Allotments 4 All

There's a lot of building work going on in Winchester.  Library being replaced with a "discovery centre" (this means we don't need librarians), and blocks of flats being prised into impossibly-sized spaces behind it.  So behind the library we have had a huge crane, visible from miles around, for about 18 months.

With the buildings complete, it was time to take the crane away in June.  But there was a problem - they couldn't get it out!  So now they are faced with:  a helicopter to lift it out - no, the down-draught would blow the tiles of all the surrounding buildings.  A 150 ton crane - no, that would smash up the road.  (And probably wouldn't fit in the narrow street round the site, anyway).  I believe the third option is to demolish one of the buildings they've just built, remove the crane, then rebuild.

Funny thing is, it is right nextdoor to our local newspaper's office.  The chap who has the allotment next to mine lives next to the construction site, and told me last Wednesday about this saga - the newspaper found out today because I told someone who works there at the weekend.

Watch this spaced!!!  If it stops raining for long enough when I'm not working I'll go down and get a pic to post.

That is a lovely story. As a child I used to go to Winchester for summer hols with my Grandmother and remember the Brook street excavation well which I think was all discovered by mistake (at least I thought so at the time). Interestingly, she (my grandmother) was a councillor there for a bit, and despaired at the planners even then.

Over here in Guildford they're committing similar acts of architectural vandalism. I don't mind new buildings, but why do they so often have to be so dull and just badly made... Grrr..

Ha ha haaa! Classic!
I didn't realise you were in Winchester Asbean. My grandparents have friends there we used to visit as kids. They had the best garden.  ;D

I don't beleeeeeeve it! 

SO looking forward to the pic  ;D ;D ;D

Well, I didn't manage to dodge the showers, so here's a couple of shots taken in the pouring rain. They show the new buildings and the narrow streets surrounding the site!!!

This may even be worth a day trip to Winchester to watch.  ;D

Sniggers behind her hand :D

AND THE END OF THE STORY IS ... ...

??? ??? ???


http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1710032.0.tall_order_removing_crane.php?s=s

There's a pic in the local paper (roughly where the stupid ad for renault cars is).
Funnily enough I was looking at it on Saturday morning with a visitor wondering when it would come down, and by Sunday evening when I drove past it had gone.

Red faces all round, I think.

I love the fact that Laing Homes "declined to comment"   ;D

Couldn't have happened in a more aptly named place.
WINCH - CHESTER  ;D

Lauren  ::)