Seconds out ...?

Well, we had thought that we had put an end to the Blog posts with the last entry and the emergence of the Voice of Rough Close web site.  That, however, might not be the case.  The owners of the pub have now put it up for sale, not, alas, as a going concern but as a development site with planning permission.

As we point out on the web site, we have no doubt that it is what the owners were planning all along ever since it became clear that they were not going to get the odious flats.   Selling a block of flats to a housing association for social housing is one thing.  Developing expensive houses to sell in a  depressed property market is quite another.  We did wonder whether this was indicative of the owners' lack of business sense or that they had some other plan in mind.  We now know that it is the latter.

Unfortunately, it appears that the agents for the sale have been in touch with our old friends in the Planning Dept. at SBC who have given them to understand that they may approve up to nine (9) smaller properties.  We've been in touch with SBC to find just what has been said but they have refused to tell us citing "confidentiality" as their reason for silence.

We think this is a terrible state of affairs.  SBC have been well aware of local views for nearly two years now.  Quite how they can justify giving out signals of this nature to a party which does not own the property (and probably never will), we find difficult to comprehend.  But then to refuse to inform residents of just what they have said we think is beyond belief.  Whatever happened to transparency in local government?  What do you think about it?

This sounds to us like we may have another fight on our hands.

As this situation is clearly going to evolve over the next few weeks and months, we'll keep you informed of developments using this Blog (rather than the web site) as it is easier to keep track of events.

www.roughclose.org