Owen Temple

Today the Development Control Committee of Derwentside District Council unanimously turned down the latest variation of the CVS’s many applications for Glenroyd House - and I’m pleased about it. I should be. I went to argue the case for refusal.

I have never believed that the outdated and delapidated building was the right place to house the Citizens Advice Bureau and CVS. It’s too large, access is too difficult, it’s the wrong design for the purpose - but despite all that because I value the work of the two organisations I have sought to accommodate a compromise. I suppose you could say, though, that I finally lost patience with the latest sloppy application (for the second time they applied for 24 hour working “by mistake” and the revised application was only necessary because they had applied for permission through an access that they had not actually negotiated a firm agreement on). If you’re going to bend over backwards for applicants you want to be sure they are going to be good neighbours. I stopped being convinced of that as I watched these applications pile in because good neighbours take care - and good neighbours talk to each other.

I was also mindful of the fact that in nine month’s time, when Derwentside District Council ends, there will potentially be some vacant space in the Civic Centre with proper access and extensive parking, in a building designed for a variety of office based functions.

In the event, though, the two things that finally persuaded me to speak against acceptance of the application were these;

1) the extra entrance which would have been needed next to Rosemount would have meant pedestrians (many of them children on their way to school, and others elderly) having to negotiate a width equivalent to a dual carriageway with vehicles potentially entering and leaving in different directions around them.

2) Decades ago the road was busy enough to have three side-roads blocked off to prevent entrance onto Medomsley Road. Now conditions are worse, and at this point of the road there is often double parking outside the shops, and delivery wagons abandoned in the carriageway whilst unloading.

Of course, that may not be the end of it. The applicants could appeal, though which of their three applications they’d be seeking to get approved only they could tell us. Or pehaps it will be yet another new one.

For five years we’ve been waiting for a resolution of this. I just hope this latest refusal will lead to the County Council making the hard decision. The building and its access are past their sell-by date. The site needs redeveloping in a way that enhances the area, and that means selling it and redeveloping.