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Timmy elsewhere

At the ASI.

There is plenty of brownfield land around but perhaps we don’t want to build upon it?

8 thoughts on “Timmy elsewhere”

  1. I did quite a lot of work on ground water at the old British Timken site that was turned into a housing estate. I wasn’t exactly running to the sales office….

    Brownfield is often more correctly named by a substance of a similar hue.

  2. My college’s new (well, new then) accommodation block was built on contaminated land, an old gasworks.

    I don’t know if it is true, but the story was that it couldn’t be used for housing but students were fine. Allegedly this wasn’t because we were viewed as expendable but because we didn’t live there all year round and also were unlikely to plant vegetables in the garden (or at least unlikely to eat them once they grew).

  3. @Richard, if your student days were like ours, there was no danger of us eating anything we planted. Smoking on the other hand …

  4. Why should there be a problem building high-rise on brownfield sites? There are several categories of inhabitant who might be attracted to a dwelling without a garden: old people who can no longer manage them, young people who barely know what a plant is, and wouldn’t deign to get dirt on their hands even in those rare moments when they’re not staring at their i-device.
    High-density building works everywhere else in the world. It’s vital to combat this idea that British people are genetically incapable of living in a high-rise block. I live in an area well-known, prized, in fact, for its very long gardens. Next to me I’ve got a young bloke in his twenties. He moved in two years ago and had a moving-in party. The lager cans, the tipped-over chairs and barbecue are still lying where they were two years ago on the rear patio. The garden, 200 feet long is impenetrable brambles and will be an ash plantation in 5 years, if left;

  5. @Trofim – “The garden, 200 feet long is impenetrable brambles and will be an ash plantation in 5 years, if left;” , that’s pretty cool actually. I wonder that we’re all better for a few overgrown 200ft long gardens. He should clear up the cans though.

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