where's the Professionals when you need them?Cut out this cancer Aug 4 2005
Sandy Mckenzie, Evening Gazette
There will be no rethink on the plans for Gresham despite heartfelt pleas at Middlesbrough Council's Scrutiny Board.
Councillors refused to refer back the proposals for further consideration.
The demolitions are the most controversial part of a strategy which could cost £160m and which would aim to stabilise and enhance the overall stock of terraced homes in the town.
Linda Mole, Gresham Community Council chairman, told the Scrutiny Board that "life stopped" for 1,500 Gresham families on July 12 when details of the homes to be demolished were announced in the Gazette.
"Their future was full of dismay and uncertainty," she said.
"People call this regeneration but for us in Gresham it is destruction. We are living with uncertainty every day.
Councillors Ken Walker and Maelor Williams, who led moves to put the proposed demolitions into the council's scrutiny process, called for it to be reconsidered.
Cllr Walker said: "Gresham is a well established, multi-cultural community. It is diverse but integrated and it is an excellent example of what Tony Blair and the Government is seeking to achieve in the UK.
"We are in danger of breaking this up and scattering it to the four winds."
He claimed the proposal was now at odds with the thinking in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and that the demolitions would mean a multi-million pound windfall for speculators, developers and possibly the council at the expense of local residents.
Cllr Williams said each of the six terraced housing areas should be considered separately and smaller demolition zones could be considered in each of the areas.
Someone losing their home in Gresham might well prefer to stay in the Gresham area rather than be forced to move to another terraced housing area.
He said he was concerned that refurbishment was taking second place to demolition.
But Tim White, the council's regeneration director, said the consultation had been thorough, appropriate, and stood up well in comparison to consultation carried out in other Housing Pathfinder areas.
He said selective demolition did not work.
"It does not create the confidence or a site which registered social landlords and housing developers are interested in. It does not work in practical terms or in accessing funding," he said.
Mr White stressed the need for action now or the council could lose the chance of Government cash support.
"I believe the proposals overall are the best way to create a sustainable future for 25,000 people," he said.
Dave Budd, Executive councillor for regeneration, said: "This is not just about housing. We have to make sure it is about improving people's lives, where they live and where they work.
"We will treat people individually and we will deal with people's individual problems," he said.
Just one board member supported a referral back to the Executive - Councillor Eddie Dryden said it would continue the consultation process and would allow more certainty to be provided on certain issues.
But Councillor Terry Ward, who was chairman at the meeting, said: "This is an opportunity we must grasp.
"Attempts to develop small - however attractive - areas of housing do not work. These proposals are in the interests of the whole town but I do accept this is hard for the Gresham community," he said.
'It's a matter of life and death'
Pulling down the 1500 homes in Middlesbrough's Gresham area is a matter of life and death for the town, Mayor Ray Mallon told an emotional metting last night.
His determined message came as he clashed with former council leader Ken Walker over the contentious plans for the Victorian terraced properties.
At one point he claimed that Cllr Walker - a leading voice opposing the scale of the proposed demolition - was simply seeking votes in his ward.
But the veteran councillor stood his ground and insisted the Mayor, his executive and officers of the council "had got it wrong".
And one resident at the forefront of the opposition pledged that the fight against the demolitions would go on.
At last night's Middlesbrough Council meeting two residents, Majahid Aslam and Ashley Marron, presented petitions against the demolitions with more than 1,600 signatures to council chairman Councillor Steve Bloundele.
Mr Aslam said: "Despite claims these houses are unfit we are perfectly happy to live in them but our views are being ignored.
"We have a stable, diverse community yet the council wants to destroy it.
"We will fight this to the end to protect our homes," he said.
Mr Marron said the proposals would rip the heart out of the town and destroy a community.
He said 96pc of residents affected wanted refurbishment of the houses - not demolition.
Mr Mallon said the town was haemorrhaging people.
It was losing population at the rate of 750 people a year.
That meant less and less Government grant to support services in the borough.
"We have a small window of opportunity and we have until the end of September to submit an acceptable plan.
"The Government has made it clear that the prerequisite to refurbishment money is some demolition," said Mr Mallon.
He revealed for the first time he had considered proposing the demolition of 2,500 homes.
"This is a matter of life and death," he said.
"This is about Middlesbrough having life or Middlesbrough dying slowly over the next 20 years.
"Of the town's 25 wards we have 16 in the top 10pc of the most deprived in the country and three are in the top 2pc of most deprived - and Gresham is one of them.
"If a person has cancer a surgeon does not cut a little bit here and a little bit there. He cuts a big piece out to save the rest of the body," he said.
Mr Mallon said improvements would be carried out to thousands of other terraced homes and terraced housing areas.
He hit out at "assertions" made by Cllr Walker in a letter to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr Mallon said it was not true the ODPM had changed policy on demolitions, it was untrue he and the Executive had acted in a cavalier fashion, and proper advice had been given by council officers.
He told Cllr Walker: "I have concluded you don't care about Gresham. It is you you care about - you care about votes."
But Cllr Walker said he stood by what he had written in the letter.
"These proposals are wrong and ill advised. It is misleading to suggest to people that it is all or nothing," he said.
Cllr Walker said he supported some selective demolitions in the terraced housing areas.
And he said the cancer in communities was not buildings but some people.
Cllr Walker said in the past Single Regeneration Budget money had been spent in a small part of the Gresham area. It had shown the existing homes could continue to have a life for years to come.
John McPartland, a Middlehaven Ward councillor, said that from his contact with residents in the part of his ward affected by the demolition proposals it seemed as if 60pc of people wanted to move out and 40pc wanted to stay.
http://icteesside.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n ... _page.html
oh here they are http://middlesbrough-council.com/forum/ ... =135&t=787
