黑洞社区

A juicy fee

One of my hacks headed to Ridge鈥檚 recent reception at the venerable Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall. Having a nose around the basement, he spotted the juice bar selling nine options of freshly pressed fruit drinks including 鈥淒etox鈥�, 鈥淒igestive鈥� and 鈥淜eep It Simple鈥� 鈥� all for a mere 拢5.25 a glass. Undeterred by these prices, I asked my man to have a look at how much it would cost for us to join 鈥� a little over 拢1,700 for him, as a youngling, and more than 拢5,500 for me. I鈥檇 need more than a couple of 鈥淒etoxes鈥� after shelling out that kind of money.

A close eye

At the bash itself, my hack spoke to one guest at a consultant, who told him he was working on the fit-out of an office of a larger rival. He鈥檇 thought of a new way of keeping tabs on the competition: 鈥淲e鈥檙e putting cameras in the ceiling,鈥� he joked. I think. 

A new kind of protester

We鈥檝e all heard of nimbys and yimbys 鈥� 鈥渘ot in my back yard鈥� and their development-friendly opposite numbers 鈥� 鈥測es, in my back yard鈥�. But at a recent Policy Exchange event timed to coincide with the launch of the government鈥檚 new 黑洞社区 Better, 黑洞社区 Beautiful Commission, a few more acronyms were bandied about. Housing minister Kit Malthouse said he hoped the commission 鈥� headed by arch-traditionalist Roger Scruton 鈥� would create a nation of 鈥渟limbys鈥� to urge developers to start building 鈥渟omething lovely in my back yard鈥�. 鈥淔FS,鈥� might be the response of some readers.

Making an impression

At the same event, the feted developer Roger Madelin, who built King鈥檚 Cross for Argent and is now behind the similarly ambitious Canada Water project for British Land, recalled his first big success, Brindleyplace in Birmingham. He told how a TV crew had gone down to find out why the canalside development in the city was such a success. They interviewed a few locals, one of whom waxed lyrical: 鈥淲henever friends come to visit, I bring them here to show how lovely Birmingham is becoming.鈥� Then the reporter asked what the resident thought of the architecture 鈥� which was masterplanned by Sir Terry Farrell with individual buildings by the likes of Allies and Morrison and Stanton Williams. He scratched his head and replied: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know 鈥� I鈥檝e never noticed it.鈥�

Shooting from the wallet

Speaking of the clueless, seeing the news that the three water cannons bought by London鈥檚 then-mayor Boris Johnson after the London riots have been sold for scrap at a loss of 拢300,000 got me thinking. If you throw in the money he blew on plans for the ridiculous Garden Bridge, the Thames estuary island airport debacle and the fruitless revamp of the Crystal Palace in south London, then Johnson鈥檚 approach to the public purse tended towards what might be politely described as 鈥渢he highly profligate鈥�. If he could, I鈥檓 sure he鈥檇 find a way to blame the EU.

Get inn there

It鈥檚 been reported Persimmon interim chief exec Dave Jenkinson has splashed out 拢800,000 of his 拢40m bonus on buying his local pub in Northumberland. Jenkinson has taken over from Jeff Fairburn, who was asked to leave by the housebuilder earlier this month after the furore over his 拢75m bonus refused to go away. How apt that Jenkinson鈥檚 local is called Shambles.