Eyesore sparks outrage (From Stourbridge News)

Eyesore sparks outrage

9:14am Friday 18th January 2008 in Local By Bev Holder

KINVER residents are up in arms over the dilapidated "disgusting" state of the village's former Royal British Legion base.

The old legion HQ in Legion Drive has stood empty since war veterans sold the building a few years ago.

But villagers are sick of the sight of the "damned eyesore" and are urging South Staffordshire District Council to impose a tidy-up order on the owners of the derelict property.

Helen Dunn, chairman of Kinver Community Centre, told the News: "It's absolutely disgusting - this is a conservation area and little children have to walk past it to get to the play area. It's been in this state now for getting on for three years. It's really, really bad."

David Giddings, of Kinver's Best Kept Village group, said: "It's a terrible mess so they should impose a tidy-up order. We're fed-up."

He said Kinver came second in the district's best kept village competition last year, adding: "One of the reasons we came second was because of the state of the legion building."

Kinver Parish Council chairman Ena Ray said: "We're upset about it as it's a mess - something needs to be done about it - the building's falling into disrepair, but it's in private hands so we can't do much to force the issue.

"A tidy-up order is probably the best we can do."

Jamie Angus, spokesman for South Staffordshire District Council, said: "We're currently in the process of trying to track down the owner through Land Registry records with the intention of possibly serving a tidy-up notice on the property to get it up to a satisfactory level."

He said an application to turn the building into offices was refused in 2006 over design issues and its Green Belt location.

But David Giddings urged the council to "bend the rules" slightly and allow development to go ahead to enable the area to be tidied up.

He added: "It isn't Green Belt as we know Green Belt - if he wants to build offices let him as long as they're not a monstrosity."