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‘We shall not be moved!’

Ailsa Cranna
10/11/2005

ELDERLY residents of a sheltered flats complex are refusing to move after the council announced plans for its closure.

After an 11-week consultation process, during which Salford City Council met with residents to discuss the plans, it has been decided that Wrotham Close off Liverpool Street, Salford will close in March 2007.

The site will close along with Collingburn Court in Ordsall after 30 council-owned sheltered schemes were evaluated to test whether they meet the necessary standards.

The council decided both sites did not meet those standards and the cost of bringing them up to scratch would not be a viable use of money.

Residents of Wrotham Close say housing chiefs have deliberately run the place down - refusing to carry out repairs and not re-letting vacant properties.

Many of the remaining tenants, the majority of them frail and in their 80s, are refusing to budge.

Widow Enid Rowlett, 84, who has lived in the close for 23 years, said: "It is disgusting the way they're treating us. The shops are nearby, transport is good and I have a great bunch of friends. Why would I want to go?"

Lilian Crossley, 58, whose mother Lilian Shaw, 84, also lives in Wrotham Close, has accused the council of deliberately trying to make the place uncomfortable so that residents will want to leave.

"Every time one of the flats becomes vacant, it's not filled by the council. Out of 49 flats, only 21 are currently occupied.

"They've been deliberately running the place down and at the same time have asked residents what they want to see in the area.

"Councillors held a meeting with residents and said Wrotham Close was not viable because it didn't have local facilities and residents would have to move to other sheltered accommodation in the area.

"But there isn't anywhere local to these people. What the council is doing is immoral. We feel they are doing this because they have more profitable plans for the area - and always did have - but were just going through the motions of consulting residents."

Councillor Peter Connor said: "There's no hidden agenda. It's difficult when it comes to having to make a decision and that is why we've been going back and back speaking to people.

"If there is any instances of anybody waiting for repairs if they contact us at the office we will approach New Prospect."

Assistant director of community housing services Jean Rollinson said residents would be entitled to a home loss payment of £3,800 and would receive the necessary help from the council to move to a new property.