Residents in fear after spate of fires on crumbling city estate

People on the Ings estate were part-way through an ambitious 15-year regeneration scheme to replace 1960s-built homes when the Government pulled the funding last year.

Some people have been left stranded in properties next to or surrounded by boarding up housing, and say that at least six fires since December is increasing their anxiety.

Trevor Branton, who has lived on the estate for 48 years, said it was wrong that people were left in squalor, and a Government Minister should visit the area to see just what was going on.

Yesterday piles of rubble marked the place where Caspon housing stood on Battersea Close where there were three fires last Tuesday and another one the previous Saturday afternoon.

Contractors moved in a couple of days later to knock down around 50 homes.

A short walk away more debris points to the spot where another house burned down on St Valentine’s Day.

A few doors away, several properties in a terrace had also gone up in smoke.

Mr Branton, who lives in Bayswater Court, said: “People shouldn’t be left living like this, they don’t deserve it. Regeneration should be for the city as a whole, it shouldn’t be east or west.

“The houses on Battersea were vacant in November and they should have come down then.

“It shouldn’t be that there are peoples’ lives on the line.”

Mr Branton said he was concerned that an east/west divide could develop in the city, west Hull having the benefit of a developer, Keepmoat, which was trying to raise £8m from the Regional Growth Fund to keep the regeneration scheme going on there.

Resident Anna Ashton lives with her three children – two of whom have special needs – in Surbiton Close next to a home which has been empty for years, a short distance from where fires have broken out. Her family were meant to be moving in March.

She said son Leon, nine went to bed asking what would happen if someone set next door’s house on fire and was too scared to let her children play outside. One night they had heard someone ripping the boards off trying to get in next door, she said.

Ms Ashton added: : “I’ve just been to Mind (the mental health charity) because of my anxiety.

“Partly it is because of the boys, but we are in this house and we are not getting any sleep thinking when is it going to happen. When they were getting knocked down all that was between them was plasterboard and a wooden beam.

“It was scary to see how fast they crumbled. When they go on fire it goes through them in seconds, we wouldn’t have a chance.”

Alan Gardiner who will be standing for election as Labour’s candidate in May said: “Someone has to come and see the condition people are living in. In the interim money wants ploughing in to tidy it up.”

Hull Council said the properties in Hammersmith and Finchley Close would be demolished in the next few months.

The acting strategic director of housing investment, Laura Carr, said: “Our first priority is finding a way forward for those households in the current demolition areas who were due to move this year.

“All of the households who have agreed terms have now moved and we are progressing the demolition of the empty properties as quickly as we can.

“We are working with the police and fire and rescue services to do as much as possible to deal with the arson attacks in the area.

“However, the most effective way to deal with this is to demolish the empty properties.

“The council will continue to work with its partners to secure funding to move the regeneration of the area forward and we will keep residents informed of progress.”

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