Hartford to build 350 houses on greenfield

[manxman34]

47 minutes ago, 2112 said:

If these greenies get their way, the only cars you will be able to purchase new are all electric and they cost you over £20k. Does anyone seriously expect everyone, especially in the social housing estates to be able to afford this and the infrastructure to operate is deluded. Same applies to owner occupiers. If you are comfortable with a detached home or home with a driveway then you could get the charging device. Petrol and Diesel vehicles will be banned new and used, and we can say goodbye to the motor home. Maybe if you have lots of money you could convert a VW camper van to electric. 

Sounds reasonable
 

[finlo]

44 minutes ago, 2112 said:

Does anyone seriously expect everyone, especially in the social housing estates to be able to afford this 

Take a drive around Willaston and marvel at the huge shiny expensive motorhomes!

[Andy Onchan]

39 minutes ago, finlo said:

Take a drive around Willaston and marvel at the huge shiny expensive motorhomes!

And there's the rub. If those tenants now have a level of income that supports a lifestyle beyond the social housing affordability criteria which they originally signed up to then there needs to be a review of the tenancy.  

Edited October 15, 2021 by Andy Onchan

[Ramseyboi]

1 hour ago, The Phantom said:

Nope, pretty much why I don't own a £20k car.  That and general depreciation.  Still manage to get very specific niche classics below that price. 

Years ago I had a VW Corrado.  That had a pronounced ridge down the sides that was the perfect impact point for other people's doors.  Still got PTSD from Tescos with that car.... 

Shame you didn’t keep it as you. Could now have a twenty k car 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-Volkswagen-Corrado-2-9-VR6-3dr-Storm-Coupe-Petrol-Manual-/124822669750?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

[James Blonde]

21 hours ago, Boris Johnson said:

There is one thing the island does not do and that is widen roads or build new ones to take the extra traffic.

Is this a good thing? Or are we stuck with massively more traffic and the same capacity?

The roads today must be at least twice as full of cars as they were in the 80's. To continue to pay for a bigger and bigger civil service we need more residents so the roads are only going to get busier, that is the reality.

To be honest, the queues at Quarterbridge and the like at rush hour are not really that bad and another 350 houses will not make much difference. You only have to look at a commuter drive near any of the main Northern England towns where it can take 1.5 hours to commute 20 miles to see we have a long way to go till we get saturation.

I say build it and lots more like it. If we get to about 125,000 residents a lot more businesses become viable and we can at last move to the 21st century. 🙂 

 

It's an issue when there is poor weather (every winter), major roadworks or RTCs - there's zero redundancy built into the road network. 

As an island we actually need to start viewing the highways as a transport network and not just a series of standalone roads. Example: with Pulrose Bridge being closed there shouldn't be traffic lights popping up on the Kewaigue/Nunnery/South Quay road at peak times. With Dandara blockading the main south road just above Ballasalla for 18 weeks, the DOI shouldn't have had lights on Richmond Hill during the same time. 

While we're 'not as bad as the UK' there's no reason we need to be as bad as that - short travel times are supposedly one of the island's USPs. 

We also need to get to grips with traffic in and around Douglas. There needs to be at least one more large multi-storey carpark like Shaw's Brow with big modern spaces and ideally Chester Street needs replacing. Then the traffic flow around town needs sorting possibly reversing the one way down Athol Street and altering other roads as part of an overall scheme would help. 

[The Phantom]

8 minutes ago, Ramseyboi said:

Shame you didn’t keep it as you. Could now have a twenty k car 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-Volkswagen-Corrado-2-9-VR6-3dr-Storm-Coupe-Petrol-Manual-/124822669750?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Which would have been ironic considering my comments! 

I'd rather not talk about it thanks.  Still regret selling the 'Rado!   I've actually had a few cars over the years that have now turned into 'modern classics'.

I just sold a mid 2000s car that I had for 5 years for the same price I paid for it.  Probably would start appreciating in the next couple of years, but it's the effort/cost of storing them etc.  If only I had a barn...  

[Ramseyboi]

1 minute ago, The Phantom said:

Which would have been ironic considering my comments! 

I'd rather not talk about it thanks.  Still regret selling the 'Rado!   I've actually had a few cars over the years that have now turned into 'modern classics'.

I just sold a mid 2000s car that I had for 5 years for the same price I paid for it.  Probably would start appreciating in the next couple of years, but it's the effort/cost of storing them etc.  If only I had a barn...  

