Change in planning Laws

BBC News - Row deepens over English planning law changes
With an overhaul of the planning system (from a 1000 page document to a 50 page document), the balance has firmly been shifted in favour of developers rather than locals.
Whether this means that development on brownfield sites will be expedited or whether it leads a pathway for easier development on greenfield sites remains to be seen.

Upstairs, Downstairs

After a bit of a break, I decided, after visiting the Wolsey site further up the canal, I'd go back to the All Saints Road brown field site and take some more pictures.  The sun was out (which isn't exactly what I wanted as I think I want the end results to be quite moody), but it did mean that it wasn't too dark within.

This time, I brought a torch with me to see my way around the buildings.  The lovely folk who live on the ground floor have added some touching graffiti to spruce the place up,

However, they don't seem to bothered about using any other floors of this building, as you can see it is pretty much untouched.

Wolsey Factory Area

Having Tuesday afternoon off from Uni allowed me to get out and actually take some pictures for this project.  It was a lovely sunny afternoon (as you can see) so I thought I'd head down the canal, this time beyond Abbey Park.  This is an area of the city that I'm not very familiar with, but I was aware that next to the National Space Centre, there was an area of derelict land from the demolition of the Wolsey factory.  However, what I didn't know was the shear scale of the site in question.  This area, (which is divided into two distinct spaces constitutes and area that is at least twice the size of the All Saints Road area that I have focused on before.

CPRE Statement

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/11/brownfield-sites-planning-housing-cpre

This article appeared in The Guardian after a statement by the CPRE.

Brownfield Stats and Information

http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/brownfield-development

Some interesting reading to do with the definition and amount of brown field sites within the UK.

Marc Atkins - Journey Through a City

After reading some works by Iain Sinclair (as mentioned previously in the this blog), a lot of his musings and writing are done in conjunction with photographers and film makers.

One whose name kept on cropping up in Sinclair's books is that of Marc Atkins.

These pictures are taken from a series called 'Journey Through a City' and serve well as representation of vernacular exploration of difference urban landscapes.

The choice of black and white (and high ISO) film brings depth and feeling to these wonderfully raw, haunting and gritty images.

Demolition

After searching through the Leicester City Council website, I've delved into the Planning department portal.  Of the remaining factories that do still exist in the All Saints area, this one has been approved for demolition too.

Apart from the Grade II listed Donisthorpe Building and Mandy's Snack Shop, this would mean that the whole area will have been cleared or demolished.

Picture added 21/03/12

Before

After

And right on cue, demolition work has begun on the factory at the top end of All Saints Road, near Mandy's Snack Bar.  Snack Bar next?

Nadav Kander - The Long River

After some thought and consideration, I've taken a look at Nadav Kander's work, more specifically The Long River.

The pictures follow the course of the Yangtze river on it 4,100 mile journey through China. They depict the massive change within this country as it rapidly becomes the largest economy in the world

Many of the pictures don't contain any pictures of people.  Those that do show them to be tiny and insignificant within the image.  This is a feeling that the photographer felt the people must feel as their country hurtles inexorably into an uncertain future.

Nearly all of the images are taken on days which are either overcast or foggy.  This lends well to the feeling of the images and makes them feel vast and unbounding, much as China and the Yangtze are.

The scale of some of the constructions are truly amazing.  The most controversial of which has to be the Three Gorges Dam.  Although it generates a tremendous amount of power and ensures their is no flooding down river, many archaeological sites where destroyed and over 1.3 million people where uprooted to make way for the massive reservoir.

Code Student Housing

These are some flyers being dished out at DMU.  Code Student housing is big in Leicester and they seem to be building lots of accommodation on brownfield sites, especially beside the canal and where the Great Central Railway used to go.

CPRE meeting

Just on my way back from a CPRE meeting about housing planning in your area.

Picked up some useful information and a few contacts.  Time to get emailing.

Location : 43 The Pastures, Narborough, Leicester, Leicestershire LE19 3DY,
Jonathan Briggs

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre - The Ruins of Detroit

After leafing through some back issues of the British Journal of Photography, I came across an article about this book.

So, through the miracles of inter library loans (good old British Library), I got my hands on the real thing.

The book details the demise of the once great Motor City of Detroit.  Through years of neglect, mismanagement, recession and social unrest, the city has gradually rotted to the point that whole tower blocks, neighbourhoods, schools, colleges, railways stations and hotels have stood empty for years before being demolished or refurbished.

These images represent a wonderful study in to the social and economic stabilities of a city that has relied heavily on a single industry (cars).  Once this industry started moving out of the city (or if they did stay and start to dwindle, as it has for Ford and General Motors), Detroit started to dwindle itself.  The pictures document the surprising spread of rot that has made it's way through this once thriving city.