Council wants to bulldoze our home
IMAGINE if you were told that your home is to be bulldozed. Lincolnshire County Council informed us a fortnight ago that its preferred route for the Spalding Western Relief Road is straight through our house, and this proposal will be carried forward to a committee meeting to vote. Earlier in the year, the council forgot to tell us our home was on the route and we missed all the planning consultations. We thought the relief road was to be routed through nearby allotments, where there is no need to demolish family homes. Along with our neighbours, we were in shock when we found out from an independent councillor that many of us in Bourne Road would lose our homes. The council did put up posters in doctor surgeries and hospitals, but these referred to ‘the future of Spalding’. They didn’t say: ‘Attend a consultation to see if your home will be bulldozed.’ Our MP Sir John Hayes thinks the whole thing is appalling and is doing his best to help us by appealing to the council to choose one of the other suggested routes. However, it all boils down to money and going through our homes is seen as a cheaper option, allowing more houses to be built on proposed housing estates. How crazy is that: destroying nine family homes to create an access road to new homes. The Secretary of State said the council can demolish our homes only as a last resort, but it appears it has made up its mind. In February, it agreed to look at the other options and it kept us waiting all through a summer of hell. We were told not to make any improvements to our homes, but even so, we felt there was a glimmer of hope. But then one evening a fortnight ago, letters were dropped through our doors to tell us they were still planning to bulldoze our homes. Originally it was five, then seven and now nine. So many errors have been made by the council throughout the planning process. One of a pair of semis built two years ago was lined up for demolition. Now, the council has said both have to go. My husband and I built our beautiful house brick by brick as our for ever home and it holds so many memories. Our neighbour Richard has landscaped his garden and installed solar panels ready for his retirement. The mum of a young family is disabled and has had her home adapted at a great cost. Don is 86 and is so worried that he has shed tears. We don’t have the resources to pay for a lengthy legal battle, but are prepared to chain ourselves to our homes to stop the bulldozers! CATHERINE ROBERTS, Spalding, Lincs.