Fairthorn

Today the Fairthorn retrospective planning application was heard. The application for this appalling blot on the landscape was passed 4 years ago but the developers built it a metre or so too high. It's as intrusive and poorly designed as you could get in a highly sensitive area while at the same time proclaiming itself with a resounding "Here I am". The developer is making his money out of selling the apartments to better off elderly people as sheltered accommodation and wanted to squeeze in as many people as he could so included an extra layer of appartments under the roof. This made the roof a key part of the design - a very shallow pitch that reflects the light from above making it appear prominent from a distance almost like an aluminium roof. As well as this the footprint used for the building is the whole of the previous building plus the outbuildings making it frankly monolithic.



Everyone with the slightest sense of what's appropriate has been moved to comment. The planning meeting was notable for the predictable way that the developer had mobilised the old people already resident to attend the hearing, all lined up along the front row. Obviously nobody would want to throw out these vulnerable old folk. Although some of us would have preferred to be able to insist that the developer, the Council's planning department and Cllr Harry Harpham personally demolish the structure stone by stone and UPVC window frame by UPVC window frame.



It's hard to feel objective about this because the building is so large and so utterly without any merit that its presence shouts at you every time you walk on Blacka.