Council Accused Of 'bullying' Residents Into Demolition Plan
ANGRY residents of an estate set to be re-vamped as part of a £13 million regeneration scheme have accused Doncaster Council of "bullying" them into the demolition of their homes.
Residents of the Windhill Estate in Mexborough attended a meeting of the council's watchdog committee to voice their disquiet at the controversial Pathfinder regeneration scheme where they blamed council officers for misleading them.
Coun Edwin Simpson (Lib Dem) told a meeting of the council's Safer, Stronger and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel: "A lot of the feedback I've been getting is that a lot of residents didn't understand the officers meant total demolition and total rebuild and this has of course caused a lot of anger in the area.
Our feedback was there was a lot of bullying in that process."
Windhill resident Margaret Cook said: "In a consultation meeting we went to we were told we would all move back to our own houses. The council has misled people, it's come back now you could be moved anywhere in the borough. It's a community they're breaking up here."
Fellow resident Jo Robinson added: "They're breaking up families. The majority of the people don't want demolition. We have done a survey and there's 88 per cent for refurbishment and five per cent for demolition. They're good, sound houses all they want is refurbishing. It isn't long since my daughter got a survey done on her house and it is structurally sound. I blame the council for the state the houses are in because Mexborough is a forgotten town."
Coun Cliff Hampson added that he was "quite appalled" that the £13 million scheme had set aside almost £1.3 million for administration costs.
However, Pathfinder programme manager Sarah Watson dismissed the claims. She said: "I don't think that is overly high to deliver a £13 million scheme, ten per cent administration costs is fairly standard. I'm confident that the officers in my team wouldn't have deliberately misled people. I don't believe they would have bullied anybody to choose the option because it doesn't matter to the Pathfinder whether they went for it or not, we will just spend the money somewhere else.
"We won't move someone away from a demolition area to somewhere they don't want to go. It is entirely up to each household where they move. They will get a priority on the waiting list for any area of their choice. No one is going to be forced anywhere they don't want to go. We don't want to break up families."
Three weeks ago the cabinet agreed to the redevelopment of phase one of the Windhill estates after 74 per cent of residents on Pitt Street, Clayfield View and Windhill Avenue said they were in favour of it.
The scheme will see a total of £4.1 million spent in Mexborough as part of the scheme to tackle low housing demand and abandonment in the area, while Edlington is set to receive £3.7 million and Denaby £3.9 million.
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