A long conversation with a local vicar today saw our imaginations fly and with my Regeneration hat on I was able to say semi seriously when confronted with a piece of land which has no vehicle access: "why not build a helipad?" I don't think that is the most helpful thing I have said to anyone recently but one thing that involvement in regenration has told me is the importance of imagination.
We need to see the future before it happens,
and in that seeing we are able to test the future before it happens
and modify so that what eventually happens is better than we could ever dream.
When the helipad was swept away we were left with a very old, slightly quirky grade 1 (I think) listed building which fairly inadequately serves a fairly run down white working class area. Added to this it is next to a big conerbation that sucks all the funding towards it. What has this building got that no-one else has... age and beauty. The idea was seeded that it would make a brilliant concert hall and that converting it to that would save the building and at the same time create a greatnew church interior. Suddenly a burden could just about become an asset. I wonder how many times the stone the builders rejected becomes the keystone? It's an important lesson to planners and to regenerators to be cautious in our appraoch to the old eyesore, or quirky monstrocity.
I can't wait to see what happens... or to help make it happen as we network into the regenerators world.
Incidentally if it were to become a world class venue we might need the helipad after all...
but that can wait till later!
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