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Re: Cllr Rooney declaring the £1,081,000 for bringing 100 empty houses back into use in Gresham
‘Houses set for £1m funding (2.6.12)
I find it rather odd, when Mayor Mallon and MBC actually were responsible for the empty houses being created. The cost of this exercise was to the ratepayers/taxpayers, this money is still coming from the taxpayer. The £1m plus will be used to bring 100 houses into use, for sale or rent.
The questions I would ask are:
Who will be the owner of these houses at completion?
Who will the resulting sales money go to?
Who will the resulting rents go to?
I can’t believe Cllr Charlie Rooney Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development when he states that the £1m grant from the Government’s Empty Homes Fund was “another important stage in the regeneration of Gresham”.
In July 2005, when I urged Ray Mallon and the Labour Group to abandon their ill thought out demolition of 1,500 houses throughout Gresham ward and instead invest in a 5 year programme of refurbishing all the existing properties in both Gresham and Middlehaven wards, I was taken to one side and told by the leaders of the Labour Group that they would get me kicked out of the Labour Party if I did not keep quiet and support Ray Mallon’s demolition proposals.
I refused to accept this ultimatum and was duly kicked out of the Labour Group and then the Labour Party.
It’s ironic that houses in Wentworth Street and Waverley Street are among the very streets I campaigned to save and upgrade’
It also beggars belief that Charlie Rooney also told the Gazette
“Refurbishing empty homes has a positive impact on the surrounding area”
He was a leading voice, along with Dave Budd, in 2005 calling for these very same homes to be sacrificed to the bulldozers.
I am pleased that these houses are once again going to be homes for Middlesbrough families desperate for affordable accommodation.
What I am at a total loss to understand is that Ray Mallon supported by Charlie Rooney and the Labour Group are still going ahead with borrowing millions to demolish another 700 perfectly good solid terraced houses in central Middlesbrough.
Ken Walker, Councillor for Gresham ward from 1995 to 2011
