Haverhill Town Council says ‘eyesore’ derelict town buildings need sorting out after fire in long-disused The Vixen pub
Another act of arson committed at a derelict Haverhill pub has ignited a call for more to be done to sort the building out - as well as numerous other ‘eyesore’ buildings or structures.
The disused Atterton & Ellis site in Hamlet Green, off Hamlet Road, The Vixen pub in Strasbourg Square, the ramshackle remains of The Fox at the A143 entrance to the town, Sturmer Arches and The Corn Exchange in Withersfield Road were all cited as areas of concern during Monday’s meeting of Haverhill Town Council planning committee.
Councillors voted to write a letter to West Suffolk Council, as the planning authority, to seek clarification on what is being done to sort the named sites out, what could be done and how any actions could be enforced.
The catalyst for the action was another recent break-in at The Vixen, as described by Cllr John Burns, in which two ‘youths’ set fire to a sofa, an action that was recorded by one of them on their phone.
Cllr Burns said that the owners of the building were ‘very keen’ to demolish it but that they were getting ‘pushback’ from West Suffolk Council, which he said wants to see some future plans for the site before any demolition takes place.
“I’ve gone back to them and said demolish it and then worry about that afterwards,” said Cllr Burns. “It’s what we’ve been trying to do for the last ten years.”
Monday’s discussion moved onto the other sites of concern, one of which, The Fox, was addressed by Cllr Burns.
The Vixen, he pointed out, had been like it is for 15 years, adding: “If that was in the middle of Bury there’s no way that would have stayed like it because the Bury Society would have been up in arms about it.”
The mayor of Haverhill, Cllr Quinn Cox, put forward the motion to write to the district council, saying: “I think we, as a town council, need to start forcing the issue a bit if we can.”
Cllr Tony Brown said he ‘totally agreed’ with Cllr Cox.
He said: “It’s been an ongoing saga and sometimes we forget about it but certainly The Vixen, The Fox and the old Atterton & Ellis site; the poor people of Hamlet Road, they’ve been looking at that eyesore for years and years, the same as the people living around Strasbourg Square and obviously The Fox; it’s the gateway to the town, the first thing people see when they come from Bury St Edmunds is that horrendous eyesore.
“The thing that really gets to me is that the people that own these buildings, they are not sitting there looking at them, they are not even living in the same town.
“They don’t care, they just do not care. All they care about is the bottom line on their balance sheet.”
Cllr Pat Hanlon, who chairs the committee, had earlier said of The Vixen: “It’s a complete eyesore and an awful place. It should by rights be pulled down.”
Of The Fox Cllr Mary Martin added: “It’s a total disgrace. I don’t care how much they, the owners, paid for it. It should have been demolished a long time ago.
“When you drive by your eyes automatically look at that and you think, this is awful.”
Councillors agreed to write to the district council and discuss any response received at the planning meeting on July 1 before then taking the issue to further debate at a full town council meeting.
