There is something which I keep noticing:
a lot of areas of waste land within our city centres.
Areas that have been flattened after various buildings have
been pulled down, and which currently serve no socially
useful purpose.
These are places which are surrounded by fences, and that
are now starting to turn in to urban wildlife areas.
Such patches of waste land are very indicative of just what
has been happening to society over the last few years.
– How certain parts of the economy slowed down and came to a
complete standstill.
We now keep being told how the recession is on the turn,
yet I’ll not believe that the economy is starting to work again:
– Not until there are signs that all of these waste grounds are
being opened up and new buildings are being constructed.
Yet that is not the end of this story………
There are also a lot of redundant offices which have been
boarded up for some time now,
and which have notices upon them which indicate that they
will be demolished at some time or other.
What ever else: –
None of these redundant offices blocks are suitable for
conversion in to desperately needed housing,
as it would be cheaper to pull them down and build a new.
This also says a lot about the energy use standards which
exist within offices built during the past 50 years.
So here comes a social dilemma –
On the one hand there is a desperate need for new low cost,
and energy efficient housing.
Yet there is no money to build such social housing.
On the other hand there is a lot of newly flatten & derelict
land that looks like it will not be touched for a lot time to
come.
One solution may be to formally convert some of these areas
in to Urban Wild Life Parks.
Another idea may be to sell them off to people who wish to use
them for low cost & ecologically sound self build social
housing projects:
– As local housing for those who already live in the area.
– For people who will never be able to afford to buy any of the
existing housing,
and which stand no chance of ever getting any social housing.
There are a lot of ways in which such projects as the above
might be funded.
Maybe it’s about time that the building societies got back to
their roots,
and put some backing to such projects.
We can all benefit by making sure that these new urban
wastelands are used for more imaginative projects.
Perhaps some of them might also be used as allotments.
It’s no utopian dream to think that something may be achieved
this way.
Just imagine that ……..