Blow for St Botolph's funding bid (From Essex County Standard)
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Blow for St Botolph's funding bid
12:09pm Friday 12th October 2012 in News
Rejected: Funding bid to transform the former Keddies building in Queen Street has been turned down
THE regeneration of Colchester’s St Botolph’s Quarter has suffered a major setback after a £500,000 funding bid was rejected.
The attempt to secure funding to demolish two dated 1960s buildings on Queen Street and secure planning permission for a 90-room hotel to rise in their place will today be turned down at the first hurdle.
The decision means the long-awaited £50 million St Botolph’s Quarter regeneration project cannot get underway.
FULL STORY IN TODAY'S GAZETTE
Comments(18)
Reginald47
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1:32pm Fri 12 Oct 12
TheCaptain
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2:16pm Fri 12 Oct 12
Bengreen1980
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4:26pm Fri 12 Oct 12
SamEssex
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7:34pm Fri 12 Oct 12
The old see dog
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11:42pm Fri 12 Oct 12
Simon Taylor
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10:07am Sat 13 Oct 12
Bengreen1980 wrote:This was a Growing Places Fund bid made via the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (southeastlepcom). It looks as though most of the chosen schemes are for infrastructure and include job creation, whereas the St Botolph's scheme was basically for demolition and planning costs with no direct benefit.
What absolute nonsense. Looking forward to reading why it was turned down... I am fairly confident the it will also be nonsense. That whole side of town needs regenerating. Once its done, tourism and commerce will increase, which means more money for the council. They are so short sighted its unbelievable, they should have gone to spec-savers.
totallyfootball
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10:09am Sat 13 Oct 12
Sdapeze
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1:30pm Sat 13 Oct 12
hughie-s
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3:00pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Simon Taylor wrote:Surprise, surprise..... "Chelmsford Gateway: Rail Station Public Realm Enhancements, Essex £1,045,000"
Bengreen1980 wrote:This was a Growing Places Fund bid made via the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (southeastlepcom). It looks as though most of the chosen schemes are for infrastructure and include job creation, whereas the St Botolph's scheme was basically for demolition and planning costs with no direct benefit.
What absolute nonsense. Looking forward to reading why it was turned down... I am fairly confident the it will also be nonsense. That whole side of town needs regenerating. Once its done, tourism and commerce will increase, which means more money for the council. They are so short sighted its unbelievable, they should have gone to spec-savers.
Perhaps we should have asked for the money to demolish them to make way for a bus station.
braeside
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4:51pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Bert_Stimpson
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12:55pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Sdapeze wrote:Wasting £28m on a golden shed and trying to convert a bus stop into a bus station. Now that is ill conceived. I don't hate the golden blunder, I simply disapprove of the money wasted on it, the incompetence of those associated with the project and the ongoing costs of running it.
Don't the press just love negative stories like this? It drags out the usual Firstsite haters and put down merchants. This bid was clearly ill conceived and somebody should be held to account for it.
Sdapeze
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1:51pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Bert_Stimpson
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2:53pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Sdapeze wrote:I do enjoy your eloquent arguments finished off with cheap personal insults. I've not heard the word 'saddo' since my time at school.
You have it wrong Bert. £28m was not wasted on a golden shed. It was spent on providing Colchester with a landmark arts building that is the envy of many other locations in Britain. But then I suppose you would rather some other place had the building instead of us, so that you can keep on running our wonderful town down. What a saddo you are.
The Golden Shed has been a catalogue of incompetence and wasted resources from inception through to its long overdue completion. Its ongoing running costs are another drain on resources the town can ill afford.
The so called 'arts elite' have taken the town and the Council for a ride and will continue to milk the system for their own personal gain. It's a shame to see the town go downhill and it is little wonder that the St. Botolphs regeneration project has stalled.
I would much rather another town had the Golden Shed and the expensive sorry saga had not saddled Colchester with this architectural eyesore.
Those with a vested interest in keeping the arts 'gravy train' running in Colchester have pulled the wool over the eyes of the incompetent Council. It's a real pity and we can but hope that a public official eventually grows a spine and stops this tragic waste of public funds.
The old see dog
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8:44pm Mon 15 Oct 12
Boris
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9:06pm Tue 16 Oct 12
This hotel project has been in the offing for several years now. A German company called Garbe has had a stranglehold on that site for all this time, yet has paid nothing for this privilege. With the new hotel going up on the fringe of the Dutch quarter, the town does not need any more hotels, least of all in a position where guests cannot park their cars.
A saga of ineptitude from beginning to end, but hey, we're in Colchester, so what's new about that?
braeside
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8:30am Wed 17 Oct 12
1) the firstsite is here to stay
2) the money was not to do with the firstsite its to do with getting the rest of the site developed.
3) the council need to say to Travelodge put up or shut up
theequaliser1
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8:16pm Wed 17 Oct 12
10 years a queen street wine bar owner approached the council with a very large offer to run that site, gym, wine bar, shopping complex and boutiques, including space for a decent bus centre pick up points, they were turned down flat the guy in question wasted a shed load of dough in the evaluation process.
their money was invested overseas now running some hot paradise hill side hotel and golf club.
we say no, others say si,' thats why we dont get simple???
Bert_Stimpson says...
1:06pm Fri 12 Oct 12