Why not use empty space?
HARDLY a day goes by without us being kept well informed via the press and TV about homeless people sleeping on the streets, and while it might be Andy Burnham’s pet project, the problem still persists.
How strange, then, that for the past few years two buildings on Kenyon Lane, Moston, have stood empty and unused.
One was built around 15 years ago and has never been lived in, but at long last is now being renovated.
The other, a former 54-bed care home (Oaklands/The Meadows), is becoming more dilapidated by the day with its grounds being taken over by weeds and the building itself becoming vulnerable to vandalism.
Our hospitals are running out of space for patients, and the elderly and infirm find themselves on the receiving end of being accused of being ‘bed blockers’ because while they may be classed as ready to be discharged, they may be unable to cope at home so have to stay in hospital, thus taking up beds.
Oaklands/The Meadows care home won’t be the only building standing empty and unused in and around Manchester (the nearby Dean Brook Inn is another building which is also empty and at risk of vandalism), but it does beg the question as to why, in the current climate, this is being allowed.
Surely, if the situation is so bad with our hospitals and the homeless, the owners of these empty buildings should be forced to either open them as some kind of a home or demolish them and build some of those much-needed houses we keep being told are in such short supply. Observer, Moston