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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 10:38 am
by Tony McC
As reported in today's Grauniad the latest wizard wheeze by our dear government to reinvigorate the building trade is to consider ripping up the building regs!
It's not regulation that's causing so much pain in the construction sector: it's lack of finance and suitable land. If they really think it's the provision of wheelchair accessible doorways that's benighting the whole trade, they are more deluded than at first suspected.
Maybe I'm being naive, but it seems to me that when you have a shortage of 300,000 homes per year and half-a-million building workers twiddling their thumbs, the solution is pretty obvious.
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:27 pm
by local patios and driveway
Also building regs ensure when you price in a 1m deep footing that the other guys also price for the same thing...
Its makes the building game a fairer playing field
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 3:08 pm
by lutonlagerlout
its lack of funds that is the problem
due to mr osbourne's austerity measures,doctors,policemen,teachers do not know how long they have a job for
these people were the bread and butter of the small builders like us
the local council has had a ban on increasing council tax so are selling off every bit of land and buildings they can to get a few bob in
a bit like when britain sold our gold when it was at an all time low
anyway this land is either bought by developers who just sit on it
bought by 1 of the big four supermarkets who then annihilate all the small shops in the area
or bought by various religious groups to the dismay of the neighbours who then have 400 cars parked outside their house 24/7
but the key thing is the council have sold it off cheap as chips and eventually they wont have any land for social housing
me and my friends opposed this blatant piece of profiteering by luton council and eventually we won
high town drill hall
we made it clear it was not an anti mosque move,just purely an anti selling off your crown jewels for peanuts
to get things going they really need to knock VAT back to 10%,this 20% is knocking the bollocks out of the building game
from where i sit nothing has changed since 2008,just waiting for Greece to go pop,as surely it will
LLL
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 10:42 pm
by henpecked
Not trying to turn this into a 'muslim bashing' thread. But we have a Mosque in a predominantly white second generation Irish area. No call for it, no parking and Deacls put on the window without planning permission. I spoke to an architect who lives over the road and he had raised it with the council (as that's where most of his work is) and blind eyes were turned all around. I've read this back and it does make me sound like a racist,:D but how do the council justify enforcement when they totally ignore their own guidelines? 
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:23 pm
by lutonlagerlout
its not just muslims dean,its the hallelujah happy clappy mob too :;):
you cant blame either religion
they can buy massive building very cheap from councils wanting shot of them
so in luton the old odeon is now a church, the kingsway arms is getting converted into a girls only madrassa ,the salisburys arms is a wedding venue,the old casino is another praise the lord church
etc etc
the house i was born in is a sari shop now 
the problem is that none of these venues have sufficient parking for 400 worshippers turning up at once
because certain ethnic minorities are over represented on the council, certain issues go their way
we cant moan british ex pats have done exactly the same thing in spain
but the bottom line is that councils and govt should not be selling off property assets just to raise money to empty bins
LLL
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:05 am
by Tony McC
But if any of these religions want to open a so-called "Faith School" and indoctrinate young minds with whatever nonsense they happen to believe, then that's all well and good, and the Gove-ment will give them big handfuls of cash to do so.
But if you're a young couple, recently qualified or with no recognised trade or profession, and you have to fork out a grand a month for a roof you'll never own over your head that' "market forces". I suppose it's difficult to empathise with struggling couples and unemployed groundworkers, brickies and chippies when you're a multi-millionaire with at least two home in Blighty and god knows how many in a warmer clime, so maybe we're being to hard on the cabinet members making these decisions.
This latest wheeze reminds me so much of the fiasco over front garden driveways that we got from the previous set of eejits to inhabit Downing St. They needed to be seen to do summat, so they let themselves be talked into tinkering by vested interests and we ended up with a farce. Scrapping any or all Building Regs will not create a single job in the trade; it'll simply make more profit for the wealthy developers who just happen to make generous donations to the political classes.
