YP Letters: Have-nots suffer in shadow of luxury property

An artist's impression of Harrogate's Crescent Gradens development.

IT was with great sadness that I read about the redevelopment of Harrogate Council’s former chambers into luxury properties costing millions of pounds (The Yorkshire Post, December 18).

It made me sad because of the kind of society that we are living in today, consisting of the “haves” and the “have nots”.

We have a friend who has lived in Harrogate for the past 15 years and recently was asked to leave his flat so that the landlord could redevelop it and charge more rent.

He has been placed in a tiny room in a bed and breakfast property because he happens to be a single male with no dependants.

He has no cooking  facilities and has to buy sandwiches or takeaways if he can afford it.

He works in a shop and will be working over Christmas  because it’s better than looking at four walls and trying to keep warm.

I presume the council will be making a lot of money from selling Crescent Gardens, it’s a pity they can’t find a place for people who haven’t got £2.5m to buy a place to live.