Hele

 

News Bulletin (Express and Echo)

 

FAMILY'S EVICTION FEAR AFTER SALE

 

12:00 - 28 April 2004

 

A family of six - including a pregnant woman and two foster children - face homelessness in six weeks' time because their landlord has sold their home.

 

The Jones family are being evicted by the US firm that owns five properties at Hele, near Exeter, in a move reminiscent of the homes-sale saga at Gittisham, near Honiton, last month.

 

Dad Terry Jones has warned Mid Devon District Council that he and his wife Elizabeth, 56, and their children, James, 18, Leanne, 17, Jamie, 15, and Andrew, 33, as well as Andrew's pregnant girlfriend, Samantha Bird, 20, and the family Labrador, Ben, will effectively be without a roof over their heads from the month after next.

 

The family live in one of five mill houses that are being sold off by Mead West Vaco, which sold Devon Valley Mill, at Hele, in February. The company has moved back to the USA and has sold the mill to Manchester-based paper company J R Crompton.

 

As part of the relocation, Mead decided to sell off the homes privately. Two of the houses, which are believed to be rented by tenants aged in their 80s, will be sold on, with the provision that the tenants can live on there until their deaths.

 

However, tenants in two of the three homes - including the Joneses - are to be evicted on June 1. The owner of the third has successfully bought his home.

 

Mr Jones's five-bedroom house and the house of his neighbour have been bought by a former mill employee.

 

Mr Jones, who worked at the mill for 38 years, was given the chance to bid against other interested workers for the £125,000 house, but says he cannot afford a mortgage on the £1,065 a month he receives from a pension and part-time job.

 

He also cannot afford to shell out £700-a-month for a three-bedroom property on the private rental market and pay the bills on top.

 

Andrew Jones and Miss Bird are currently pursuing a separate claim for a council house.

 

Mr Jones senior claims Mid Devon District Council is refusing his family's homeless claim because he refused to sign a new rental agreement put to him in October. He said he did not sign because the new terms could have meant him being liable for eviction sooner.

 

He said: "I am very angry. I don't want to take my family into bed and breakfast accommodation. But finding a property that I can afford is impossible.

 

"I have been around all the housing agencies. I have been to the National Trust and other organisations, but they just haven't got the properties available of the size and price we need."

 

The family has asked the Churches Housing Action Team for help. Graham Davey, the council's housing needs and enabling officer, confirmed an appeal on the council decision had been submitted on the family's behalf.

 

He said he could not make any comments which would prejudice the review, but he said the council would make a decision as quickly as possible in view of the threat of homelessness to the family.

 

Nobody from Mead West Vaco could be contacted yesterday.

 

Save Gittisham News Archive