Let a thousand flowers bloom somewhere else

I think I last showed this patch of the city of culture, Blackfriargate, some time ago. Back then it had been allowed to do its own thing for years ... I was surprised to see what had sprung up here. I knew there were plans, I just hadn't been round here for a while ... I know it was after all clearance land, a perfect brownfield site and must have been built on before so the loss of wildflowers and things of nature shouldn't really give such a sense of loss should it? I guess I make a terrible capitalist or maybe I'm just going soft in this stupid lockdown (which as you see I'm ignoring). We can't live on pretty wildflowers or views of old churches, Arco must have its new offices (or so it says) and cars, well cars need parking spaces and petrol and roads and free people to drive them ...

and speaking of free people ... I read that the vast majority of folk in the UK are against being liberated from their house arrest. They are scared, in many cases absolutely petrified, of going back to normal activity. I never thought I'd see the day when brainwashing by politicians, media and civil servants but mainly the damned, unforgivable NHS and widespread simple ignorance would combine to destroy the free will of so many. Gah! A plague on the lot of them ... oh yeah.

"Looks like an accident in the cutlery drawer"

Over last weekend and to the annoyance of many gridlocked motorists Castle Street was blocked off and the new footbridge (which we last saw parked up in preparation in a car park a few weeks ago) was shuffled into position in a faultless manner and much quicker than expected. The road was reopened fifteen hours earlier than forecast to much rejoicing. The bridge is only the small matter of thirty odd years late (who's counting?) ... and it won't be fit for pedestrians until spring.

The title was Margot's comment upon first seeing this. "Like the dish ran away with the spoon?" said I. Still you don't have to look at it when you're on it.

The weekend in Black and White is here.

Are you ready for Brexit?

 J. Heebink is a Dutch transport firm with bases in Manchester and MIlton Keynes. Their bright orange lorries are a common sight on Castle Street as they head to and from the port. They've been in business for decades and with a bit of  common sense from all parties, will keep on trucking for many decades to come.

The theme for this month is orange. 

At the end of this month, if certain folk are to be believed and the UK does finally leave the protection racket known as the European Union, the sky will fall in, this country will run out of medicines, food, fuel, folk will be put out of work and we will collapse into a state of complete paralysis with lorries unable to transport goods to and from the EU. This will only happen if the EU chooses to make it happen, let us be clear, it will be their choice to mess with trade; someone, somewhere will have to choose to block or delay the transport of vital medicines...  thus showing what inhuman bastards they have been all along.
It's poppycock (a fine Dutch word), of course, but that is how these scaremongering idiots work. I've given up on the political machinations going on in Parliament, plots here, plots there, plots against plots, court cases to reverse the PM's actions, plots to change the PM, rumours of plots, denials of rumours and you think it and it is happening (possibly, who knows? who cares any longer?) ... all keep the BBC (the biased broadcasting conspiracy) salivating. This parliament is simply not working, the government cannot govern, the supposedly neutral Speaker is in cahoots and conspiring with the Opposition, ... The people cannot have an election because the Opposition is rightly scared of the result and won't let them, so much for democracy. It all boils to one thing: are they, a few hundred MPs, really going to overturn the votes of 17.4 million people and block Brexit completely? Do they think they can get away with it? Well the answer to that is, suck it and see: Oh the Great Reckoning there will be!
Meanwhile the Government is putting out adverts with the question: "Are you ready for Brexit?" to which my answer (and I guess a lot of others) is "Just get a bloody move on ..."

Just don't drop it

What's this? Some kind of fair ground attraction at the back of Staples, a place well known for attractions of an all together different sort? No, not even close.

Back in April I mentioned that work had started on building a footbridge across Castle Street. Well in the past few days in this car park just a few yards down the road this has spring  up. Yes, it looks like the long awaited bridge just needs lifting up and putting in the right place and we should be good to trot. But quite how you lift a girt heavy and wide load like this and place it with pinpoint accuracy on its supports is thankfully not my concern. Let's just hope they don't drop it.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

A road by any other name ...

