'Sadness and tinge of anger' as care home demolition begins

THE DEMOLITION has begun of a care home which was at the centre of a lengthy legal battle.

Campaigners fought Hull Council for two years over the closure of Rokeby House, but failed in their final legal challenge to block the move.

Mally Fields, whose mother-in-law Stella Cattle was at the home until her death in 2007, said contractors had told him the site was to be grassed over.

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He branded signs announcing "exciting" redevelopment proposals which went up before the General Election as "absolute spin" on the part of the Lib Dem-controlled council.

Mr Fields said he and his wife Barbara felt sad – with a tinge of anger. Six residents out of the nine who were moved out of the home have since died.

He said: "The only victims of the 2007 floods in west Hull were the nine pensioners at Rokeby. Everyone else got their homes back but they were evicted."

He added: "The plans are to pull it down and landscape the area. There's no money for redevelopment and the site wasn't big enough, never has been."

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However, council leader Carl Minns insisted the redevelopment of the site still formed part of long-term plans.

He said: "The site isn't in the current round because of the delay caused by the High Court action, but it is in the extra care strategy as a site.

"As we have said all along it was very, very badly flooded. Catherine Ellis House was also flooded and closed as was the Holden Day Centre."

Dunkirk veteran the late Harry Glentworth was the figurehead of the campaign. In 2007 the great-great-grandfather led staff and residents in a protest on the steps of Hull's Guildhall. Mr Glentworth died last August, a fortnight after the council confirmed it was to shut .

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