Security tightened up at derelict pub
ACTION has been taken to make secure a derelict pub which has been a regular target for arsonists and vandals.
Residents in Newstead have been calling for action over the derelict Swallows Nest, in Ufton Close, for several years.
Previous plans to transform the eyesore into flats stalled and efforts by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to force the building's owners to make it safe drew a blank, as question marks remained over its ownership.
But demolition experts commissioned by the authority have now put metal sheets over doors and windows and taken off roof tiles, after warning that the building was becoming increasingly unsafe.
It is not yet known how much the work will cost but the authority will now renew its efforts to trace the owners.
Councillor Joan Bell, portfolio holder for community safety and neighbourhood management, said: "We have had to move quickly as the building had become increasingly unstable.
"The work we have done will make it structurally safe until permanent work can be done."
Mrs Bell added that the council will pay for the work before passing the bill on to the owner. And she added: "If the situation deteriorates further, and no attempt is made by the owner to repair the building, we can take out a court order to have it demolished."
Last month, ward councillor Roy Naylor told The Sentinel he would follow the matter up with council lawyers after it was raised by children from nearby Newstead Primary School at February's Citizenship for Democracy Conference.
Mr Naylor said: "There have been floods of residents complaining and I have been aware of the problem ever since I became a councillor again.
"I had been in touch with various departments but then I got a real bee in my bonnet about it last week and rang every department, then I got a call saying the fencing was going up outside the pub."
He added: "I have been talking to residents and they have been asking if it is coming down. At the present we are securing it, but in the hope it will come to the ground at some stage and it is a massive relief."
Bill Harvey, chairman of Newstead Community Association, said residents had been complaining for years about the building.
He said: "It has been a major concern, but unfortunately the owner has not done anything about it. People are overjoyed that it has started to be removed."
Estate resident Peter Brayford, aged 80, said: "It wants taking down. It has been like that for three years."
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3 Comments
by Richie, ex Newstead and loving it!!
Sunday, May 10 2009, 10:27PM
“Was once a nice building,but times move on and its time it was bulldozed.”
by andy, not newstead
Sunday, May 10 2009, 6:03AM
“knock it down and build a curry house on the land instead”
by Val Nixon, Newstead
Saturday, May 09 2009, 5:47PM
“Well done to Councillor Roy Naylor for getting something done at last, although the pub still looks unsightly, its a lot tidier, secure and obviously safer.
Its such a crying shame to see what was once a beautiful buiding left in this state
It wasonce the original farmhouse to the farming land that is now houses and can be located on a 17th century map, again our heritage is disappearing and will never be re-captured.”