Colours of Shetland houses

[Tom]

What do people think of the recent proposals to issue guidelines regarding colours for buildings in Shetland?

 

http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/Shetlandtimes/content_details.asp?ContentID=19948

 

Is it important for local pride? How? And is local pride important at all?

 

The SIC's Head of Planning said, "Taking pride in our own traditions and our own identity is critical if Shetland is to succeed in the future." Any thoughts on that???

[da ness tattie man]

It is high time that we were allowed to do what we liked. Why should we be dictated to by some planning "gazoot" who isn't even paying for our building costs.

 

Again this is a case of the 'Tail wagging the DOG'. Having been in the Planing office I have seen a few dogs.

[Njugle]

There are endless planning anecdotes that knock around, but the angle on this that really gets my hackles up is that planning are alledged to frown upon the redevelopment of rural crofthouses that are not in close proximity to services, or 'non-linear development' and yet the same people can issue a statement proposing blanket blandness under the justification of 'tradition' or heritage.

'Non-linear development' is traditional

Refurbishment of older rural buildings is heritage.

Planning should be as much about enablement as restriction.

 

And one question, did our forebearers stick to bland building appearances through choice, or cost and availability?

[Ghostrider]

You could quote just about any paragraph in that report that origiates from the Planning Dept staff and rip it to pieces, what's not unbelievable b/s is just plain wrong, if it's not both. Yet again they open their mouths and prove beyond all doubt they haven't the first clue what they're talking about....

 

Considering these planners and successive councils have graced our landscape with such bizarre oddities as several new pubic buildings, the Sandwick School being a prime example, which have all the attractivenesss and charm of a Stealth bomber just done a very untidy belly landing, pseudo oriental pagodas, a la Viking Cafe, and undescribable "somethings" that are the TSB and McKay's extension etc. Plus, seem hell bent on turning as many as possible of their own non-timber housing stock in to the uniform "cooncil colors" of red roof, white walls, brown windows and brown picket fences, as quickly as possible, and then they have the gall to believe to "know best" what everyone else should build....enough said!

 

However....

 

Mr Hamilton took the comments on board, stating that the document was not intended to stifle personal choices. It was in fact about promoting choice and adversity.

 

....Points to ponder....

 

1. Did Mr Hamilton actually say the final word given in that quote?

 

2. Did shetlandtoday make an accidental typo?

 

3. Does someone at shetlandtoday have a sense of humour and make an intentional typo?

 

4. Regardless of any of the three above, it's the most accurate statement I've heard attributed to any council official who was talking about their work, in a very,very long time.

[Wheesht]

(**MOD EDIT**)

 

The planning department at the SIC has become a type of fascist dictatorship and like to wield their power a lot. They make all these noise about being overworked and stressed out, needing more staff, blah, blah, blah, blah…

 

They should chill out and realise that they are there to serve the public and local business not hinder them with triviality like the bloody colour of a house! Paint them any colour you like, I’m dam sure few people care.

 

Where did he get seconded to again, the colour scheme police?

[Poppy]

"Head of planning Alastair Hamilton believed local identity was fundamentally important when planning and building a new house"

 

 

Indeed he did, who is this big voice of reason? Just look around Shetland, I'm sure you will all see what the planning department has allowed over the years.....total disgrace, so Indeed Mr Hamilton what are you trying to say what local identity are you talking about.

 

Small words to satisfy an audience with no back bone.

[Flaming Mo]

Has anybody out there read the guidance note that goes along with the report?

[Mia]

Has anybody out there read the guidance note that goes along with the report?

 

Well has anyone actually read this guidance note tipycal human beghaviour to slate something before actually understanding what it is all about why is it that nobody understands what the words guidance note means it doesnt mean that you must follow these colours to the last word or that you should even pay any attention to it at all but it is there for the few who dont what there house to look like it is meant to be sited in amongst the gulberwick monstrosety!!!

 

And as for the comments made against the planners themselves fair enough they have made it hard for themselves but this is due to a select few planners and not all of them, and remember it is not the planners who have the last say but and wait for it, the councillors who have a average age of 100, think this explains most of the terrible mistakes made relating to houseing and building in general!!!

 

My final rant is please remeber some poor sausage in the SIC actually sat down and did this guidance note for the Shetland people to help them a little bit and it is a good guidance note with lots of helpful advise someone has speant hours on this and this person is a fully qaulified planner who spent 5 year of there life studying and people have the nerve to say they dont know what they are talking about well I am sorry but I think it is the other way around!!

 

Ahhh calm again!!!!

[da ness tattie man]

Mia,

 

Although you have made some good points I think I can prove that the planners, don't know what they are on about.

 

9 years ago I built a house in Tingwall. My prefered colour of roof was terracota. When laying the roof I was threatend with legal action as the colour was not in keeping with the area. (My house was the first house on a scheme of ten)

 

Given this I went to the Scottish Executive and stated my case. I was told to get the SIC to put what they were saying in writting. When I asked for this they backed down. I later found out that what they were trying to tell me was incorrect.

