to think its really sad when beautiful iconic buildings get demolished for unnecessary housing?

[Khaleasy]

Doing my bi-annual "wish I could buy" property search and came across this beauty:

www.churchofscotland.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/13666/West_Church.pdf

Was thinking "wow, what a great project" when I noticed that it had planning permission to be demolished and 9 houses built in its place.

AIBU to think this is both sad and such a waste?

"unnecessary housing"?
I thought there was a housing shortage in this country?

YABU to deny 9 families a potential home so that a few (ugly) and unwanted buildings can remain.
They aren't needed or used for their intended purpose any more, where as the land could be put to better use.

If there is a genuine housing shortage I will eat my hat.
I don't actually own a hat but I will buy one and eat it.

Tens of thousands of crap houses are being built in my area whilst thousands others which have been on the market for years are left to fester.

well the church of scotland are selling it off or somebody has bought and then selling it again with permission to demolish doesnt mean a buy will we have an old church that was converted into flats executive apartments and the building is in tact on the outside

There are thousands of people in need of housing in this country. YANBU to mourn the loss of iconic buildings though.

it is low cost housing there seems to be a shortage of which is sad,

No need to feel sad - just buy it yourself then you can sympathetically convert it for your own home.

It is actually a pretty standard church, currently surplus to requirements - hardly an iconic building.

That is a shame as it is beautiful, but yes, there is a housing shortage unfortunately.

No. YABU. It's no longer fit for purpose, there is great need for more housing. Start raising money to buy it yourself then.

YANBU

I'm with you OP on the 'housing shortage'

Agree if it is an ironic building then its sad. But there IS a shortage of housing.

Start raising money to buy it yourself then. That's the dream! Would LOVE to!!

And who has money to keep such places up for the sake of it? Care to volunteer? It costs vast amounts to maintain such places.

The church in the OP is horribly ugly!

I wish they'd stop spending a fortune on repairing a useless listed building and make the car park bigger.

Said building has had various uses, but it simply has no disabled access and is impossible to for fill the listing and make it useful.

It is, Bonsoir. Very standard, too. They are well-rid.

I wouldn't say it's iconic, it's a standard CoS building constructed c. 1920. No beautiful masonry or stained glass windows, just a bland grey rendered shell.

Having said that, one day (probably about 30 years from now) we'll be bemoaning why we have no inter-war religious buildings! Where do we draw the line between conserving the past and building homes for the present?

there is a housing shortage but not in rural aberdeenshire where this church is, where de-population rather than housing shortage is the problem, there are several other properties in this village for sale between 80-150K with upto 3 beds

however this church is not listed , it is not the best of its kind in a small village it would be vastly uneconomic for the congregation to fund, I guess there is only permission to demolish as it is beyond economic repair as mostly they would insist on church being converted to 1-2 homes and then 7 others on site

I think it's beautiful actually.

I don't know - it's such a matter of taste.

I grew up in a cathedral city. I think the cathedral is pig ugly, myself, and pointless, and boring. I'm so used to it.

It costs millions of pounds to keep it standing. It takes up a lot of space.

I wish they would knock it down and build something useful, sometimes.

But then the city council sees it and has £££££ in their beady little eyes...it means nothing to them except for revenue.

But that lil church is real purdy

There is a shortage of affordable housing in Aberdeenshire. There are virtually no council houses, and ordinary 3 bed houses generally start from at least £175000.
I live in semi rural Aberdeenshire and have to rent privately. The flats going in will probably start at £120000 for a 1 bed or £150000 for a two bed.

YANBU.

There are over 700,000 empty homes in the UK which should be renovated or replaced first.

www.emptyhomes.com

I'm with you, op. Hate it when old, visually appealing, beautifully proportioned buildings are ripped down to build skanky little Lego boxes, with zero effort to make them even marginally less ugly than necessary.

A thriving pub in a nearby village served its last pints this weekend. The freehold was bought by a developer so the village is losing the hub of its community. Not a remarkable building, but a major local loss.

I hate the term affordable housing. It's a euphemism for densely packed shoeboxes that are still over-priced.

We're not lacking residential space- more for particular types of housing in particular areas, and "affordable" housing doesn't necessarily address that.

A crash in house prices would, but that's painful for those who've bought overpriced housing in the last 5-10 yrs and are stretched on a mortgage.

I'd rather see regeneration of declining areas, and whole new communities being created with appropriate services. One local area is particularly suffering for school places as all the new families that moved into one local development (which was a sensible use of land) had no provsion for extra school places. 5 years on and there's suddenly too many children in the school catchment.

i checked right move for hatton village where this church is lots of 3 bed semis for around £110-150K looked ok and affordable not beautiful but in many areas of the country you could not get even a studio flat from £100k

"Affordable" depends on the average salary in the area. If you have a HH income of £30k and a 10% deposit anything over £100k is out of range.

Personally I think YABU. The church is ugly.