RBH urged to reconsider Seven Sisters demolition
COUNCILLORS have called for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) to reconsider its plans to demolish the Seven Sisters tower blocks in light of the coronavirus lockdown.
In a letter addressed to Rochdale Borough Council chief executive Steve Rumbelow and RBH chief executive Gareth Swarbrick, a cross-party coalition of councillors set out a motion seeking more details from RBH about the number of new social rented homes to be built in the town centre and how this will address the current ‘low stock’ of social housing in the area.
Councillor Daniel Meredith, chair of the Communities, Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committees, who was the main signatory of the letter, added that if RBH cannot provide more information or assurances on the quantity of new homes to be built, then the demolition plans should be “halted immediately” to ensure residents will not be forced to move out of the town centre.
Coun Meredith said: “I would go as far as saying it is social gentrification. In 2013 this was the most deprived place in Europe and so they’ve given money from the government to get rid of that problem estate, rebuild over it and put some nicer clientele in there just to make it look a bit better. It shouldn’t work like that.”
Demolition of the first of the four towers on the College Bank site, Mitchell Hey, was due to begin this summer as part of plans unveiled last year which would also see the nearby Lower Falinge site demolished over the next twenty years.
It was reported in December that over half of the residents had moved out of Mitchell Hey.
Coun Meredith said he had previously been in touch with Mr Swarbrick to try and ascertain the numbers o f houses due to be built, one one occasion enquiring as to the contents of RBH’s five year business plan - but was told it was not possible for these figures to be given.
He said that the aim of the letter was to get the issue on the agenda early for after the coronavirus lockdown has sufficiently lifted.
Coun Meredith said: “We’re trying to move forward as quickly as possible with this, because they [RBH] might not be moving people out of the flats, but what they are doing is they are starting to formulate plans into getting the planning permission.
“What we’d like to do is to be ahead of the game, because we’ve been told that there isn’t going to be a full council coming up in the future, and I wanted to get the letter together and get everyone to sign it so we can say that the council is fully against what’s going on in this area and hopefully, after the Covid-19 outbreak, we can actually sit down and have a conversation about how we move forward with this.”
Councillors had previously expressed concern about notices being issued to residents to move out from their homes before the demolition process had been fully approved, as well as the number of social rented or affordable homes that would be available as part of RBH’s building plans for the town centre. Coun Meredith also added that College Bank residents were concerned what the impact of the coronavirus pandemic would be on council funding for new housing developments on the site, and that in light of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s calls to move homeless and council tax Band A residents into emergency accommodation during lockdown, it would be more fitting to adapt the empty flats in the Seven Sisters and Lower Falinge blocks into homes for vulnerable families. According to figures in Coun Meredith’s letter, 1,119 residents currently on the housing register are waiting for a three bed house, 1,981 for two beds, and 2,907 for one-bedroom accommodation.
Coun Meredith said:
“All that needs doing is a flat needs upgraded so that it can accommodate a family, because you have very spacious flats in College Bank.
“They can actually be made into more family orientated houses moving forward as well.”