While delivering campaign leaflets last week Ken and I met Elizabeth Dalrymple, a young working Mum living in East Street. Curious about the impact the controversial cinema development has had, I asked if I could see the view from her back garden. What I saw shocked me. This is what she had to say...
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| Ground floor |
"I came to St Neots ten years ago. I like the town, it has character, it's an old market town. These cottages are part of that, they are it's history. This is supposed to be a conservation area, for goodness sake! Have you seen that? It's even worse upstairs."
Elizabeth, shaking with suppressed rage, points toward her full length dining room window, which should be flooding light into her pretty cottage interior. Instead, all that can be seen is a monstrous web of steel girders forming the bulk of the new cinema blotting out the light and her view. From the first floor window I can immediately see what she means, the entire skyline is dominated. From higher up, there is nothing to see but building!
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| First floor |
"For ten years I have been able to see out of my son's bedroom window to overlook the park. Now all I see is that monstrosity! It may not have been pretty before, but it was never that! There are young families living here, our children used to play in that park. They promised us they were going to keep it. They promised us a lot of things. Can you imagine what that is going to look like when it's clad? What colour are they going to cover it? Grey... Black? Why? Why did they build it here? It has spoilt the town. St Neots does not need that monster!"
According to the plans trees will be planted along the wall at the back of Elizabeth's garden to 'hide' the new development.
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| Second floor |
"Great! Three new trees will be planted to replace the two which were destroyed! Right up against my wall and growing underneath it!"
"People are being told that the building only 'looks taller' because it is a 'little' closer to us... That we can't tell. It hasn't got a roof on yet. Look at the size of it! They are wrong - it is taller and it is closer - it does matter!"
"That is not the entire issue, which concerns us... When the building was moved everything else was moved as well. As a result the plaza is narrower. There is no wide open concourse, there will be no ambience, there won't be space for dinning outside. There is only one entrance and exit - through the old tip access - NOT through Lidl. It's awful."
"Can you imagine what will happen in an emergency? A packed six screen cinema emptying? 600 to 800 people! Only one entrance and exit! Anyone who used the old tip will remember how bad it was with all the traffic blocking the road. Just imagine this 'plaza' filled with people. Where are they going to go? If that were not enough... What about the noise? The refuse collection? The servicing of the units? The constant smells from the four restaurants? What time will the place be closing at night? Where are the 600 people going to park?"
To further illustrate the point Elizabeth guides us a few doors down to meet Alison.
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| In and out? |
"Apart from the obvious." Alison says. "The difficulty with this development is the narrow rather limited access. There is no turning circle. Vehicles can only enter and exit onto Huntingdon Street. That is going to cause untold havoc with the traffic at peak times."
The residents of East Street were supposed to be 'consul-tees' on the development. They have discovered a number of areas, which they believe are cause for concern.
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| Ken surveying the Huntingdon Street traffic. |
"There were a number of discrepancies within the documentation, they were flawed." Alison explains. "First off the town council rejected the development, for a number of reasons, Residents were there. Then a further planning meeting was arranged, there were only three of us that were able to make it, but an entire quorum of developers turned up to greet us! The Town council passed the plans and then, when we challenged their 180 degree turnaround, they tried to make out they had never rejected it!"
"Today there are a number of issues with this development aside from the relocated building and the altered narrow layout of the plaza. Water and highway access are two but there are others. Most developments these days incorporate a percentage of the jobs to be carried out by local trades people - there was no such agreement here. This monster is not even being built by local people - there has been no 'jobs for St Neots' because of this. The public Arts facility will be built by a company based in West Midlands!"
"What I don't understand is why our District Councillor did nothing to help us and why Peter Rowleys' money has been used in a way which has caused so much distress to the people of St Neots - I am sure it is the last thing he would have wanted. No one thinks a cinema in St Neots is a bad thing. But no one thinks this is the right place for it."
Residents have until Friday May 3rd to raise any comments on the development with Huntingdon District Council - Currently the planning portal is 'experiencing difficulties'.
All images and text © cg-photography
Promoted by Carol Gamby on behalf of Ken Churchill and Bob Farrer all of 83 Huntingdon Street, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 1DU
