‘Eyesore building is a threat to pedestrians’
District council urged to take action to clean up dilapidated former cycle shop
COUNCILLORS have called for something to be done about an “eyesore” building in Newbury.
The former Banjo Cycles store site at 40 Bartholomew Street has fallen into a dilapidated state and the issue was raised at a recent Newbury Town Council meeting after complaints by a resident.
In a planning and highways committee meeting last Monday, councillor Nigel Foot (Lib Dem, West Fields) said he’d been written to about the “poor state of repair” of the site, which has been empty since Banjo Cycles moved to Hambridge Road in 2015.
Mr Foot said: “He’s concerned that not only does the dishevelled state of the building present an eyesore, but that the window frames are disintegrating, there’s rubble in the shop doorway and the building now presents a potential danger to pedestrians.
“The deterioration of this building is such that it’s a hazard to passers-by and indeed to anyone living in the flat above the empty shop.”
Mr Foot called on the town council to write to West Berkshire Council to issue a section
215 order, which requires a landlord or owner to clean up land or building “when its condition adversely affects the amenity of the area”.
Committee chairman Gary Norman (Lib Dem, Wash Common) said the town council had written to the district over the state of the building on a number of occasions over the last few years, but nothing had been done.
He said: “This has come up quite regularly on our s215 list and on the heritage working group as a heritage building.
“We have written to the district council on several occasions asking them to do something about this, and it seems they’re reluctant to bring in an s215 order and that the bar is set very high for danger for a building.
“All I can say from our point of view is that we can write to them again, maybe pointing out the detail listed by councillor Foot, and saying it’s getting beyond a joke now because it’s been going on for so long.
“We’ve often been told it’s going to be sorted, the owners are waiting for this or that.
“My personal view is that they should serve an order.
“We did ask for the power to do this to be delegated to us some time ago, and West Berkshire Council basically declined to give us the power to do it.”
Tony Vickers (Lib Dem, Wash Common) said: “Going back to when I was on the district council in 2015, it was already being monitored on the grounds of structural safety, and I believe it’s still being monitored, so it’s more serious than just looking bad.
“There are doubts about its structural soundness and nothing significant appears to have been done to the structure since then, so that’s over five years.”
The town council agreed to write to the district council once again.