Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The Scandal of Firgrove Court

Keith Parkins | 31.08.2004 14:44 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles

Pavilion, a RSL, is trying to kick out its tenants from Firgrove Court, a small of estate of 28 maisonettes in Farnborough town centre, to enable the estate to be demolished for a car park for a superstore, part of an unwanted town centre redevelopment. Pavilion claim they are making no money on this disposal! Why go through all the hassle, why is the issue extremely sensitive?


Firgrove Court, a small estate of 28 maisonettes, social housing, a quiet estate arranged around a large grassy area, close by Farnborough town centre, is earmarked for destruction for the car park for a superstore.

Half of Farnborough town centre is to be destroyed to make way for the superstore. The people who live in the flats above the empty shops are like the residents of Firgrove Court, to be kicked out of their homes.

KPI who bought the town centre centre six years ago, have already laid waste to the town centre by emptying it of retailers. February 2004, they applied for full planning consent. End of June 2004, they obtained outline planning consent. Although what no one understands is why KPI has two planning applications running in parallel.

There has been no consultation: either by KPI the developers, Pavilion the RSL for Firgrove Court or Rushmoor the planning authority.

Questioned on this lack of consultation at a recent meeting between Rushmoor and Pavilion to hear an explanation for the piss-poor performance of Pavilion as a RSL, Mervyn Jones (Pavilion chief executive) was forced to admit that there had been no consultation, not unless 'my door is always open to concerned tenants' is classed as consultation.

In a letter to the local press, Jones claimed Pavilion were making no money on the disposal of Firgrove Court. All they were getting were 30 flats (in two blocks on an old industrial estate) and meagre compensation for the tenants who are being forced to move (a measly £1500 per household).

Many of the shorthold tenants have already been forced out, their homes trashed, kitchens and bathrooms ripped out, to render them uninhabitable. This in a borough where people are homeless and there are 3,500 on the official waiting list.

Firgrove Court occupies a sizable piece of real estate, in a prime location in a town centre. If it was cleared for housing, and replaced by high density housing, with no open space (the norm in the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor), there would be 50 or more dwellings on the site.

But Jones asks us to believe he is making no money. Or at least to believe that Pavilion is making no money.

In fact, on his own admission, Pavilion are losing money if we take account of the loss of rental income from the trashed and empty flats.

The residents at Firgrove Court understandably do not want to move. Firgrove Court is 1950s era, good solid brick buildings arranged around a large grassy area, safe area for the kids to play, but deemed a waste of space by greedy developers and the planners in their pockets. The tenants are being told to move to two blocks of flats with no large open area. They are being forced to move by years of neglect: gutters pouring water down the walls, rotten doors and windows, plaster falling off the walls, rising damp etc. Harassment by neglect?

The residents of Firgrove Court do not want to move.

Why then is Jones so keen to kick out his tenants, go to all this hassle, if no money is being made? It does not make sense.

Maybe further questions should be asked of Mervyn Jones (Pavilion) or Simon Rutter (KPI).

Mervyn Jones 01252 368601  mjones@pavilionha.co.uk

Simon Rutter 020 7499 5666  info@stmodwen.co.uk

If the issue is raised, it is very very sensitive.

KPI have a legal agreement with Pavilion, designed, according to KPI, to protect the interests of the tenants. The tenants were not even aware of its existence, let alone have seen the contents or agreed the contents. Request for copies of this agreement have been refused.

There has already been one legal challenge to the outline planning consent by one of the Firgrove Court tenants. This forced the original outline planning consent to be quashed and the whole process started all over again.

There may well be more legal challenges.

Watch this space!

Reference

Keith Parkins, Town & Out II, Corporate Watch, 14 January 2004
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/townandout.htm

Keith Parkins, Farnborough town centre judicial review, Indymedia UK, 18 February 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/285606.html

Keith Parkins, Sell out of Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 5 June 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/292803.html

Keith Parkins, Delivering the final death blow to Farnborough town centre, Indymedia UK, 2 July 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/294293.html

Keith Parkins, Audit Commission savage Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 27 July 2004  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/295403.html

Keith Parkins, Social housing under attack, Indymedia UK, 5 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/295893.html

Keith Parkins, Social housing crisis, Indymedia UK, 12 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296145.html

Keith Parkins, Privatisation of council housing, Indymedia UK, 16 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296396.html

Keith Parkins, Homelessness in Rushmoor, Indymedia UK, 19 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296549.html

Keith Parkins, Crisis meeting at Pavilion Housing Association, Indymedia UK, 24 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296816.html

Keith Parkins, Pavilion Housing Association in Crisis, Indymedia UK, 25 August 2004
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296854.html

Keith Parkins

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech