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Condemned homes are a drinking den: councillor Helen Carson

A post-war Comber housing development has become a dumping ground and its empty properties are being used as drinking dens, an Ards councillor has claimed.

Kathleen Coulter has accused the Housing Executive of failing to meeting deadlines for demolishing the buildings which, she believes, are now in a dangerous condition.

Vandals are intent on the "wholesale destruction" of the estate, claimed the councillor, who said local pensioners were becoming "virtual prisoners" in their homes because they were too scared to go out.

The Orlit developments, as the houses are commonly known, were erected after the Second World War as a short-term solution to chronic housing shortages.

But in recent years an order passed by Parliament put the onus on the Housing Executive to demolish such housing, as it had long passed its intended lifespan.

Councillor Kathleen Coulter claimed: "The Housing Executive has made countless promises. It has told us the properties will be knocked down in October - but we have heard this so many times before."

Thugs

With so many vacant properties, thugs have gone on a wrecking spree in the development, destroying everything in their wake, the councillor told the Herald and Post.

"They also hold drinking parties in the empty properties," she claimed.

The councillor added that remaining residents, who are mostly elderly, are desperate to be rehoused, as they have become virtual prisoners in their homes.

"People in the area are just too scared to go out."

Ards Borough Council has demanded that the Housing Executive demolish the old houses this month.

And Mrs Coulter explained the housing development was being replaced by five different phases, with the first two complete.

"One woman moved out on a Friday and by Monday the flat was stripped," she said.

<# > Mrs Coulter said the devastation included: • Slates and tiles ripped from roofs. • Fixtures, such as toilets, smashed. • Doors and windows broken. • Stairways destroyed.

"The vandals are moving into the houses as quickly as the people are moving out," added Mrs Coulter.

The Housing Executive has assured Ards Borough Council that it has secured the properties, but Mrs Coulter says the thugs simply break in again.

She stressed that people caught damaging property in this way could be prosecuted, and she urged anyone who knew anything to get in touch with the police.

"They cannot be allowed to get away with this," added the councillor.

Mrs Coulter added that the technical services department of the Housing Executive "should feel obliged to do a tidy up and clear weeds in the area".
