Homes set for revamp

Residents have lost the latest battle to demolish a block of shabby maisonettes.

People living near the homes in Horspath Road, Cowley, Oxford, have had to put up with joyriding, drug-trafficking, vandalism and squatters for four years. They sent a 150-signature petition to Oxford City Council asking it to reconsider its decision to refurbish the block.

But the housing committee ignored the residents' plea yesterday, after voting against knocking them down last year. Work, costing £430,000, will start after Christmas if full council backs the committee's decision in two weeks' time.

Joan Oliver, secretary of the Horspath Area Residents and Tenants (HART), challenged councillors to live there for a week when she appealed to the council in July.

The police, the local youth worker and the nearby St Francis First School have also backed demolition.

Mrs Oliver said: "I think it's a stitch-up. Their minds were made up.

"I strongly feel it's nothing to do with what tenants or residents want, it's a power struggle. I feel we have all been ignored."

Councillor Corinna Redman said: "We think there should have been a proper debate about what the petition was asking for."

The run-down block of 22 maisonettes, which is covered in graffiti, has been refurbished in the past but then vandalised again.

Mrs Oliver told yesterday's meeting: "How many times do we have to go through this before someone realises that money is being thrown after bad?"

Bob Hoyle, one of the ward councillors and a governor at the school, said: "The place is squalid. It's in a hollow which is one of the reasons why it attracts criminals. It's a dark moat that people lurk in.

"I hope the councillors take up Joan's challenge and live there for a week."

But Lord Mayor Carole Roberts, who favours refurbishment, said: "If we are going to start pulling down properties because of tenants that are disruptive, we will have no properties left."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.