Member

This went on for some time. I tried to persuade the council to do compulsory purchase and the like, but by and large councils are reluctant to do that, partly because of setting a precedent but also because of the amount of legal time it takes and, indeed, the money. The owners had put in for planning permission, but it was clear that it was not going to be granted—and then, all of a sudden, they basically started levelling the buildings to the ground. That way, there was nothing there. The buildings had become somewhat desolate, for whatever reason. I think Section 279 of the Town and Country Planning Act was never enforced. This was obviously very damaging for the community, several of whom had moved there for those facilities.