HOW can some Council Officers call the residents of Chapel Street and Argyle Street 'mischief makers' when all we are trying to do is save our homes. Some ladies and myself went around the area with the petition and letters for the residents to sign if they wanted to at their own free will. The age-range of us all is between late fifties to late sixties and we're not all in good health as we were when we first moved into our homes.

The Council did a survey about four years ago and the officer stated in my living room, as he did in other peoples, that there was NO WAY he could put a C.P.O on these properties and that the money would be well spent in other areas.

He then asked our opinion on what we would like to see done with the area. We told him the empty houses at the bottom of Chapel St and Argyle St should be demolished and the waste land at the end of the top block of Chapel St should be cleaned up and made into a small play area for children, to be looked after by local residents. We also asked for Chapel St to be made into a cul-de-sac to stop cars and motorcycles racing up and down it. We have asked the Council for a Public Meeting, but this has been declined on numerous occasions due to claims that this kind of meeting would become unruly, meaning myself, my husband and our friends who are standing up for our homes. Or is it that they are afraid to meet with us in case questions are asked that they cannot answer?

At the bottom of our street we have three bricked-up houses and I asked an officer: "You say that they are a buttress for our houses BUT what is holding them up?" His reply: "The ground." My reply: "Yes, the houses are built on clay and clay doesn't move." Four years ago we received a letter from the council and in one paragraph it said if the bricked-up houses in Chapel St don't move within so many years then they couldn't see any reasons why they couldn't be reopened, built up and reinhabited.

The area is well sought after for first time buyers, so what do the council say is an affordable price, what they want to build or what houses are already built here?

Mrs B A Jackson, Chapel Street,

C.H.A.R.G.E (Chapel St & Argyle St Residents Association)