Apparently it took so long to knock down because the landlord wanted to knock it down if the council gave him land around the talisman to redevelop. The council said no and the landlord had connections to the council at the time and so there was no pressure to knock it down. Then the landlord was involved in some criminal activities and basically stopped co-operating with the council. Then over the last five years the council spent time trying to find out who was actually legally responsible for the land and finally threatened a purchase order before they finally relented and started knocking it down. |