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Residents to receive compensation
FORMER owners of houses on a Morecambe street should receive compensation after selling them to the council - and then seeing them sold on later for a big profit.
Lancaster City Council has been found guilty of maladministration and recommended to pay back 34,000 after selling on family homes supposedly earmarked for demolition.
The local government ombudsman has urged the council to reimburse the cash to residents who felt pressured to sell their homes to make way for a car park.
The row of terraced houses at Green Street, Morecambe was earmarked for demolition as part of Poulton's Home Zone regeneration scheme.
Owners sold them to the council but, they say, only after they were told they could be compulsorily purchased if they didn't - or that other houses around them would be demolished anyway, leaving them exposed.
The Visitor revealed the residents' complaints in 2004 when the properties were then sold on by the council to a housing association for renovation.
In less than a year, the value of the entire terrace had increased by 100,000.
Ombudsman Jerry White said: "Had the complainants been properly advised of their rights from the outset as they should have been, I believe there is a strong likelihood they would not have sold when they did or indeed at all."
Mr White also found the council had failed to keep any written records of its discussions with the complainants and had not confirmed anything in writing.
They did not fully explain homeowners could get an independent valuation of their properties and failed to advise them about the implications of a compulsory purchase order.
The ombudsman did not, however, share the complainants' view the council had set out to mislead them.
Mr White found Lancaster City Council guilty of maladministration causing injustice and recommended they reimburse 21,000 to the couple who owned two houses and 13,125 to a woman who owned a single property.
He said the council should also consider making home loss payments of 3,100 plus interest to the children of the couple who were staying in one of their properties in the street.
They must also pay 500 to each complainant in recognition of the considerable time and trouble spent making the complaint.
The ombudsman recommended the council review its procedures.
Peter Loker, Lancaster City Council's corporate director (Community Services) said: "We note the conclusions and recommendations of the local government ombudsman.
"Cabinet will be asked to consider the report and decide on the action it proposes to take.
"Officers' recommendations will be to accept the findings of maladministration and for cabinet to consider the remedies available.
"The circumstances of this case have already been subject to a detailed internal investigation and action taken to ensure this could not happen again."
Current council leader, Coun Roger Mace, said: "The internal investigation at the council was insisted upon by me, as a concerned councillor. On July 19, 2004, I gave a formal recorded interview as part of the investigation.
"On the evidence I presented, it was then and still is my view, that the former owners had a right (on the basis of alleged 'dirty tricks' and 'misrepresentations') to share in the 'profit' made by the council as a result of the subsequent sale to a housing association.
"I am delighted that the complaint to the ombudsman has been upheld, and that justice can now be done. I only regret that it has taken so long."
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Weather for Morecambe
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
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