Anger as campaigners told petition is in vain
8:00am Friday 18th November 2011
BATTLING residents who gathered more than 1,800 signatures on a petition to save their homes have been told their efforts are in vain.
The petition was started a fortnight ago by Bobby Hunt, who lives at Joyce Brooks House, in Oxford Road, Colchester.
The sheltered housing site, along with Abbeygate House, in St John’s Green, will be sold off by Colchester Council to fund improvements to other facilities.
Former Colchester United player Mr Hunt, 68, wanted to get 1,800 names on the petition to save the two houses.
He believed 1,800 signatures would be enough to get the council to reconsider.
The figure is 1 per cent of the borough’s population, but the council has said for legal reasons it can’t go back on its decision, as it was agreed by its cabinet last month.
Political opponents said the council had a moral responsibility to debate the matter at its next full council meeting.
Mr Hunt said: “To be honest, it is totally unfair and unreasonable and not what you call a democracy.
“I don’t know how the council cannot recognise what it is doing is wrong.
“Personally, we think the public is totally behind us.”
He vowed residents would investigate other channels to continue their battle.
Tory councillor Sue Lissimore, of Prettygate ward, said: “What normally happens is a petition of 1,800 signatures has the right to be heard at a full council meeting. But because the decision has already been made, the council is saying it is not going to hear it, so we have been left in a limbo situation, where legally the council doesn’t have to have it, but morally they do.”
Uncertainty still surrounds where the homes’ residents will move and how long it will take.
The council said Joyce Brooks House and Abbeygate House did not meet its standard, with collapsing sewage systems and traces of asbestos.
It said there had 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.
Tim Young, councillor responsible for housing, said: “We accept the petition, but unfortunately for legal and constitutional reasons it cannot spark a debate.”
A council spokesman said: “The decision has been made by cabinet and there is no legal obligation to review the decision.”
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