Residents react to possibility of Yorke Drive homes being demolished
Among the residents whose homes are earmarked for demolition are Diane Ledger and her mother Julie Ledger, who live two doors apart. Julie owns her own house and Diane is a council tenant who has recently spent £3,000 improving her garden.
“I am really angry and my mum is really upset,” Diane said. “I am angry because I have been misled from the beginning.”
Diane, who grew up on the estate and has taken part in consultation and workshops run with residents, said: “I asked ‘are you going to do anything with my house because I am thinking of getting my garden done’ and I was told ‘no’. I have at least four witnesses.”
Diane said her mother had lived in her home for 40 years, and did not want to move. “She worked hard to buy that house and at 65 why should she have to move?”
She also said that she thought the plans would also break up the Yorke Drive community, as residents were moved about.
“We have said from the beginning that people do not realise what a strong community there is down here. A lot of us have grown up together We look after each other, and we don’t want to be split up.”
Another resident, Joanne Smalley, said her home was not earmarked for demolition, but she felt for those who were.
“They did not know a thing about it until Friday. I have lived here since I was a baby and I am very angry and so sorry for so many people” she said.
A resident who is on the focus panel that has been considering the proposals, Pauline Carpenter, has been a Yorke Drive tenant for ten years.
“I think the number of houses they are smashing down is far too many. We were told it was only going to be a few.
“I think it is going to divide the place as well. There will be the posh Yorke Drive and the old Yorke Drive.”
She also said that she was concerned about the smaller gardens the new homes would have.
“The houses are right size, but you are not going to get half the gardens people would want, especially if they have children.”
Another resident, Debbie Darby, said she had thought that regeneration would be good for the estate.
“But after thinking about it, an awful lot of people are going to be badly affected by this. It will have a big impact and I think it will cause a divide.
“I am not saying nothing should be done with Yorke Drive but this will be like blasting off a bomb under it.
“I am scared for other residents.”
She also said that some of the properties earmarked for development were only 15 years old, and others had had major improvements carried out, which was a waste of money.
“We have been kept in the dark. We all thought it was only a handful of properties. I have a lot of friends on the drive and I will be supporting them.”
Resident Carol Moody, who lives in a cul-de-sac off Yorke Drive, said: “I did not realise it would be that many. Having been to the workshops I was quite shocked with what we found out on Friday.
“People do not want to move. They have got lives in this community.”
Consultative panel member Lucy Martin, whose home is not affected by the demolition plans but who has family whose homes are, said: “This is out of the blue. We were told we were going to lose a few homes, not 130.”
She was also concerned that the new access road would bring far too much extra traffic into the estate.
Newark and Sherwood District Council said the project will primarily be funded through cross subsidy from homes for sale. Additional funding will be required because of low housing sales values in the area and Government funding is being sought to help bridge the funding gap.
On September 20, 2018 the council received a formal offer letter from Homes England for part funding from the Accelerated Construction Programme.
This has confirmed the sum of £2m but is subject to negotiation and agreement. Discussions are ongoing with Government on the potential for additional funding, which includes through the Estate Regeneration Programme. Soft market testing with developers is also being undertaken to gauge interest in the proposals.
The council said the masterplan for the potential regeneration of the Yorke Drive area of Newark has received a positive response from local people.
74% of residents who completed feedback forms at the event indicated their support for the proposals to transform the estate.
In total, it said, 120 residents attended the second public exhibition at the Bridge Community Centre on September 21 showing the preferred ‘phased development’ approach for the masterplan.
“This set out a vision to create new homes, enhancing the leisure facilities for the whole community and enabling improvements to the existing estate and has been developed through extensive consultation and feedback from residents,” the council said.
“The plans propose the delivery of 358 new homes on part of the Lincoln Road Playing Field and through redevelopment of poorer quality homes on the estate. This will include high quality new council rented homes which will be offered to the 113 tenants who will be displaced as well as compensation and housing options for the owners of the 17 privately rented homes that will need to be demolished.”
Newark and Sherwood District Council, which is leading the project, is developing a Resident Offer which will see tenants of homes earmarked for demolition offered more spacious homes built to high energy-efficient standards, along with a package of council support to help them move. The very earliest residents would be expected to move is 2022.
This follows on from an earlier public exhibition in July 2018 at which residents indicated their preference for an option involving more radical regeneration of the estate. The new plans have increased the amount of homes to be demolished from 98 to the current 130 so that greater transformation can be secured and to meet residents’ concerns about keeping additional traffic out of the estate.
“In terms of the playing fields, the council has set out to balance the needs for new homes, with space for sport and green leisure space for residents. New football pitches, a neighbourhood play area, a new public gym trail and sports pavilion are among the suggested improvements,” the council said.
“The council aims to further refine the proposals based on resident feedback from this latest public exhibition and to submit an outline planning application for the scheme before the end of the year.
Council director – Safety, Karen White said: “This exhibition has been a major step forward in the process of bringing positive transformation to Yorke Drive along with the excellent opportunities it brings in terms of providing better homes for many residents.
“We have worked extremely hard to come up with a deliverable masterplan and vision for the future of the estate. This is following extensive consultation with residents and stakeholders, which will continue. We appreciate that the proposed demolition of any homes will naturally be a concern to some residents, and we will be working closely with those affected to support them fully throughout the process to minimise the impact.
“The level of transformation that residents have told us they would like to see on the estate cannot be achieved without some level of disruption and we will do our utmost to minimise this disruption and make the experience as smooth as possible.
The Yorke Drive estate has been identified as an area of significant deprivation, exacerbated by the estate’s layout and design. We hope that these plans show a positive vision for the long term future of the locality.”