You know how towns like to honour folk by naming streets after them: so this town has a Larkin Close; an appropriately dull cul-de-sac, Alfred Gelder Street, Jameson Street, and Ferensway , of course; that local turncoat John Hotham from the civil war times gets a road along with Sir Thomas, Lord Fairfax who gets an avenue; there must be dozens more: Raich Carter Way, Blundell's Corner spring to mind as I write... just outside Hull, across the road from me, there's a short avenue named after a guy who wanted to be Lord Glencoe but somehow the connotations of bloody massacre made him change to Lord Strathcona ... so, anyway,  the other year they decided to rename Garrison Road as Roger Millward Way. I'm not sure that this is any kind of honour since Garrison Road as was is really just an extension of the dreaded A63/Castle Street, the bane of motorists' lives and a right pain in the nethers to cross at times... and I wonder how many even know about this or whether the name will catch on ... when they finally get home, will the motorists of this fair town put their feet up, wrap their hands round a well deserved hot brew and say "oh that *beeeep* traffic on Roger Millward Way was such a *beeeep* disgrace" ... nah not going to happen, ever.
I won't pretend to know anything about who or what Roger Millward was, some sporty bloke, so I've heard,  rugby league, really, really not my scene ...

I mentioned today and several times before that this road is  a pain to cross and that young men have been seen to turn into grey beard loons waiting, funeral directors have been spotted lurking for falling stock ... well some concerned person has put up a plaque to let the world know that those who wait may be gone but are not forgotten, not lost just gone before ...

C is for ... Carbuncle

C is for Capitalism,  

The bosses' reactionary creed,

                                                                                   Alex Glasgow Socialist ABC

Some may recall Burnett House, how it was restored from dereliction only to stand empty for years and then found not just tenants but a home for a lonely buddleia. It has come to pass that Burnett House now feels it needs to spread its wings with an extension. Fine you might say, the land adjacent has been empty for 40 years or more so build something in keeping with the old building and the low rise Georgian/Victorian neighbourhood, something that respects the area and the view of the medieval church behind. You might say that but the stupid Cs in Hull City Council only went and passed plans for the most hideous, oversized, out of proportion, disfiguring monstrosity. Well see for yourself ...

Image "borrowed" from the Hull Daily Mail

In times past I might have hinted that silver had crossed palms to enable this to go through but after being told, by a Councillor, that such an idea is preposterous I have to conclude the current Council planning numpties are dumb enough to think this is a good thing all by themselves and pat themselves on the back and cannot understand how they might be wrong. Consider how a planning officer, employed by the Council, could say, in advice to Councillors, that the proposal would "preserve the character and appearance of the Old Town Conservation Area and would not substantially harm the setting of Hull Minster".  Clearly such a person is not living  by the same aesthetic standards as mere taxpaying mortals. For the sake of the future appearance of this backwater might it not be a good idea to put the said planning officer out to pasture where he/she will not harm the setting of the town any further.

 

To Build a Bridge v2.0

I may have mentioned from time to time the inconvenience to the folk of this sleepy little town of having a busy dual carriage way split off a good third of the town centre. Well never let it be said that nothing has been done about it. Lots of plans have been drawn up, many words have been spoken on the matter, numerous ideas have been proposed, indeed a whole mountain range of hot air, wasted opportunity, and best intentions has sprung up and been eroded to dust by the passing thirty or so years. But no more! A few months ago the silly EU flags were pulled down (& put in storage, you never know when they might be needed again things being the way they are just now...) JCBs cleared land and cranes and pile drivers appeared. It seems that at long last a footbridge will span the mighty A63/Castle Street so people on foot or in wheel chairs or on segways, bikes or unicycles or what ever can just waltz from one side to the other without waiting for the little green man. The price of all this fancy liberty? A mere £12 million.

Before I get too carried away I would just caution that the last footbridge built in this town took over three years to build with problems involving the contractor. And, right on cue, the contractor building this has recently gone into administration. There are, of course, promises that this will not affect the construction. Hmmm.

I bet you're dying to know what the bridge is going to look like. I can sense your jealousy ....

(Pictured "borrowed" from Hull Daily Mail)

The Long Wait

It's been a while since I posted about Castle Street and its problems. I know you'll be wanting to see how much amazing progress has been made in alleviating this black spot. Well I can tell you that, after the fourth delay, absolutely and definitely work will not start until 2020 at the very earliest and will almost certainly possibly be finished by 2025 that is assuming that the Highways Agency is still going then (they could all be drawing their pensions before this gets built) and as this is their most difficult project to date they might just swoon and faint with all the complications. Apparently the HA needs to "resolve technical and practical challenges" I hope that is official  speak for pulling its finger out but I doubt it. To put this delay into some kind of perspective, this country will negotiate its exit from the EU within a year and a bit  by 2019! A person might reasonably assume then that the delay is due not to technical issues but to a lack of political will. If this was in London then firstly the problem would never have arisen and secondly if it did it would have been resolved years ago. So, anyhow, I won't need to post about this for another three years, unless something happens again to delay things, which seems highly unlikely don't you think?

