Vandals daub graffiti on fire-ravaged factory at Friars Mill site, Bath Lane, Leicester

“thanks @New Walk View !, I think my passion and view comes from being a photographer and having a desire for the past :-)”

“@ urbanph46

Well said. I'll drink to that!”

“Totalling agree by new Walk view
"What can be done by the rest of us - the vast majority - who can never directly own a stake in historical or heritage properties and rely on others to do so on our behalf? We can take an informed interest in them and encourage others to do the same. We can keep an eye on them and hold the Council and negligent owners to account. And we can try - although goodness knows, it's hard work - to stop people from mindlessly destroying them. That would be a good start.""

And for comments about if the fire and tagging didn't happen, people would not rise eye and care, yes I agree that, its case for many people with their daily busy life. BUT I CERTAINLY TO CARE AND ALWAYS CARE FOR LEICESTER HISTORY, AND WILL ALWAYS , and Im the sort of person who ACTUAL WILL REPORT to the police, the council or try to inform the right people to take action, and regularly walk passed old buildings looking for changes or damage.

My favourite parts of Leicester city is all its old mills, factories, and all round the canal, the industrial parts, the past, over the cash cows consumer cell (means shopping centres)

But the council now must save the building and individuals can try but the council has the power, and local group needs to keep up the pressure of the council.”

“"""sansue " I pretty sure ,well extremely sure that new walk view sub-human primate' MEANS THE VANDALS , WHO HAVE DIS-FACED THE OLD MILL IN LEICESTER""

My thoughts exactly.”

“It is, I agree. It must be very depressing to cycle past the Mill every day, year after year and to see it slowly deteriorating.

The trouble is that safeguarding and finding sympathetic uses for Leicester's heritage buildings is a major, major undertaking. It's way beyond the resources of the CIty Council alone so much of the task inevitably falls to private owners. Some take to it enthusistically and use the heritage buildings to their advantage. Many do what they are required to do but no more. Others - like the ex-owners of Donisithorpe's Mill - have no interest in good stewardship and are all mouth and trousers.

What can be done by the rest of us - the vast majority - who can never directly own a stake in historical or heritage properties and rely on others to do so on our behalf? We can take an informed interest in them and encourage others to do the same. We can keep an eye on them and hold the Council and negligent owners to account. And we can try - although goodness knows, it's hard work - to stop people from mindlessly destroying them. That would be a good start.”

“When I said hobby I used it loosely, just making an example of how the security are paid to make it secure and failed to do so.
I understand your points but what I mean is that if there was no fire there a few months ago, the building would not have been cleaned up at all and would still look unappealing to the public eye for a long long time, its a shame that it takes something like vandalism to make people take notice.”

“@ washup

I can see how you might think that the Mill was unloved and uncared for but appearances are misleading. Heritage groups like the Civic Society and the Victorian Society have been keeping a `watching brief' on the Mill for at least the last decade and probably much longer.

The problem is not that it has been owned by the City Council. The problem is that it HASN'T been owned by them. Using the credit that was freely available at the time, it was purchased by an offshore property company (in the late 1990s, I think) who thought that they could make money from high-rise canalside development. Several years later, having failed to do that and having neglected the Mill (almost certainly in the hope that it would be destroyed and allow them to clear the site) the company was declared insolvent.

The site should have been quickly repossessed by the major lender, the Bank of Ireland. Unfortunately, largely as a result of its own mismanagment, the BoI was itself in financial distress and was in no hurry to speed up the process to formally acquire from the administrators what it thought was a liability.

The City Council had difficulty convincing both the directors of the offshore property company and the adminsitrators to fulfil their obligations and safeguard the Grade Two listed building - which is Leicester's oldest remaining industrial site.

Now, no sooner has the Council finally started to make some headway than local vandals decide to set fire to the building and then daub it with graffiti.

Yes, the security was woeful but please don't give any credit to the people who did this or dignify what they have done by referring to it as a`hobby'.

The City Council and City Mayor are all making an enormous effort to raise awareness of Leicester's heritage and the legacy left to us by previous generations - and it is working, as the nationwide interest in the ongoing search for Richard the Third demonstrates. Local universities, schools, heritage and history groups and other individual volunteers are contributing time, effort and whatever money they can afford. They are all doing it for our benefit and they deserve our support.

Maybe the firestarters and sub-human primates should try supporting them, too. Stretching their minds with a bit of history might give them some sense of who they are and why destroying Donisthorpe's Mill is something that only a real kn*b would do.”

“I have rode past this building every morning on the way to work for the past few years, and for all of that time up until now, nobody cared about this building. It has been sitting there for years without any care or attention and it looked like an eyesore. I usually see rats all around the area, the whole place was full to the brim of all sorts of litter and debris that you could hardly see through the gates. There was nothing nice about it and nobody cared because it was disused.
Then there was a fire and people started to take notice and it got all cleared up which is fair enough. But if this fire wouldn't have happened, it would still be the same old eyesore and waste of a plot of land that it was before. Everybody here is pretending to care so much about it now that it has been vandalised and giving your hypocritical points of view, but if that fire wouldn't have happened, you would all be on here moaning about how it was horrible looking and was a home for rats, litter, graffiti and homeless drug takers.
At least these vandals put a bit of effort into their hobby, whether good or bad, and the security guard can't even do his paid job with effort.”

“What is the security? Some old age pensioner in a wooden shed,wood stove and a hand held lamp to walk around with,and a whistle if a problem found?”

“"sansue " I pretty sure ,well extremely sure that new walk view sub-human primate' MEANS THE VANDALS , WHO HAVE DIS-FACED THE OLD MILL IN LEICESTER”