Unacceptable treatment of people

Published on 18th January 2007 in Letters

Sir - I recently read the novel Dead Souls by Ian Rankin. This book was written in 1999.

In Chapter Forty, Inspector Rebus revisits a run-down part of Edinburgh: "He wondered if the estate would be allowed to survive. He knew that if the Council wanted it run down they would work by stealth. Repairs would not be carried out, or would be botched. Flats would be found to be inhabitable, tenants rehoused, windows and doors blocked and padlocked.

"Things would slowly deteriorate causing residents to rethink their options. More of them would move out....There would be a media outcry about conditions. The Council would move in with offers of help - meaning relocation: cheaper than sharing up the estate. And eventually it would be deserted, a demolition site from which new buildings could rise. Expensive pieds a terre for parliamentarians perhaps."

This extract could be used to sum up ERYC Housing Strategy for Phoenix Street and Richard Cooper Street - and many other councils in England are acting in the same way. It's not just the residents of these two streets that are suffering the vandalism, and squalor is spreading throughout Shuffleton, and it simply isn't acceptable.

The departure of Ms Bell from ERYC, combined with May's elections, demonstrate that administrator and politicians are only temporary and shouldn't be allowed to permanently wreck a community.

Paul Thompson

Montrose Drive,

Goole