The glorious £250 million plan, in case you're interested, is, put simply, to drop the road at this junction by twenty odd feet so traffic can cross over it without traffic lights. Seems easy enough to this pilgrim but then I know nothing of the "technical and practical challenges". The video below allows you to fly along some future Castle Street, the way things stand this may the closest this plan gets to taking off.

Burnett's Buddleia

I've mentioned before how buddleia can grow in unexpected nooks and crannies. This one has taken root half way up the gable end of Burnett House and very nice it looks too.

Use Alternative Crossing

I may have mentioned, from time to time, the troubles and tribulations caused to this wonderful town by the presence of the A63 sometimes known as Castle Street and universally regarded as a pain in the fundament. Well now Highways England which is responsible for all this decided to upgrade a pedestrian crossing and work commenced in October ... and here we are at the end of the first week of December with no crossing, no upgrade, no work being done, no workers on site, nada, rien, zip!. Questions are asked by Councillors as to just what on earth is going on here (not a lot, clearly). Highways England are the folk who have promised to improve this road but have yet to submit planning applications ("We're working on it", they say and have been saying for years) and if it takes this long for them to upgrade a crossing (come to think of it how do you upgrade a crossing?) then I shudder to think how long any improvements to the actual road will take. 

Just a little footnote here. This crossing is the most direct route to the Marina and Fruit Market area where many of next year's City of Culture events are happening. That all kicks off in a little over three weeks. Just sayin' is all.

You're going the wrong way

Another helpful sign, this one on Castle Street.

As the town's traffic problems continue in the usual manner, (somehow Fridays are block-up-the-town days, verb sap to any visitors from out of town) a councillor was reported in the local rag as saying that there things were only going to get worse. It was he said "unrealistic" to expect more roads to be built to ease congestion. The council, he said, couldn't afford a survey into how to improve things, indeed the council cannot even afford to submit a planning application for a Park-and-Ride scheme. Brave, plain speaking you might think especially as the local council elections are coming up in May, but then the voters of this town would vote for a smelly dead dog with a red rosette rather change their ways.

For sale: One vote; never been used.

EU flags on Castle Street, Hull

To assuage the snarling, swivel-eyed, hoopleheaded little englanders otherwise known as the Conservative Party the utterly pointless prime minister has called a completely unnecessary referendum, in June, on whether the UK stays in the EU. I, like I suspect vast swathes of the country, couldn't give a monkey's arse one way or the other. I don't think it'll make a great deal of difference either in or out. So, on the principle (if you can call it that) of doing the opposite of what the Government wants me to do I'm going to vote for out ... but let me be clear I am not unreasonable and I am open to persuasion for a reasonable fee (cash only). Good grief there's going to be months and months of this boring euro-twaddle ... if I hear the word 'Brexit' again I don't think I can answer for the consequences!

Burnett House, try again

Four years ago I posted about this property, Burnett House on Castle Street. Back then I mentioned how the place had been renovated by the Council but was still standing empty. Well the place has been re-renovated (is that a word? well it is now) and instead of being just office space it now has permission to be either retail/restaurant or office plus there are now no fewer than seven apartments on the upper floors. I came across some estate agent bumf on this property describing it as being "located in a lively area, already boasting a well established evening entertainment scene", surely they can't mean the dead and dying old town, can they? Also the building has "superb road connections" that is to say it sits next to the A63 dual carriage way, the busiest road in town which is due to be overhauled in the next few years (possibly decades?). 

It is however nice to see the hideous tatty propaganda hoardings come down but the building still seems to be sitting empty though ....

Bring out your dead

I mentioned so time ago that the old burial ground of Holy Trinity church on Castle Street stood in the way of proposed improvements and that a large portion of it would have to cleared. People were asked to make contact with the authorities if their ancestors were interred in here. Anyhow some work has started, all hidden behind a whopping high fence. However they forgot about the bit where the old wall stands so it's possible to hold a camera over and take a sneaky peek. They've cleared the gravestones and some kind of drill is in place. Clearly this has done irreparable damage to the place. At least the trees are still standing, hopefully the bat roost is undisturbed.

Now all this might be deemed fit and proper; clearing ground for development and so on, if the proposed road scheme were just itching to start. But, and this comes as absolutely no surprise, there is still no planning application in place and the Highways Agency now claims there are environmental issues it has to overcome. The start date is pushed back to 2020 or even later ... or never. I let you draw your own conclusion about the announcement of this further delay coming just after the recent election. You get the feeling we'll all be dead in our graves before this is started.

