It's My Property!
The regeneration has affected me a great deal, I have lived in my current home since I was a youngster. About 40years ago, I decided that I wasn't going to live anywhere else, so I bought it, my mortgage has been fully paid up for a few years.
Now the council has decided to 'improve' the area and low and behold they want to take my property away from me! I am not happy about this for a number of reasons; I am settled here and I feel I am now too old to be uprooted from all that is familiar to me, I get on well with my neighbours, and of course there is the question of money, who in their right mind would want to start paying rent after they have lived rent/mortgage free for any length of time?
I can understand the council 'compulsory purchasing' property that is in a dangerous condition and re-housing the occupants, but to take houses that have been well looked after and are the responsibility of the owners, just doesn't make any sense to me.
The council have said that they will try to keep neighbours together if that is their wish, but I think that is being a bit too naïve to think that is possible! There has also been talk of giving people housing similar to the property that they are leaving - i.e. if they have a garden presently, they will get a new house with a garden, if they have parking facilities they will get a house with the same; again I think this is a promise doomed to failure especially as there are more and more tall flats being improved or built and Mills being converted into flats
I am praying for a miracle at the moment, that the council either forget all about my property, or they decide to spend the money on property that needs some TLC. It doesn't take Einstien to look around and see the many properties in the area that have been neglected by their tenants or their owners, incidentally many of them are council properties.
Good Move
I attended a public meeting a couple of years ago about the plans for the Ancoats area. I had heard rumours that the house I was living in was to be demolished. I went to the meeting with an open mind-I wasn't particularly happy in the house I was living in, so I wasn't feeling particularly worried about the prospect. However at the meeting I didn't feel that I could voice views, as there were people in the 'audience' who were quite aggressive and loudly opinionated. So much so that I felt sorry for the people who were in the 'hot seat.' (councillors', housing officers, etc) The people who had organised the meeting did their best to keep order and tried to encourage good manners; asking for people to listen to the answers given, however I felt that many of the 'audience' were only at the meeting to cause a bit of trouble.
When it was finally decided what was happening to the houses where I live. I received offers of tenancies, some of which were not what I wanted. Eventually I was offered a house that suited me and I moved out of my former home, -also out of the Ancoats area. I am extremely happy in my new home, my immediate neighbours are lovely, friendly without being over familiar and they offered help right from the start. I was made to feel most welcome and I haven't regretted the move at all. I wonder how the people who were so vocal at that meeting are faring now, I truly hope that their move was as pleasant as mine has been.
On my soap box
As a first year student at training college in the late sixties. I was taken on a field trip to see the demolition of streets of housing in and around this part of the city. We were told the hardships faced by the population and the need to build better. I think we would do well to consider saving beautiful buildings, modernising and adapting properties.
Dispersing people from their neighbourhood and not providing community facilities, such as shops, schools, community halls and places of worship, in newly built areas, does the people of the country NO favours.
I will get off my soap box now!