General Discussion
Demolition in Dawlish
Just passing through Dawlish and saw that the building our illustrious councillors purchased and then resold sometime ago to allow them to sell the Manor House has been demolished.
Site is being redeveloped for social housing if my memory serves me correctly. And it was the previous administration, not this one, that purchased that building. This present administration are the ones who have had to pick up the mess and try to sort it out (blimey I'm beginning to sound like a coalition MP!)
Social housing, ah that sounds so pc. In my day it was called council housing until they sold most of them off for pennies. Now surprise, surprise there's a housing shortage for those that need a houses given to them. If the council's ( that being all council's) maintained a perspective on what the essence of council housing was meant for . Not allowing the properties to be transferred from one generation of family to another and allowing people to stay in them long after they could afford to buy their own. There might be a few homes available.
What would you call them instead of Social Housing? Personally I don't think that it's anything to do with political correctness that the homes are so named. Teign Housing, in my opinion, do a great job throughout the district and I'm really glad that the current Town Council was able to dig the town out of the mess it inherited from the previous incumbents. Kudos is due to them after what was inevitably a sticky start for them.
Just had this press release forwarded to me:
"Teign Housing develops new affordable homes in Dawlish
Three families in Dawlish will be enjoying their first Christmas in their new home this year.
The three properties, developed by Teign Housing, were built on land that was previously home to a derelict community centre in Churchill Avenue.
Mike Hanrahan (pictured), Teign Housing chief executive, said: “We want to build new homes that allow people to stay in the towns they grew up in and help sustain local economies.
“Although both these developments are small in scale compared to some, together they will provide six families with the opportunity to rent at a more affordable rate, which will have a much bigger impact on their standard of living.”
The two-bedroom houses were completed in October 2013 and have now been occupied by families who were on the local housing register.
Demolition work has now started on another site in Dawlish were the former Salvation Army building was in Park Road.
The development will provide another three two-bedroom flats and is due to be completed in August 2014."