Living in the Past

 

  When you find a skull

   in the marketplace....

   who you gonna call?

   Selby Council!

Alas, poor 13th century monk! We knew you... well, not for very long actually. Nothing can delay the construction of our very own circus maximus. With sublime prescience the council had planned ahead for such a find. Wow! And I thought we were led by dumber and dumberrer. But we are led by folks who combine history and futurology in one fell swoop! 'Just chuck it back in the hole near them foundation stones, near that Kensitas packet, the concrete will preserve it' - like a lark's tongue in aspic.

Last year some archeologists spent a couple of weeks at the site of the Junction pub on Ousegate, I believe they found a peeled-back beermat with the number 2567  written with a quill. The Da Vinci code? No - Station Taxis phone number.

It is strange that more time was devoted to searching that site than one on the doorstep of our 11th century Abbey. In fact I spent more time looking at an old newspaper that I found stuffed behind a skirting board; one story in it was barmy - a plan to put the Market Cross amongst the flower beds in Selby Park!

               

Broken Brook Street

Many visitors wander as far as the Quick Save store and turn around, assuming that the town ends there on that sorry note. This is a pity as Brook Street has the potential to become one of Selby's most attractive shopping quarters, its independent shops with smart frontages striving for local, individual identity. A shame then that these efforts are undermined by more theme Selby flapdoodle. On one side are the neglected Victorian houses and shabby former Ainsty store. Opposite this is the now deflated tyre centre - another moribund plan - waiting to join it in dilapidation. Next is the (n)on-going building site.  This of course leads to the building across from the first parade of shops, a peculiar thing in the style of the pick 'n mix School of Architecture, Legoland Polytechnic, and culminates in the scaffold festooned carbuncle. Overall it's more Mel Brooks than Brooke Shields and tends to spoil the ambience.

Road to ruin 2

After negotiating Cake 'Oil Circle and travelling down the boulevard of post-industrial decay and dereliction, one reaches the toll bridge with the superb Abbey looming into view. Unfortunately on traversing the bridge the eye is drawn to the old bridge-foot petrol station. Didn't someone apply to develop this site but their proposal was considered out of keeping with the approach to Selby? Maybe all the entries to the town centre have to conform to a theme (abandoned shopping trolley?.. Baghdad?..) Instead of building the virtually unused little wooden platform - (Mucky Mary's Wharf) - couldn't this corner, this armpit of a crow, have been cleared? 

Road to ruin 1

Anyone from Leeds would think that they had been lied to as they drove along Leeds Road, admiring the properties with their well maintained gardens, they would be thinking 'what a lovely place!' Past St Mary's church and its lovely trees, past the house that Pete built opposite the end of Armoury Rd and Grundy's funeral parlour and then onward to the house that Jack built and the graveyard of good planning - complete with reserved plots for dead losses and dandelions. What went wrong?

It must be over 5 years since the old shops (remember Fella's?) attached to the school building were demolished and footings laid for new cottages, then at some point the developer decided to leave that bit and start another project on the opposite side of the site. Eventually the paraphernalia of the defunct petrol station was removed which ever so slightly improved the view from the front room windows of people living opposite. Now there's wire mesh and weeds,  pipes and pallets -and plans for a car wash. The builder then left his second project unfinished and started a third - what Prince Charles would call a carbuncle. Who ever passed the plans for this? An incongruous, looming, blight in such a central and dominating position, permanently eclipsing the little chapel in its dark shadow. Will it ever be finished, wouldn't it be better to demolish it and put it, and us, out of our misery? 

Entry wounds

The entry points into Selby town centre for drivers from Leeds, Doncaster, York and Hull (and places en route) are a disgrace. The unsightliness that greets the visitor at Gowthorpe (Leeds Rd), Brook St and bridge-foot are well known and pre-date the current economic crisis. Future posts will look at these individually. Surely, before spending millions on schemes in the centre some effort should have been made to tidy up these sites which are literally a few minutes walk away and give a bad impression of the town. Would any sober retailer spend a fortune making over the interior of their shop but have a front door hanging off its hinges and cobwebs for window dressing?

Stone chat

Older folk may remember the building blocks controversy when the present SDC offices were planned. It was probably in the 70's and at the time the council insisted on using much more expensive outer block-work claiming that "with age" the yellow blocks would blend nicely with the Abbey. It was difficult then to find a vantage point from which to view both buildings. Today the office block is dingy yellow and sadly its days are numbered before it has had chance to mature. In the meantime a rather large and imposing building has sprung up with less concern for harmonization. 

Perhaps the illuminated sign will eventually fade and that funny clock will grow roman numerals.

Yorkstone Chinese whispers

It has now been clarified, belatedly,  that the stone to be used in the market place is indeed Yorkstone sourced in Yorkshire. Where did the idea that it came from Taiwan, and then China, originate? The story has been doing the rounds for months so why has it taken so long for a councillor to refute this? Surely an earlier intervention would have saved everyone a lot of grief?

Hospital/SDC Offices

It makes a change to see a different councillor from Mark Crane in the local press, unfortunately Coun. Cliff Lunn seems to share his dismissive attitude. In his letter to the Selby Times he disregards "12 multiple letters" opposing the hospital/SDC offices plan, does it not occur to him that these people simply agreed with the arguments put forward and thought that these were adequately expressed by Mr and Mrs Shooter? Others may (wrongly, in my opinion) assume that letters in the press imply that these issues are being debated. I think C. Lunn would find, if he bothered to ask, a general feeling of unhappiness with many of the plans of the SDC but that there is an attitude that these plans are presented  fait accompli.