Project Phoenix

[Ifty]

RESIDENTS trapped by the troubled Project Phoenix have sounded a desperate cry for help.

Their lives have been put on hold after Hyndburn Council ran out of money to complete the high-profile regeneration scheme.

Many homes in West Accrington have been bought under compulsory purchase orders and the owners relocated with the help of £30,000 grants.

But those left behind complain they are living lives of utter misery in "disgusting slum streets" with boarded-up houses and broken windows.

Thieves and vandals have moved in and stolen hundreds of roof slates from derelict buildings.

Lonsdale Street newsagent Nazir Shah said: "We are stuck in a ghost town. I will be out of business very soon.

"The council should have got its plans straight and the finances planned years ago.

"There is nothing here but human suffering and misery."

Joan Rawstron, 42, of nearby Rutland Street, said: "It’s becoming unbearable.

"It’s soul-destroying to see the area decline."

Joan Pilkington, secretary of West Accrington Residents’ Association, said: "How can the council let people suffer in an area like this and spend money on far less important schemes?

"Nothing ever happens for people on the ground."

Councillor Tony Dobson, Cabinet portfolio holder for housing, said discussions about securing funding were ongoing and good news might be just weeks away.

He said: "We could be on the verge of securing £600,000 from a Government agency and that would get the project back on track."


This is from Observer. Its a bad state with council overspent already so how can they buy the shops and houses still left? Will they help out business ruined?

[Darby]

I read this article as well, and notice the last line
"We COULD be on the verge of securing £600K from a Government agency........"

Aye..and it COULD be a load of rubbish!!! It COULD be that they don't get this (plucked out of the air) money...etc., etc. What a load of Bulls**t, ......why do you (Accy voters) put up with such nonsense!!

Who does this Tony Dobson think he is???? Ask him to try telling the truth for a change..He probably wouldn't know the truth if it hit him on the head!!

[Acrylic-bob]

There was this story in the Telegraph last night -

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/la.../NEWSACC1.html

What a shambles!

[WillowTheWhisp]

What was that you said about Cloud Cuckoo Land?

I love this quotation:

"We should, almost immediately, be able to continue buying properties and help people relocate"

What they "should" and what they "will" are probably two entirely different things.

[Darby]

Newspeak??

[Ceejache]

Project Phoenix eh? A Phoenix that rises from the flames and ashes.....and HBC cant even start the fire in the first place.....Brilliant!

I feel for the people still left there. A copper around the area would be nice but Police resources are stretched blah blah blah.....if that was the case then get this - yesterday afternoon at Rising Bridge roundabout a truck was laying tarmac or something and there was not one, not two, not three but FIVE Police patrol vehicles on the scene, the way they were parked was actually making it even harder for people to navigate the roundabout!

[Acrylic-bob]

Can you imagine making this sort of cock-up in the private sector and expecting to keep your job? I can't.

But the thing that really narks me is that Nigel Rix and his pals have a history of this sort of bungling inefficiency.

[pendy]

What is going on here? Okay so the houses in that area were not perfect, but much less than 30K spent on each one would have brought them well up to a decent standard, surely? Then people who had lived all their lives in a place they were happy with could have stayed there, new people could have moved in, and the community would survive.

And what's all this "could" "might" "maybe" stuff about? Perhaps we should insist that councillors know how to run a business, cash flow, funding, etc, perhaps even, dare I say, cost/benefit analysis, before we let them loose with OUR money.

[Busman747]

"A copper around the area would be nice but Police resources are stretched blah blah blah....."

And do you know just where our coppers are going? Well, Blackburn and Darwens anyway, Council officers are being appointed to walk the streets at night in an attempt to catch "fly Poster" vandals. They are being accompanied by police officers and if anyone is actually caught, they will get a warning and be asked to remove the poster. If they refuse, they face a £50-00 fine!
So if you get mugged on the way home from the pub this week, please don't inform the police, they are far too busy catching real thieves that put up posters.

[allen]

They are not spending Council money on project phoenix they are spending money brought into the Borough because of the ppalling state of the area It is Single regeneration money 7

[Acrylic-bob]

No, they prefer to spend council tax receipts on an average of 14.3 days sick leave per employee, on multi thousand pound Golden Handshakes and Pensions and Allowances and Expense Accounts and jolly little Fact Finding Holidays and Plush Offices and pleasant open spaces where they can sit and have their sandwiches. Then there is always feasibility studies and reports to fund, not to mention the money they pay out to landlords for the property they lease and fail to sublet.

It is no wonder the area is in such a state, with the clowns that we have in charge of the asylum.

[mez]

well allen, who are single regeneration money seven 7 ?

[staggeringman]

its just like any other project that is started by hyndburn council,they start something and never finish,just look around yourself and all you see is utter chaos