They've just finished knocking down the offices at Riverside after a few weeks' delay caused by the higher façade falling into the road instead of the dirty big hole in the back. There's a bit of a row about it because the sandstone facings were supposed to be being sold for reclamation but went to landfill instead (we're told).
This is the first phase of town centre redevelopment (how the waters freeze at those words). Riverside is to be the site for the new town hall and council offices. Typically for Helminthdale ambition overstretches reality: the site's about the size of a football pitch and is to hold the new council offices, a bus station, a tram terminal, an extension to the shopping centre and a plaza with trees and fountain-adorned rills. I expect we'll end up with an Anderson shelter and a bus stop.
A colleague (he knows who he is) tells me that his council's town hall was Hitler's favourite English building and that the council was so flattered by his approval that they've worked against the best interests of the nation ever since.
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