Homes have value (From York Press)

Homes have value

11:54am Tuesday 10th July 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

THE proposed destruction of the nurses’ homes in Wigginton Road is an unnecessary waste of housing resources, no matter which branch of our health authority has custody of them (Letters, June 28).

Moreover, the claim that they will cost too much to bring up to habitable standard doesn’t wash.

We always hear this excuse: Burnholme College, Beckfield Lane tip and the original Peasholme Hostel were all condemned on the basis of spurious surveys and costings.

No no matter what is needed to restore the nurses’ homes, these properties have a significant value and would be snapped up by a private buyer if put on the open market.

These buildings have established use as dwellings and can be refurbished without planning permission and therefore without all the demands that now come with approvals. So that would mean no 25 per cent affordable losses, no sustainability codes, no open-space payments, no education payments, no roadworks, no bus shelters, no car sharing, no street lighting, no landscaping, no bike sheds, no sound attenuation, no decontamination, no archeology and no bats or crested newts to worry about.

Matthew Laverack, Architect of this parish, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.