Residents angry at stalemate over repairs

1:48pm Friday 29th August 2008

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The occupiers of four houses in Embsay have been banned from using their back doors.

The residents of Field Row, in Pasture Road, have also been unable to access their back gardens or hang out washing since January.

Sally McCreadie, who rents one of the houses from Home Group Ltd, a registered social landlord, said the situation was "ridiculous".

The problems have been caused by a collapsing retaining wall, with a stalemate reached over who is responsible for the repairs.

Sally said: "I moved here in December and on January 23, after a lot of heavy rain, myself and a neighbour noticed a retaining wall at the end of our back gardens was collapsing.

"I notified Home Group who said there was a safety risk and told us not to go into the gardens, nor even go out of our back doors. They came along and put metal mesh fencing over the doors to stop us going outside and we have been barricaded in like this ever since.

"It's getting ridiculous now and I think it's just a big safety risk for us not being able to get out of our back doors. Our kitchens are at the front of our homes and if there's a fire in the kitchen we wouldn't be able to get out. Some of the houses have the fencing over their back windows and because the windows open outwards they can't be opened," she said.

There is also fencing on the gable ends of the row of houses to stop people getting to the back of the properties that way.

Another resident, Amy Brewster, said: "We wouldn't mind if something was being done about it, but the wall is getting worse and there is an electric substation at the other side of the retaining wall which is moving and is an even bigger threat to my home than the wall.

"I saw someone looking at the wall a few weeks ago and I asked him if he knew what was happening. He said work was definitely going to start in a couple of weeks, but it hasn't," she said.

According to a letter dated August 12 sent to Miss Brewster, project manager Gerald Hemingway, for Home Group, says they have been in discussion with the loss adjusters who are acting on behalf of the insurers regarding making the wall safe.

But, he says, a stalemate has been reached between the insurers, developers and the landowners and none of the parties involved are willing to resolve the impasse either by deciding who is responsible or through problems with access.

Mr Hemingway's letter says fencing has been put up to ensure residents' safety. It also states that discussions have included the Bolton Abbey Estate whose tenant farmer has land adjoining the site near the retaining wall.

However, the estate says wrong information has been circulating.

Ben Heyes, estate manager at Bolton Abbey said: "The estate does not own the land directly to the rear of the houses so we cannot be responsible for it."

The site developers, Burley Developers, of Ilkley, declined to comment.

But a spokesman for Home Group said they were looking at sorting out the problem for the residents as soon as possible.

One possibility was to carry out the work themselves and work with the loss adjusters to determine responsibility afterwards.