What is council playing at?

Published on 6th December 2007 in Letters

Sir - Three years on, and just what did ERYC hope to achieve when they announced their demolition plans for Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street in December, 2004?

They have always claimed that the main objective of Advance Goole was to regenerate Shuffleton. I believe, in fact, that it is having the opposite effect and the letter in last week's Goole Times ('Can't sell my house') demonstrates this fact.

Or could it be that ERYC deliberately set out to blight the surrounding streets in the mistaken belief that they could then roll out demolition notices for these properties as well? Given that, according to ERYC plans, they expected 117 homes to have been demolished by the end of this financial year, which is clearly not the case, don't we the people of Goole have the right to demand just what ERYC are playing at?

As we know from ERYC's own statements, they will not be in a position to issue CPOs for at least another two years. Perhaps they are thinking that maybe they could then include a few more streets in the process, as people will be only too pleased to hand their properties over, given that ERYC appear to me to have rendered selling them virtually impossible.

Therefore, ERYC, three years on: 100 empty, boarded-up properties, remaining residents living a life of misery, houses in surrounding streets unable to be sold, a lack of hope. Isn't it about time ERYC called a halt to this madness and embarked on renovation, unless of course running the surrounding streets down is also part of the 'Master Plan'.

Alan Wilson

Boothferry Road, Goole