 

I STATE MY CASE!

[Flaming Mo]

Does anybody know why diarrhoea coloured houses with red roofs have become the norm in Shetland in the last decade anyway? Gulberwick is the leader in this and Brae has its fair share of miserable looking houses.

 

Its a big difference to, say, Faroe or Norway for example where their houses add a bit of colour to the landscape. Which it has to be said is brown and dull most of the time in Shetland. Perhaps all houses should be made to have grey walls, roofs and interiors.

 

Then again why should we be following Scandinavian traditions anyway, its not as if Shetland has anything to do with those places anyway

 

for centuries...etc

[shetlander]

Lax controls in the past and the notion among some councillors that the need for new housing (either to encourage young folk to stay or to address the housing shortage in Lerwick) is justification enough to approve almost anything is exactly why some parts of Shetland are the planning messes that they are. You can’t slag the SIC off for that on one hand, then have a go at them for trying to improve things on the other.

 

As Mia has correctly pointed out, nobody is dictating anything here – through the Shetland House, the SIC are justifiably trying to encourage folk to design their houses with a bit more originality and respect for their surroundings and spare the Gulberwicks/Tingwalls/Whitenesses of Shetland from yet more multi bedroomed/red-roof tiled/triple garaged kit jobs which have more bulls*** designed into them than any consideration for the sites on which they have been plonked.

[Ghostrider]

As Mia has correctly pointed out, nobody is dictating anything here – through the Shetland House, the SIC are justifiably trying to encourage folk to design their houses with a bit more originality and respect for their surroundings and spare the Gulberwicks/Tingwalls/Whitenesses of Shetland from yet more multi bedroomed/red-roof tiled/triple garaged kit jobs which have more bulls*** designed into them than any consideration for the sites on which they have been plonked.

 

If you want to take that road, perhaps you should start at the real source, the Architects/Building Firms, who, when someone is considering building a new house, offer a selection of standard "models" with various "options", exacly like you were considering buying a new car. If you choose to build something from their range of standard models and include additional options from their offered list, you end up with a just nearly tolerable quote from them to build your house. However, dare to want to build something entirely of your own choosing, and the quote to design/build goes flying up like a petrol pump price read out!

 

Very obviously you expect to pay more for the design part of what you'd prefer to build, and perhaps a bit more for the actual construction, depending what you include/exclude compared to the nearest of their standard models, however in my experience the quotes handed out by your typical local buiding firm for such is massively disproportionate to the actual proposed end result. People are being led by the building industry through their cheque books to all build very very similiar houses, there is very positive encouragement to accept one from a very small selection that "they do", and strong discrimination against anyone wanting to build what they would like to build. I'm not saying building firms offering a range of standard houses and options is a bad thing, some people want and need that kind of service, but if the council want to see people giving more throught to the designs etc of what they build, perhaps they're largely preaching to the converted with this document. Perhaps a more productive avenue would be having a look at the relevant products local firms offer, and how much their business practices of apparently seeing anyone wanting anything not on their "stock" list as a cash cow, and thinking of a number and doubling it plus add a bit more when asked for a quote to supply it.

 

That said, if we're talking about variety, diversity, character etc etc of local housing, the council is seen by many as being unbelievably hypocritical in this area. Arguably some of the least attractive, blandest blots on the landscape have been what they have designed and built themselves, take just about any street/estate that was built as council housing and I rest my case....an unending sea of "sameness", and rarely ever attractive to the eye. Certain estates who for now can remain nameless didn't get themselves christened "the black huts" or "the army barracks" by sections of the Shetland public for nothing. Fine, cost per unit and often urgency to provide the accomodation has led to a lot of it being as it is, and in general people cut the council some slack for that, but when they have the opportunity to add a little character, attractiveness or diversity when time comes to refurbish some of this stock, what do they do? They apparently redouble their efforts to make as much of their own stock clones of each other as possible, as I said in my earlier post, they have been, and are, turning as many as possible of their non-timber stock in to their "standard colours" of red roof, white walls and brown windows, as quickly as possible. Not all of these houses looked alike in their original design, but the certainly do now! This document, against such a background of hypocracy, is quite rightly looked upon with a jaundiced eye by many people.

 

On a closing note, as far as our council is concerned, while I fully appreciate that this is just a "Guidance" note at this stage, things which emerge as "guidance" or "advisory", in time, seem to have a bad habit of becoming "Policy". "Guidance" is merely a carrot, and asses follow the carrot, if enough follow it becomes the "norm" and quietly slips in as "Policy".

[Flaming Mo]

http://www.shetland.gov.uk/developmentplans/documents/HousingandColourAppendix10.pdf

 

Here is the link to the GUIDANCE document.

[Twerto]

as with everything in the council, the link doesnt work

[JustMe]

as with everything in the council, the link doesnt work

Works fine for me.......being a pdf document it takes a wee while to load (or a long while on dial up)