Looking from a neighbouring house to the Vivian Avenue basement excavation, where the land has collapsed, after basement excavations - and the demolition of a property with planning approval only: but why was work continuing?
Work on the White Bear was ceased after a Stop Notice was issued by Barnet Council - after public outcry and protests by residents, but also when it was too late, and the whole building was already a pile bricks and mud. That this historic building, part of a conservation area, is lost forever is an absolute scandal, and we can only wonder what sort of eyesore might replace it. Why did officers allow plans that councillors on the planning committee had originally rejected to be modified, and move so close to full demolition that - oh dear, as the work commenced, the remaining part 'fell down'?
Who will be held accountable?
No one.
The other property demolished was a house in a nice residential road, being developed by the same family who have tried to demolish the Lodge in Victoria Park, and replace it with a block of flats. Only a concerted campaign by residents has prevented this from being approved - so far.
The house in Vivian Avenue was left with the remains of one wall, alleged by some to be used as argument that the property had not been demolished. But that wall has now gone too - so what is the council doing about it?
Work continues on the site, and - oh, a new application was received last week, published on the council's planning website, for a demolition and a new build. Which is already happening.
Yes, after the developers had already knocked the property down, in defiance of the limited approval for extensions and a basement in regard to the house that had been there. Is there any action to hold them to account for what they are doing?
We don't know, because there has been no contact from any officer with the neighbouring household since the 18th November. Extraordinary, isn't it?
*Update: just heard that someone from building control came today, 16th January - at last - but the council and Chief Executive were informed on the 13th, so it is lucky no further subsidence or collapse has taken place over the weekend: and where have they been in the weeks previous since the demolition?
*Update: just heard that someone from building control came today, 16th January - at last - but the council and Chief Executive were informed on the 13th, so it is lucky no further subsidence or collapse has taken place over the weekend: and where have they been in the weeks previous since the demolition?
But there is worse.
On Friday morning the owners of a neighbouring property discovered that, to their great shock, there had been a collapse of land overnight on the boundary of their property, with the fence and fence posts disappearing onto the basement excavation, exposing the ground under the patio steps - and destroying the lawn they had laid only last summer.
More worrying still now is the very real possibility that their house may now be at risk of structural damage, or - even worse - collapse.
Looking towards the houses, with the depth of excavation and collected rain water clearly visible
This is not an unreasonable fear: not so long ago, due to reckless excavations by builders for a basement made under a house in Finchley, cracks in the property suddenly appeared, and then it began to collapse, with very little warning - residents and neighbours managed to escape from the affected buildings without harm, but only by good fortune. The property had to be demolished. The collapse happened, as in the case of Vivian Avenue, after a sustained period of rain.
(One of the neighbouring houses affected, incidentally, as you can just about make out in some photos still has the name painted above the door, from the 1930s, of Tants, the Finchley builders, once owned by my uncle Jack - who would no doubt have been aghast at the sight of such botched work).
As this article on the Finchley story ( a report written by a surveyor) makes clear, the consequences of excavating basement developments, should things go wrong, can be 'catastrophic' - even fatal - and as the writer observes - 'They can also be ruinously expensive'. The company involved in this case went into liquidation, and the residents affected have lost everything.
Collapsing house in Finchley Pic credit: Times group
At the weekend local Labour councillors contacted the Chief Executive to demand answers as to what - if anything - the Capita run planning and enforcement team was doing about the Vivian Avenue site. Interesting that the White Bear, in a Tory ward, surrounded by a group of middle class residents united in fury, had a Stop Notice slapped on it, whereas the other demolition appears to have been overlooked, and work - potentially putting neighbouring property at risk - has been allowed to continue. Why?
Data regarding the number of cases of breaches dealt with by enforcement officers working for Capita-Barnet was recently released in response to an enquiry by a Tory councillor, revealing the astonishing fact that nearly 80% of cases end in 'no further action'. Yet a recent Freedom of Information request to Labour run Ealing council, which is a fair comparison to Barnet, suggests that their rate is closer to 50%.
Mrs Angry is awaiting more data from other authorities, but if this is typical, one might begin to ask why 'Re', Barnet's joint venture with Capita, is performing so badly. Is it a failure to allocate adequate resources to planning and building control? Is it incompetence? Or is it a deliberate policy of laissez faire, in order to cut the 'red tape' - safeguards - that Barnet Tories - many of them landlords - feel restricts the poor developers, trying to screw enough profit out of their demolition of the build heritage of Broken Barnet?
Whatever the truth, it won't make any difference to the Tory councillors, (unless someone knocks down the house next door to them), just about to assess the Re contract, because nothing would make them admit that the contract they so eagerly approved was a waste of time and money: but one may live in hope that the Labour opposition might hold Capita to account for its poor performance.
Yes: Mrs Angry, eternal optimist.