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:19 pm
by henpecked
Reminds me of the 'planning laws relaxation' a couple of drives and a gazebo will really kick the economy back into life 
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:21 pm
by GB_Groundworks
this happened up here in sheffield, across the road fromm y mates who a sparky they built a large mosque with two minarets its a big building dwarfs the site and there is only parking for about 30 cars for a mosque that can easily hold 1000 people, come friday afternoon the triple lane rd along side it is double parked on both sides with taxis and effectively a no go area, if we'd wanted to build flats that big with no parking we wouldn't be allowed, they exceeded their planning on m2 as well no come back council affraid of being called muslim bashers. its an ugly building as well yellow brick, blue minarets ill find a photo.
lots of legends around about the build though, was funded by the local worshippers who didnt pay up on time etc changed the design, tried to hold back on loads of things. lots of stories of pig carcasses being thrown in to he footing and slabs etc by the irish main contractor
which if true would be a big thing for the so called consecrated ground
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:45 pm
by flowjoe
henpecked wrote:I've read this back and it does make me sound like a racist,:D but how do the council justify enforcement when they totally ignore their own guidelines?
If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today
#Thomas Sowell
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:52 pm
by sussex
Unfortunatly we are at the mercy of people that have never had a PROPER job,most of our glorious leaders from all major parties do the private school, uni, resercher,politician route to being a know all . All of a sudden they know where we poor sods are going wrong,where we should pay a little more tax to help fund their great ideas .If they had ever had the day to day problem of bringing up a family on a hard earned wage with out a public purse expence account there might be a bit more thought put into there ideas. ...........The majority of these politcians grow up with the belief of their right to rule ,god help us if there is one because i cant see anyone else able to .......!!!!!!!
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:45 pm
by Carberry
After living in Edinburgh and visiting Spain I am thankful for the planning laws. Edinburgh is a really beautiful city and a lot of that is to do with the architecture and character of the town. Then you go to Spain and it looks like they have dumped a house where they want with no concern for how it looks, the affect it has on the area etc
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:59 pm
by lutonlagerlout
the green belt has caused the biggest headache in the last 30 years
it has massively overinflated prices in and around london
they cant remove it now as the crash of prices in the south east would have an apocalyptic effect
I have met a few politicians and a lord and they are either raving trotskyists at heat or a little bit to the right of hitler
if we had a vote on sending lads to iraq and afghan they wouldnt be there
LLL
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 8:46 pm
by sussex
Whilst the green belt has caused problems it is a necessity ,would building on large parts of epping forrest etc do that much to solve a problem that has been around longer than thirty years and made worse by the great idea of opening our borders to an influx of people that in the short to mid term our infrastructureis not able to support.having lived in east london for many years before moving out to sunny sussex ,places like epping are the only really green bits left round there.As for a vote on sending our people to fight a pointless war the very thought of it would send our great leaders to the nearest bar to drown out the fear............... on expences of course.!
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:51 pm
by henpecked
GB_Groundworks wrote:this happened up here in sheffield, across the road fromm y mates who a sparky they built a large mosque with two minarets its a big building dwarfs the site and there is only parking for about 30 cars for a mosque that can easily hold 1000 people, come friday afternoon the triple lane rd along side it is double parked on both sides with taxis and effectively a no go area, if we'd wanted to build flats that big with no parking we wouldn't be allowed, they exceeded their planning on m2 as well no come back council affraid of being called muslim bashers. its an ugly building as well yellow brick, blue minarets ill find a photo.
lots of legends around about the build though, was funded by the local worshippers who didnt pay up on time etc changed the design, tried to hold back on loads of things. lots of stories of pig carcasses being thrown in to he footing and slabs etc by the irish main contractor
which if true would be a big thing for the so called consecrated ground
I worked with a guy who owned his own ground works company in Leeds. He regaled a story of the QS pricing a mosque job. He wasn't happy about building it , and yes , you've guessed it, a couple of porkers went into the altar from his pig farm :laugh:
Same story of altering the drawings and withheld payments. You can't blame him really as he lost on the job, but hey,don't poke the organ grinder :p
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:02 pm
by lutonlagerlout
first job i worked on when i left school was luton mosque,they ran out of money weekly,
they used to do a big shout and all the taxi drivers would come on the job and chuck tenners into a blanket
constantly trying to change the job
if there are 2 groups that are terrible to work for i would say Kashmiris and Italians
they both think they can talk to you like an idiot and think the drawings are a rough guide to their ultimate masterplan
which involves lots of unseen extras at your cost
NOT
hehe
LLL