Demolition of high-rise blocks ‘will destroy our community’
TOWER block residents living on one of Birmingham’s biggest council estates fear the heart will be ripped out of their community when their homes are bulldozed.
The high-rises on the Druids Heath estate on the southern edge of the city have provided homes for generations of family for 50 years.
But now the 1960s-built blocks, with about 50 flats in each, are widely thought to be coming to the end of their lives.
Within weeks, Birmingham City Council’s Labour leadership is expected to sign off the demolition of at least 11 of the 15 towers.
They will be replaced with new homes in a regeneration project expected to take about 15 years.
One block, Heath House, is already set for demolition and residents are being moved out.
But some residents are not happy at the prospect of being ripped away from their friends, relatives and neighbours, as well as their shops, schools and churches.
They fear that, with fewer homes planned, and just 60 per cent of them set to be council houses, they will be unable to stay in the area. AnneMarie Alder, a resident and community worker with the local Spearhead Trust voluntary group, hears many of the concerns.
She said: “They are going to destroy this community. They are demolishing far more properties than they are building.
“I don’t think they realise the impact and the community connections there are.”
She said the building of new homes should start on the derelict Baverstock School site to accommodate residents from the towers, instead of moving them across the city.
“The residents are in the dark, they don’t know where they are going, or how long its going to take,” she added.
Residents also claimed there had been deliberate neglect of the estate as officials plotted the demolition.
With some set to wait more than ten years for eventual eviction and demolition of their block, they fear the problems will only get worse.
Council housing chief Clive Skidmore confirmed the regeneration proposals would be looked at by the city’s cabinet in September.