Demolish or refurb row at former ICI headquarters

Grant Prior 13 years ago
Share

A legal row over the demolition of the former ICI building in Stockton has already cost £95,000 as developers fight with the council.

Billingham House has been empty for years and repeatedly targeted by vandals.

Owner Bizzy B Management wants to refurbish it, but lost a High Court appeal and Stockton Council was given permission to bulldoze the building.

But work has been delayed again as Bizzy B has lodged a further appeal.

Preparation work to demolish the building began in September after a judicial review at London’s High Court ruled that Stockton Council could clear the site.

Bizzy B appealed against the decision but lost, and it has now applied for a further hearing to reconsider its application.

This will take place at the High Court on 20 January and, until then, demolition work on the site has been halted.

Giris Rabinovitch, the London-based agent for Bizzy B, said the company was keen to regenerate the site and bring jobs to Stockton.

But Stockton Council said there had been too many delays to refurbish the building and it was an eyesore and needed to be flattened.

A council spokesman told the BBC: “Bizzy B has failed each time to persuade the court to develop the site. This has been going on since 2008 and the company will have to eventually have to pay our legal costs.

“We all want to see this blot on the landscape removed once and for all – and as quickly as possible.”

In August 2010, Bizzy B signed a deal with property firm Middlesbrough-based Python Properties to redevelop the site.

Martin Johnson, spokesman for Python, said it had planned to regenerate the 1,800 square feet building and turn it into offices with the hope of creating 1,000 jobs.

He said he was confident the site would attract chemical, pharmaceutical and engineering firms – despite the recession – because of its central location.

He said: “It is a good, well-built building and we want to keep it that size. But if it was demolished it could not be rebuilt to that scale because of current planning regulations.

“It is insane that the council wants to spend public money demolishing the building when we want to invest £5m of private money and create 1,000 jobs.”

Latest news

McAlpine healthcare MD joins BAM as Northern chief

Mark Gibson joins as Northern regional director
2 days ago

HS2 Align JV completes Britain’s longest rail bridge – video

Final deck segment sees HS2 viaduct break 137-year old record held by Tay Bridge
2 days ago

Green light for major London city fringe office retrofit

Overhaul of 30 Finsbury Square to start next Summer
2 days ago

John Lewis submits plan for £80m Reading rental flats scheme

Construction hoped to start on 215 flats scheme at the start of 2026
2 days ago

Balfour Beatty lands £27m Highlands flood defence scheme

Work to start imminently building river walls in Comrie
2 days ago

Buyers believe construction has “turned a corner”

Residential rebounds, commercial still strong but civils slows
3 days ago

Vistry unseats Barratt as Britain’s biggest house builder

Partnership homes specialist on track to build 18,000 homes this year
3 days ago

23 jobs axed as Lincolnshire contractor goes under

C G Godfrey provided civils and M&E services in Eastern England
3 days ago

Winvic first to use remote-control tower crane on site

Crane driver sits in ground floor command centre at Birmingham 33-storey tower
3 days ago

Starmer vows to ban Grenfell firms from public contracts

Prime Minister to write to named and shamed construction firms
3 days ago

Grenfell Inquiry calls for uber construction regulator

Shake-up must include licensing of main contractors taking on high rise projects
4 days ago

Robertson to restore historic Newcastle market

Work to revamp Grainger Market to start by the end of this month
3 days ago

Three bidders chase £1.4bn Midlands rail hub alliance

Balfour, Skanska, Bam and Laing O'Rouke in bidding for eight-year rail upgrade
4 days ago

Barratt profit nosedives as margin slumps to 4.2%

Fire safety provisions jump by an extra £126m to total £628m
4 days ago

First viaduct completed on HS2: Video site report

Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and Bam Nuttall finish 163m long Highfurlong Brook Viaduct
4 days ago

Bouygues bags £28m Oxfordshire school job

St John’s Academy to be at heart of Wellington Gate Development
4 days ago

Willmott Dixon wins £49m Wigan college expansion

New campus for Wigan & Leigh College to be net zero in operation
4 days ago

Work to start on Liverpool office to flats job

Truman D&B wins resi conversion in Moorfields district
4 days ago

Government mothballs plan to scrap CE Mark

Building safety minister warns there is insufficient capacity in present testing regime
5 days ago

Government backs record number of clean energy projects

131 projects will produce electricity to power 11 million homes.
5 days ago

Tube station housing plan gets Government green light

Plans to transform Cockfosters Tube station were blocked by previous regime
5 days ago

Go-ahead for Bristol Temple Quay hotel and build to rent job

A trio of blocks will house a 230-room hotel, 170-room apart-hotel and 100 rental flats
5 days ago

Construction costs cut for Plymouth city centre revamp

Price of Armada Way scheme falls to £30m after exploratory work on site
5 days ago

Tilbury Douglas chief Paul Gandy to step down

Craig Tatton to take on CEO role from November
6 days ago

Local pressure unblocks £240m Oxford sewage works upgrade

Council warns Thames Water delay is halting building of thousands of new homes
6 days ago

Knights Brown bags last phase of £86m Portsmouth flood defence job

Contractor has already completed second and third phases of North Portsea Coastal Scheme
6 days ago

Bidding starts for £1bn housing decarbonising framework

National housing energy efficiency retrofit deal will come into force in 2015
6 days ago

World’s strongest land-based crane launched

Mammoet crane will help build major energy and infrastructure projects
6 days ago

Big Yellow gets go-ahead for largest London site

Storage giant to build 176,000 sq ft scheme next to Kensington Olympia
6 days ago

Worker dies after being buried by trench collapse

Court hears workers on new build housing site had no training on working within excavations
6 days ago

Contractor services