I did spot the irony.

I am the same.  Had I kept all my Sri’s, Gte, GTI, GTA, XR2, XR4 and VR6 over the years I would be sitting on a goldmine.

Anyway the point stands.  Most people can afford a house if the cut back on other things for a few years like people always used to.  Oh, and a house doesn’t have to have alll brand new expensive furniture and a new kitchen as soon as you move in.

I can’t wait to see these built. 

[The Phantom]

4 minutes ago, Ramseyboi said:

I did spot the irony.

I am the same.  Had I kept all my Sri’s, Gte, GTI, GTA, XR2, XR4 and VR6 over the years I would be sitting on a goldmine.

Anyway the point stands.  Most people can afford a house if the cut back on other things for a few years like people always used to.  Oh, and a house doesn’t have to have alll brand new expensive furniture and a new kitchen as soon as you move in.

I can’t wait to see these built. 

Hopefully they'll have extra large garages  

[James Blonde]

19 hours ago, Ramseyboi said:

A couple on 25k each is 50k a year, so say take home of 3.3k a month.

Half of that is 1.65k a month.  At 3.75 percent over 25 years it 1300 a month repayment, which is about the same as a rental price on a decent house for a 275,000 mortgage and still £500 a week left.

 

The downfall of your view that they should all be spending ~50% of salary on mortgages is that it's really unhealthy for the local economy and at best naïve. 

The first part is that the local economy needs people of all ages to be contributing to it and spending money in shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Keeping every last Scheckel for the bank isn't good and would just drain money out of the economy. 

The naïve part of your solution is that interest rates can and will rise in the foreseeable future if you've got ~50% of salary going on the mortgage already then that is only going to increase to a higher share. Tie that in with ever increasing energy and fuel costs then households are going to be squeezed beyond what's reasonable. 

Houses don't cost these eyewatering amounts to build. A small 2 bed home could be built for C.£190k on Government owned land - they can be sold with government backed 5% mortgages.  We need to progress this type of project and forget about your ideas of trickle down housing. 

[finlo]

34 minutes ago, James Blonde said:

The downfall of your view that they should all be spending ~50% of salary on mortgages is that it's really unhealthy for the local economy and at best naïve. 

The first part is that the local economy needs people of all ages to be contributing to it and spending money in shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Keeping every last Scheckel for the bank isn't good and would just drain money out of the economy. 

The naïve part of your solution is that interest rates can and will rise in the foreseeable future if you've got ~50% of salary going on the mortgage already then that is only going to increase to a higher share. Tie that in with ever increasing energy and fuel costs then households are going to be squeezed beyond what's reasonable. 

Houses don't cost these eyewatering amounts to build. A small 2 bed home could be built for C.£190k on Government owned land - they can be sold with government backed 5% mortgages.  We need to progress this type of project and forget about your ideas of trickle down housing. 

That's exactly what happened in Peel when Dandara started flooding the market with new builds.

All the new residents were mortgaged up to the hilt and never set foot or spent a penny in actual Peel as they couldn't afford to!

[James Blonde]

3 minutes ago, finlo said:

That's exactly what happened in Peel when Dandara started flooding the market with new builds.

All the new residents were mortgaged up to the hilt and never set foot or spent a penny in actual Peel as they couldn't afford to!

That's exactly what we need to avoid and hopefully something that Chris Thomas and his Housing and Community Board will be aware of. 

[SleepyJoe]

Our older urban areas need redeveloping. It'll take the Thomas intellect to establish how this might be done - if it can be done at all

[mollag]

Bye the bye, i think there is an ancient hill fort just off the access road, the "purt" of Purt-e chee, has any mention been made of it's future ?, no news isn't always bad news.

[2112]

1 hour ago, mollag said:

Bye the bye, i think there is an ancient hill fort just off the access road, the "purt" of Purt-e chee, has any mention been made of it's future ?, no news isn't always bad news.

Perhaps MNH may prove it’s worth and stick its objections in.

[2112]

1 hour ago, SleepyJoe said:

Our older urban areas need redeveloping. It'll take the Thomas intellect to establish how this might be done - if it can be done at all

Well he was in a position to something in 2016 but spent 5 years navel gazing, I don’t hold much hope for another 5 years. Park Road site will still be a Auction Room Car Park, and areas of Douglas will still be stinking dirty shitholes, along with the Promenade.