Colchester Council leader: We really messed up
10:00am Saturday 15th October 2011
THE leader of Colchester Council has apologised for the “terrible” job it did of telling sheltered housing residents about plans to close their complexes.
The authority confirmed it will shut Joyce Brooks House, in Oxford Road, Colchester, and Abbeygate House, in St John’s Green, Colchester. They will be sold to fund improvements to other facilities.
Residents did not find out about the closures until an article appeared in the Gazette. The council cabinet failed to keep them informed during the process. Uncertainty still surrounds where residents will move to and how long it will take.
Council leader Anne Turrell said: “We have done a terrible communication job and I sincerely apologise. We have definitely learnt from this experience.”
The council says Joyce Brooks House and Abbeygate House are below standard, with collapsing sewage systems and traces of asbestos .
It says there has been difficulty filling the rooms and it would cost too much to modernise the facilities.
The sale is expected to raise £1.6million towards refurbishing Harrison Court, in West Mersea, Enoch House, in Greenstead, Colchester, Britannia Court, in Wivenhoe, and Worsnop House in Old Heath, Colchester.
Bobby Hunt, 68, who lives in Joyce Brooks House, has vowed to continue campaigning to overturn the decision.
The former Colchester United forward said his neighbours were devastated.
He said: “I am planning to get a petition to force the council to debate it again.
“We are all just here waiting for a letter to tell us when we are being moved. We are being treated like cattle.”
Roy Beardsworth, an Abbeygate resident, called for legal action to save the property. He claimed: “The proposal and plans begin with lies and continue with other lies and innuendo.’’ Residents met with officers yesterday and say they were told there was no timescale for closure, no accommodation available at the moment and they would have an update in a month. The cabinet decision has to be rubber-stamped at next week’s full council meeting.