Gateshead Council Spin Machine Limits Media Damage

Gateshead Council have once again produced a rabbit from a hat and turned bad news into good news.

Claiming that residents have failed to stop demolition in the courts is technically true but somewhat misses out most of the story.

How could the residents of MacAdam Street been so stupid as to believe their local council would threaten the houses they owned with demolition? The reason was pretty simple - Gateshead Council wrote to them and told them that their homes were going to be demolished.

Residents successfully persuaded a High Court Judge to grant an interim injunction against the council to prevent demolition of homes they didn't own. In other words a Judge was persuaded that there was good evidence Gateshead Council were about to break the law. We have a copy of the injunction!

Legal eagles at the Civic Centre must have realised that an almighty gaffe had been made. Forty eight hours before a full hearing at the High Court in London Gateshead Council signed a legal document with solicitors representing two of the residents saying that they had acted unlawfully and they wouldn't do it again. They also paid out compensation for the distress suffered by residents.

The council has been using desperate tactics of harrassment to try and persuade residents of MacAdam street to sell up. Officers think that potential developers will be put off building new by the sight of the back yards in MacAdam Street. A number of council officers have been subjects of official complaints by residents and the council has gone to bizarre measures of witholding officers names to avoid further complaints.

[Picture Credit: A view from residents' windows. Would you like to be in the middle of one of Gateshead Council's "improvements".]


Links
Gateshead Council Press Release

The Empty Houses That Gateshead Can't Find

In 2005 Councillor Peter Mole, on BBC TV, faithfully reproduced the mantra of Gateshead Council. There were 600 "abandoned" properties in the area and there were too many empty homes.

This was one of the key statistics that justified demolition.

Behind the statistic was that the so-called "abandoned" homes had a common landlord - Gateshead Council. Yes the council was creating the problem statistics that it wanted to remedy.

Our area has a lot of student accomodation and a lot of people want to modernise or change their property. Hence a lot of movement and screwed up statistics on who lives here.

Gateshead Council wanted to use words like "abandoned" to give the impression of a community in decline and a community in crisis. However, according to Council News, the official propaganda sheet of the council they would find homes for everyone in the community. If you faced demolition they would work with you. A series of photo opportunities appeared with happy smiling families being re-housed. When you talk to the people their stories were not quite what they appeared.

Of course Gateshead Council should have been able to find local homes because they knew of 600 abandoned properties!

This week one of the last residents of Armstrong Street was offered a "local" property by Gateshead Council. The property was in Blyth - 15 miles away. A new definition to the word local.

Apparently none of the 600 "abandoned" properties was available. Or perhaps that statistic was as accurate as the other stories Gateshead Council devised to justify bringing in the bulldozers.

Creating The Victims of Demolition

Who could live in the middle of all this?

Gateshead Council keep telling people that there are 600 "abandoned" properties and that there is "low demand" for homes in Saltwell and Bensham. Yet people are still living in the area.

The barrier in the photograph is there because Gateshead Council can't block off the street. It's a major access road for pedestrians trying to get to Saltwell Road.

Two people still live in the street and behind the street a resident with mental health problems has been imprisioned in his own home.

Demolition is racing ahead to avoid the prospect of judicial review into the demolition. Meanwhile the resident who has been fenced in to his home can't even get his rubbish cleared because there is now no entry to his rear yard creating an obvious health hazard.

During the demolition the contractors have twice breached gas mains, clambered on the roof without any safety helmets or equipment, and scattered bricks beyond the flimsy steel barriers that are supposed to "protect" the resident population.

It could have been different. Until Gateshead Council started buying property in Armstrong Street there was a good community spirit. However the council moved in their problem tennants from other areas. Quickly it became a problem area. In a self-fulfilling process a good street declined, people left, Gateshead Council boarded up houses and then claimed the only solution was demolition. The local authority created the problem and then moved the bulldozers in.

Many good people lost homes because of this mis-guided policy. The taxpayer is now spending millions on demolition where renovation earlier on would have solved many housing issues. The problem families have now gone somewhere else to perhaps be used as a lever to promote more demolition.