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And they all came tumbling down!

Mike Lane | 22.01.2004 23:33 | Liverpool

Massive demolition of working class areas is now on the cards

Was on the 800 house Klondike estate in Bootle today fitting an aerial. This estate is due for demolition. Took a drive around and was surprised of how in good nick the old houses were. I always thought this area was mostly home owners as they are old houses of the type homeowners buy. It comes as a surprise that 80% of the people who live in the area are tenants, mainly Riverside.

Got talking to a couple of people and they told me Riverside had moved many anti-social tenants into the area, about five in every street. One guy said that it was a great place to live in ten years ago, but Riverside had messed the place up big time. He said he thought it was deliberate to bring the area down so as to make it easier to throw people out. I have heard the latter statement hundreds of times before.

Went from the Klondike estate to Ibstock St and then onto Percy St, both of which are off Knowsley Road. Both customers were home owners and the one in Percy St told me that rumour has it all the houses between Marsh Lane and Knowsley Road as well as houses over the other side of Knowsley Rd could be demolished, probably 2,000 to 3,000 houses. Man this massive. Demolitions and planned demolitions are now taking place in Dingle, Wavertree, Kirby, Norris Green, Anfield and elsewhere. We are probably looking at the possibility of demolitions right across Merseyside as never seen since the sixties. It would seem that the RSL's want to get shut of their old stock. They also confirmed that all the same methodology and offers of shared ownership as is happening in Kensington is happening up there.

I also found out today from a homeowner who went to a housing meeting last night, the one that is chaired by good old Enid, that there could be 2,000 demolitition in the Kensington NDC because the women From the KR, can't think of her name, would not deny it. All these demolitions are planned over a 15 year period. This is very serious and I am surprised that the Echo has not picked up on this. The main RSL connected with all this is Riverside, which isn't surprising as Riverside have somewhere in the region of 21,000 properties in Merseyside. Riverside has many subsidiaries and the chief exec of Riverside, Debra Shackilton earns about £140,000 per year. Riverside are totally backed by the Government's oppresvie Housing Corporation. It's very daunting isn't it? How the hell can you fight something so massive?

Mike Lane
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Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. A positive and constructive suggestion — Kai Andersen
  2. concerned — concerned
  3. concerned — concerned
  4. concerned — concerned