Visit to WBC re Undershaw - My thoughts

Well I am recently back home following the meeting with the chief executive and chief planning officer of WBC.

Lynn Gale just before we went into the meeting

At the beginning of the meeting John Gibson spoke about a variety of subjects. These included, but were not limited to, the history of the house and the damage it had suffered to date. The basic response from the council representatives when he had concluded was, essentially, “why are you telling us this?”

John Gibson and your humble author before the meeting

Now I may have misunderstood but the council’s position appears to be as follows: It wishes to see the house in use but cannot and will not involve itself (unless, presumably, it is legally required to do so) in the process of the house’s sale or indeed anything else to do with it. If a new planning application is submitted by anybody it will be looked at but otherwise it intends to keep out of it.

So far, so expected and fair enough.

John Gibson’s perfectly reasonable question as to whether the council intended to take steps to see certain damage repaired was not answered to my satisfaction (in fact I don’t feel it was answered full stop).

In the course of the meeting, which can best be described as robust with a frank exchange of views, there was plenty said that frustrated me but only one thing that annoyed me. The chief executive stated that we (John, Lynn and I) had wasted an opportunity with the meeting. This was complete nonsense. The implication was that the way we had used the time had been a waste. This annoys me as the council’s position was clearly set before we entered the room and therefore there was nothing we could have said or done that would have resulted in them saying anything different. We could have gone in and done magic tricks and the result would have been the same. So how could it be described as a wasted opportunity?

If we’re honest it was never an opportunity wasted or otherwise. The only thing it was was a waste of everyone’s time.

For more information on Arthur Conan Doyle and his time at Undershaw please refer to my book, An Entirely New Country which is available through all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Classic Specialities, and in all electronic formats including iTunes, Kobo, Nook and Kindle .

The Norwood Author is available from all good bookstores, in many formats worldwide including Waterstones UK, Amazon UK,  Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Amazon Kindle, iBooks for the iPad/iPhone, Kobo Books, Nook.

Close to Holmes is available from all good bookstores, in many formats worldwide including Amazon USA,  Barnes and Noble,  Amazon UK,  Waterstones UK,  Amazon Kindle,  Kobo,  Nook  and iBooks for the iPad/iPhone.

Eliminate the Impossible is available from all good bookstores, in many formats worldwide including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iBooks for the iPad/iPhone.