Last man standing
Terrace to be demolished, but he refuses to sell home of 58 years
A PENSIONER is refusing to leave the home he grew up in despite plans to demolish every other house in his street.
Alexander Cooper, 62, said he will not be paid off by the council, which has already moved his neighbours from the surrounding 39 houses. Instead, his midterrace home will soon be bricked up on either side to become a detached property.
After an 18-month dispute with Newcastle City Council, Mr Cooper said he was not offered a fair price to move out of his house – worth an estimated £72,000.
The defiant pensioner and his partner Nicola Callendar are now the sole residents of Woodside Avenue on the banks of the Tyne.
Before the demolition work, the street was home to the family of X Factor judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini. The pop star’s father, Garry Tweedy, 51, lived in a former council house with her mother but was moved out by the local authority last year.
The area in Walker, Newcastle, wedged between a former shipyard and industrial estate north of the river, has since been turned into a wasteland of rubble and boarded-up houses.
But last night, retired shipyard worker Mr Cooper, who bought his two-bedroom former council house in 1989, said he would have lost money if he had accepted the sum he was offered. ‘People in the area think that I’ve been offered massive sums of money to move but that is just not true,’ he said. ‘They’ve been offering nowhere near the amounts people think.
‘So I’ll be here until everything is gone, and when my house is the only one standing I’m going to have a great view of the Tyne … I have lived here since I was four. There was a great community here at one time and it’s sad that that’s all gone now.
‘The council said there were structural problems with the
‘Turning it into a detached house’
houses but they’ve been here for over 100 years, and they’ve been hit with bombs and everything over the years.’
The go-ahead for the demolition work was given last year after most of the residents accepted rehousing and cash deals.
Mr Cooper added: ‘I’ve told the council that I want my roof fixing and a new gable end and they will have to take the houses next door to mine down by hand … The demolition work has been put back many times and now that it’s begun I want it all resolved and sorted out by Christmas as they said it would only take around eight weeks to complete.’
A council spokesman said: ‘We sympathise with Mr Cooper’s position … we can’t divulge figures but all the affected residents have been offered their property’s full valuation plus an additional 10 per cent, and contributions towards moving and furnishing costs.
‘We have offered the resident a number of opportunities including turning his home into a detached property and offering him a substantial equity loan to enable him to purchase another property in the region. The decision was taken due to structural movement to the properties.’
‘Mr Cooper and his partner are the only remaining residents. He has consistently said he wishes to remain and arrangements are in place to brick up the outer leafs of his property, effectively creating a detached house.’
Most of the 40 homes, which date from the early 1900s, were owned by the council, but seven were privately owned.