£400k house demolished

A £400,000 house in North Yorkshire is being demolished after it was built without planning permission. The property - built by Peter Howell but later owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland following the liquidation of Mr. Howell's business - was deemed not in keeping with the character of Ingleby Arncliffe and has been subject to a demolition order since 2005.

Outline planning permission - which gives the go ahead for land to be developed - was granted to the site in 2004, but Mr. Howell began construction without detailed permission, which governs what type of building can be erected. The five-bedroomed building was found unsatisfactory due to its being "dominant and visually intrusive by virtue of its height, bulk and colour."

A homeless person sleeping in Covent Garden, London. Five people could have been given safe, warm beds in the house currently being demolished. Copyright-free image from Wikipedia.

You can see a video of it being demolished on the Yorkshire Post website. Have a little laugh at a rich man who thought the rules we all have to live by didn't apply to him - but while you're cackling away, think to yourself what an absolute f*cking waste this is. At least 75,000 young people were homeless in the United Kingdom in 2006-7. Add all those people who don't fall into the same age category and all the "invisible homeless" - those who are sleeping on friend's floors and those others who fall into one of the various different designations that the Government uses in order to pretend the problem is smaller than it is - and the figure must be well into the hundreds of thousands.

Five human lives could have been vastly improved had five homeless people been allowed to make use of Mr. Howell's house while they got themselves back on track. Once again: what an absolute f*cking waste.

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