Edinburgh Sucks! | Council trying to ‘rip off’ elderly

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Council trying to ‘rip off’ elderly

By The Basa ⋅ July 22, 2005 ⋅

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Anti-Semite Hinds Careful reading and just a little bit of research at the ESPC website seems to show that although the council make many, many millions by selling off city-owned land, however when the council require to buy land from their own residents who pay council tax - a ‘rip-off’ situation ensues.

Residents who are being forced from their homes to make way for a new school are refusing to bow to pressure to sell.

Housing chiefs are razing around 300 homes on the Pennywell estate to make way for the new Craigroyston High School.

It is no wonder that the two elderly couples don’t want to sell their houses to the council because the council are offering sums which make it impossible for these poor poeple to buy anything else.

Homeowner Arthur Lackie, 72, of Pennywell Place, said it was the uncertainty of not having anywhere to move to that was stopping him from selling. He also said he was not convinced that the £41,000 the council was offering him for his three-bedroom house was high enough.

The elderly Mr. Lackie is quite right. A quick search of the ESPC website today looking for a 3 bedroomed property at £41,000 turns up no properties at all. In fact the cheapest 3 bedroomed property comes in at offers over £59,000.

“We are trying to get more money because the house is worth more, and we are trying to get a guarantee that we will have somewhere to move to.” Catherine Elvin, 67, has owned her Pennywell Road home for 18 years and is worried about where she and husband William will end up living.

The council’s original offer of £19,000 for her property was recently upped to £32,000.

Again, looking at what one can get for £19,000 on ESPC today, it shows that you can get a lock-up garage. The council it seems raised the offer to £32,000 (still a tiny amount considering the prices of property in Edinburgh) but who had the audacity to offer this poor elderly lady £19,000 for her house?

This council is ridiculous putting people who have worked all their lives to own their own homes through such a nighmare in their retirement and then the council comes in and tries to steal their properties at a fraction of their worth right on the Lord Provost’s own doorstep.

More Info: Homeowners refuse to budge for new school