PS. I should add that all the exhumed bones will be reburied in an unspoilt part of the graveyard. And this from the local paper is advice to anyone who thinks their ancestors may be buried there to call the project team on 0113 2836805 or email A63castlestreet.hull@highways.gsi.gov.uk

Plan B? There's not even a Plan A!

Fish Street from Sewer Lane via Castle Street

*Sigh* With the inevitability of night following day the scheme to upgrade, improve or whatever you want to call it, the festering sore that is Castle Street has run into the docile buffers of bureaucratic inertia. Back in 2013 I posted that money was being made ready for this work and the earliest it could start was 2015 and as is my way I cautioned there might be delays. I hate to say I told you so but ... here we are two years later and those who should have submitted plans, the Government's Highways Agency, have yet to do so and don't look likely to act any time soon. (Surely the rumour that they cannot make a decision during the election run-up is a vile canard, perhaps not) So start dates are being pushed further back, 2018? 2020? Who knows when? Meanwhile the Council, for once not guilty of any misdemeanour and desperate to put some kind of bridge (iconic or otherwise) across the never ending stream of motorised madness in time for the City of Culture in 2017, is going quietly bonkers and talking about coming up with a plan B .... 

Expect Delays

I may have mention once or twice the problem that is Castle Street and that money had been agreed for a grand plan to alleviate some of the mess that is caused by funnelling a motorway into a inner-city dual carriageway. By now the detailed plans should be available, well it is well known that "should" butters no parsnips. These plans will not now be available until next Springtime (when birds do sing hey ding a ding, ding). I'm all for measuring twice and cutting once but to keep on putting things back will mean the actual work will neatly coincide with that other Hull problem the 2017 City of Culture. (One of themes I have heard is to be "Roots and Routes" so maybe it's all part of fiendish plan.) Drivers and that includes visitors to the cultural delights will be advised to take alternative routes, that is shorthand for find your own way through the infernal gridlock, matey, you're on your own! You have been warned.

Turtle-y Awesome?

I am, thankfully, in the position of knowing absolutely nothing about this. What is an adolescent mutant ninja turtle when it's all at home and should I be on the look for one as I wander in my time? Ignorance, I'm guessing, is bliss in this matter. It looks delightfully gross but then I'm no film critic.

A conspiracy of traffic lights

Today's theme for City Daily Photo is 'Landmark'. So here's my offering, no, not the overly large religious building in the background that has been there so long it's at the top of this blog. Nor yet the dim outline of King Billy riding off down Market Place. No, today's landmark is this collection of traffic lights which you must admit is pretty impressive (I make it 18 or more in this view). It has been noted somewhere, possibly apocryphally,  that it is possible to drive by motorway from Liverpool to Lublin without meeting a single traffic light (but do watch out for the ferry) except when passing through this slow-you-down-and-stop-now-start town of Hull. These lights, of course, are installed, at strategic points along the road, so that motorists can admire the more obvious landmarks that you see here...

I must confess that I looked for a collective noun for traffic lights, as you do, and found the title of this post in this really obscure link.

Going but not gone yet

It was May last year that I reported that the Arc building had been sold and was due to move on to pastures new. Well, as you can see, it and its turbines are still very much all present and correct. Seems the best laid plans have gone agley as they are wont to and the building is up for sale again. So if you've got £75,000 to spare (yeah, I know it was sold at auction for £21,000 but a profit must be turned somehow) you can have a bunch of upturned caravans to do with as you like so long as you move them from here before the Castle Street improvements begin. The turbines are not included, they've already been sold, not that they ever worked properly.

Cemetery Road

You might think that old bones could rest in peace without being troubled by the progress of the modern world. Well you need to think again. Here's Holy Trinity's burial ground on Castle Street, in use from 1784 to 1861 to take what might be called the overflow from HT's churchyard. It's a bit of a rundown neglected place often the haunt of drunks, drug addicts and the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. Many of the brick vaults are falling down, tombstones now lie strewn on the ground and ivy flourishes as it should in these places. In short it's how you'd expect a cemetery to be that hasn't been used for over a hundred and fifty years. Now the place is doomed to be cut in half by the proposed Castle Street improvements which will rip through what you see here. Up to 11,000 burials might be affected and they will all have to be exhumed and reburied elsewhere. It's reckoned it take over a year just to do this. Oh and say goodbye to the trees (and the roosting bats that live here) as well.