Ordeal for elderly residents facing eviction

From next January East Riding Council is bringing in a new housing policy that takes into account peoples’ connections with the East Riding.

Roy Cliff, 75, who lives with his disabled wife Patricia on Lakeminster Park, are among 130 residents who face losing their park homes in 18 months time, after an inspector upheld the council’s refusal of planning permission allowing them to live there all year round.

The council’s barrister, Nicola Allan, told the inquiry “no-one would be rendered homeless, or left at the side of the road”.

But Mr Cliff is concerned they will slip down the list – it has 11,000 people on it – as they don’t have close relations living locally.

He said: “We’ve been on the housing list two and a half years since this all started and have been asked twice whether we want to remain on it. I noticed a change in the latest form which asks whether you have close relatives who have been living in the East Riding for five years.

“We have seven children between us, but they are all over the place, Scotland, Leeds, Catterick.

“You can’t ask the council questions because it says on the form they don’t enter into general correspondence. It’s like being on a cliff-edge, it is a constant worry.”

Mr Cliff, a former Royal Mail inspector from Leeds, paid £140,000 for a park home in 2009, having been told they could have “a 12-month occupancy”. Like many others he is still paying full council tax as well as ground rent on a home which now looks as if it will have to be razed. He said: “We had a three-bedroomed house but my wife who had a stroke in 1995 couldn’t cope with the steps and so we decided to come here. It was just right for us. The council claims to be caring, but this has been the worst year of my life.”

Another Lakeminster resident, Jim Clarke is also “in limbo”, having received an eviction notice from the owners of the park, who are under an injunction which prevents them from reletting tenancies.

Mr Clarke discovered the notice after coming out of hospital where he had been for a month being treated for septicaemia. He struggles to keep on his feet and relies on carers. His ex-wife Ann, who is supporting him, was told to go to Citizen’s Advice - and when they couldn’t help to a solicitor charging £110 an hour.

He said: “The council said there wouldn’t be any problems rehousing us, but it is definitely not simple in my case. I had a letter from the council earlier this year saying I was a medical priority. They won’t speak to us. Are they going to find me somewhere or are they going to leave me at the bottom of the housing list? I don’t know.”

Woodmansey councillor Kerri Harold said everything depended on an appeal going to the High Court next month. She said the council were unable to act until someone had been deemed homeless, but appreciated it “must be a living nightmare on there.”

She insisted she and her ward colleagues would ensure “that when the time comes no one will be left without a home.”

A council spokesman said: “From January 2014, the council will be implementing a new housing policy that will take into account whether applicants have a connection to the East Riding and as such the authority is reviewing all 11,000 on the waiting list and has sent new application forms for them to fill in and re-submit so that the council can assess their housing needs in line with the council’s new policy.”