What are plans for streets?

Published on 21st February 2008 in Letters

Sir - Two reputable developers have now made offers in the last two months to buy up the ERYC owned houses in Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street and renovate them in line with GAG's and the Community's plans.

But yet, ERYC still remains tight-lipped about its intentions, insisting the only option is demolition. Perhaps with ERYC refusing to tell us what they want to build in the place of the 117 homes in Richard Cooper St and Phoenix St, and refusing to discuss what are clearly reasonable renovation plans put forward by GAG, we should be looking deeper into their motives?

Who stands to gain from ERYC refusing to renovate? It certainly is not the people desperately short of quality, low-cost, affordable housing. Just who is the preferred developer that they want to utilise to push the planning application forward? How fair will the planning application be? Why are they so secretive? What, if anything, are they hiding?

I have requested on many occasions from Sally Burns and her predecessor a public debate on the future of these streets, but with no success. I believe that the only people in Goole who don't see anything strange in ERYC's behaviour are our elected representatives. I think everyone else believes that there is sufficient information in the public domain to reinforce the view that ERYC's consultation process was a sham. It seems that it was merely an exercise to support a decision taken "on the quiet" several years earlier.

Alan Wilson

Boothferry Road,

Goole