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@luckyjimm
The second man I spoke to runs (and lives above) a shop on Pitfield Street. Unlike our yuppie interloper, he'd been in the area since the 1980s. He saw the Foundry as embodying the artistic spirit of the area and was angry to see it closed down, to be replaced by something of no value to the local community.
He agreed that there was a problem with binge drinking, but that was the out-of-town crowd, and they certainly weren't coming to the Foundry.
He said the hotel would be utterly out of character with the area, towering above the apartment block over the road. Most residents were opposed to it, he said, despite what the other man might have told me.
He said he had submitted a 50-page objection to the hotel, solidly argued in terms of planning law, but it had been utterly ignored. He suggested the council's decision had been influenced by receiving a generous donation from the developers; against which the protests of residents such as himself stood no chance. This is totally unverified, but I'd be interested to hear more.