parliament so could never happen. But they never reckoned on the cost of upkeep and access when these were passed.

In the case of Canon Hall, no of course not. But, working in this industry, I'm convinced such sites have to drive towards self sufficiency if they are to survive.

 

Relaxing the laws on green belt land would do Barnsley a lot of good. Hundreds of square miles of land is available in desirable areas yet it can't be built on - only a tiny proportion of it would need to be freed up, then we can keep our parks like Canon Hall.

The council should then use the proceeds to fund a toll motorway from Barnsley to the M60 - possibly with large sections of it in tunnels beneath the Pennines but allow Barnsley Council Tax payers to register a vehicle that can use it for free. (Bit of a pipe dream I know).

Once we accept that a place like Barnsley needs to feed off the economy of larger cities the better but the trouble is the town isn't really even in a proper commuter territory - although Sheffield is one of the biggest cities, it isn't exactly a hive of economic activity. There are a lot more opportunities in Leeds but there are plenty of other cheapish places to live between here and Leeds.

A link with Manchester would be much more beneficial for us - a motorway could get you from the West of Barnsley to the centre of Manchester in little more than half an hour, maybe 45-50 minutes during busy times.

 

Yes, WE should sell off CANNON Hall for housing DEVELOPMENT; it would pay for spelling lessons for Spartacus with a little cash to spare.

 

Its note speeling lesions Ikneed, jsut mi tiping letc me dwon

sithi