Residents hit out at report on demolition

9:10am Tuesday 29th August 2006

RESIDENTS opposed to the demolition of their homes have expressed anger that a council report said there was insufficient money to start the scale of demolition first envisaged.

The Gresham area of Middlesbrough will lose 37 streets if the borough council's proposals to pull down 1,500 terraced houses in the town centre are approved.

The council said they would be replaced by modern residential developments.

The Middlesbrough Council report said there was insufficient funds to start the scale of demolition first envisaged, with a knock-on effect for the timetable of the entire scheme.

Protestors are also are angry that more than £1.6m of the £11m cost of work will come from council funds.

Residents' spokesman Ash Marron said: "This means that nearly all the budget is going into acquisition and demolition rather than regeneration we have heard so much about, because they do not have the money for that."

He said of the project: "It is in complete disarray and so must go back the drawing board.''

Objectors have also questioned claims that more than 80 per cent of owner-occupiers in the first streets planned to be demolished have indicated a willingness to sell.

A council spokesman said: "In the early days, there was a general acceptance of the council's policy and recognition that it was right. People were really wanting to get to the point where we were discussing terms with the council.

Mr Marron said: "Everything is for sale at the right price.

"To claim 80 per cent are willing to sell is like saying eight of ten owners say their cats prefer a pet food."

Residents have also hit out at alleged plans to replace some of the flattened houses with shops.

Resident Eddie Johnson said Tennyson Street, where he lives, would be bulldozed to help create a specialist retail, bar and cafe quarter, despite the fact there were empty shops nearby that could be converted.

A council spokesman said residents were still being consulted. He said: "It may be that this will suggest the need for a limited amount of retail on a small part of the cleared site, for example, for convenience stores for the local area, but it is important to stress that the council's primary aim is, and always has been, to put replacement residential development on the site."