Hands off our homes! (From Echo)

Hands off our homes!

12:00am Saturday 14th February 2009 in

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RESIDENTS living around towering new seafront developments in Chalkwell and Westcliff say they will fight speculators who are trying to buy up their homes.

London-based Thames Regional Housing has written to homeowners offering to pay solicitor’s fees and the cost of Home Information Pack reports if owners agree to sell up.

Owners of large, character homes built to grace the once sedate seaside area, say they fear they will be swallowed up in the creeping development of the western side of the town.

Keith Osborne, chairman of the Chalkwell Residents’ Association lives in First Avenue Westcliff. He was approached by the company.

Mr Osbourn, 75, said: “I was rather taken aback. They are offering cash and looking for houses that have spaces round the sides. They say they can do it all in 24 hours. I threw mine away.”

Rosaline Walker, 77, of Crowstone Road, is also worried about the impact of the apartments, which are now blotting out the skyline for many residents.

She said: “I feel that development in the area from Grosvenor Road is slowly moving along into Chalkwell. If there are large houses vacant, there is a possibility they will become blocks of flats.

“Westcliff seems to be the developers’ target for multiple occupancy places and these large blocks of flats.”

Mike Berg, property buyer for Thames Regional Housing, said: “We have written to a few properties in Southend and Westcliff.

“If we write to properties it might be on the business of refurbishing them or renting them out. I am not aware of any big development.”

The residents have already successfully fought an application to build four flats on the site of a bungalow in Chalkwell Avenue. Another 14 flats have been proposed at 129 Chalkwell Avenue which was turned down by Southend Council but has now gone to appeal.

Plans to turn Crowstone House, on the seafront, into 14 flats have been referred back to the council for amendments.

MP SPEAKS OUT A COMPANY which is distributing letters offering to buy large homes in Westcliff has been denounced as immoral by an MP.

David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West, said letters sent by Thames Regional Housing to homeowners on the Westcliff and Chalkwell border offering to complete sales within 24-hours, would be investigated.

Mr Amess said elderly people could be vulnerable to such offers if they were facing financial difficulties.

He said: “I have seen one of these letters and they are unacceptable. We are in the middle of an economic crisis when people are vulnerable and this could put undue pressure on them.”

The MP added: “We must unite against these people and warn residents against accepting this offer. I intend to find out what sort of company this is and then I will report to the Government department which has responsibility for these speculators.

“I am absolutely certain their conduct is, at the very least, immoral.”

The company’s website boasts that it prides itself on “providing a professional and painless service. Ensuring a simple and effective solution to all property transactions”.

Mike Berg, property buyer for the London-based company, would not say whether those who took up the offer would receive the current market value for their homes, but said it had no plans to develop the properties it bought.

He said: “I am not aware of any big development. We would pay whatever we think a property would be worth to us. One might think a property is worth £500,000 and someone else might think it was worth £450,000. As for an MP commenting on immorality, well that is interesting.”