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Anorak News | Glasgow Council ‘Steals’ Working Class Woman’s Home For Commonwealth Games Village

Glasgow Council ‘Steals’ Working Class Woman’s Home For Commonwealth Games Village

by | 18th, March 2011

MARGARET Jaconelli and her husband Jack don’t want to leave their two bedroom home in Ardenlea Street, Glasgow. They have lived there for 34 years. The powers that be say they must go because their tenement block is to be demolished to make way for facilities for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, specifically an athlete’s village.

Yep, they are going to build more flats. Why not just allow the locals to rent out their properties to the athletes?

Everyone else in the flats has moved. The Jaconellis are the last two residents.

The city council offered her £30,000 in a compulsory purchase order. She declined. Mrs Jaconelli said she would have trouble finding a tent for that money. On the Right Move property website a search for Glasgow properties starts at £50,000.

“I’m just a wee person from the east end of Glasgow and all I’m doing is fighting for a home that my husband has worked hard for for 34 years. They’re stealing my property after us working so hard for it.”

The city council said the district valuer had since increased the offer to £90,000. How did it get from £30,000 to £90,000? Mrs Jaconelli will accept the new offer if the council agrees to mediation and not to forcibly remove her from her own home. Her lawyer writes to the council:

“On my client’s behalf I find your refusal to take up the Scottish government’s offer of mediation as unreasonable and unnecessary, and not the behaviour to be expected of Scotland’s largest local authority.

“There is no need to subject my client and her family and children to the mental trauma and turmoil of a physical ejection.

“I would ask that Glasgow City Council reconsider its decision; as advised Mrs Jaconelli is prepared to voluntarily leave her home and we can agree a date and time; but she wants to take up the Scottish government’s offer of mediation. There is no good reason to refuse this proposal.”

The council says:

“We are pleased with Lord Uist’s decision [that she must sell] and intend to proceed with the eviction… The development of this site will bring a new neighbourhood of the highest quality to the east end of Glasgow.”

So. Why not house her in a home until the homes are built and then after the Games, give Mrs Jaconelli a two bedroom flat on the same locations and £30,000 for her trouble? Or is the aim to socially engineer a richer class of person in this part of Glasgow..?



Posted: 18th, March 2011 | In: Sports Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink