FRUSTRATED householders are not being consulted in the early stages of a council review of community facilities for fear it will inflame their lack of trust.

Residents in the rundown suburb of Gresham, in Middlesbrough, have lived under the threat of demolition for five years.

Initially, 37 streets were going to be bulldozed and 1,500 terraced homes flattened to make way for new estates.

In April, the masterplan was changed to affect 773 properties – but no bricks have yet been pulled down.

Andrew Cain, principal housing regeneration officer at Middlesbrough Council, said the review involved an assessment of community buildings in the suburb to see which could be turned into one-stop-shops providing as many services as possible under one roof.

But ward councillors requested that the views of influential residents are not sought in the early stages of the review.

“The bottom line is that these services will be cut and that’s a very difficult message for the people of Gresham to hear in a few months time,”

said Councillor Susan Carter.

“I am concerned about mismanaging people’s expectations.

“Do not go out to the public too early. Get as much information as you can before you go out to the residents groups.

Do not ask them what they want if you have no way of providing it.”

Councillor Ken Walker said five years of negative issues had greatly affected Gresham to the extent that it was now unrecognisible.

“I would ask this: if this is going to go ahead at this point in time, it would be folly at this early stage to include, if you like, key residents in Gresham,”

he said.

“It will send out a signal which will be totally negative – that the council cannot be trusted related to Gresham.

This will be seen simply as another consequence of things getting even worse.”

Reacting to the news, Linda Mole, chairwoman of the Gresham Community Council, said last night that residents were used to having their hopes raised and dashed.

She said: “If people heard about this, it would be like a red rag to a bull – it is a Catch 22 situation.

“I do think people have a right to know, but there would be merry hell on.

“This is people’s lives they are dealing with. Gresham is festering, but after five years people still don’t know what is happening to their homes.

They are very despondent.”

An “older housing areas”

final report produced by the council’s economic regeneration and transport scrutiny panel revealed that the council did not have the money to acquire 1,500 homes.

“The mayor [Ray Mallon] stated that the overriding aim of significantly changing the housing offer had been right, but that it had been wrong to advance it without having the funding in place to carry it through,” the report states.

“The mayor stated that he was sorry the previously agreed vision for Gresham could not be achieved in its original form and he had not meant for this to happen. The vision had been well intentioned.”