Apology anyone? Your say.

A RECENT article in this newspaper had the headline Have your say on future of housing. It stated that we can now say what kind of housing we want and where we want it.

Am I missing something here, because for years, that is exactly what residents and some back bench councillors like myself have been trying to do - and we were ignored. Longridge Wood is a perfect example.

Instead, we (councillors and residents) were told by the Labour executive councillors what we would have and where we would have it. Former Labour councillor Ken Walker was removed from the Labour Party because he would not support the demolition of houses in Gresham, the ward he represented - now we are told that the decision makers were wrong and have since apologised - too late for those people who were forced from their homes though.

For years Bert Ward and myself have been urging this council via Gazette letters etc not to demolish but to refurbish in order to house some of the 6,000 on the waiting list who were at the mercy of absentee landlords. Now, after wholescale demolition of perfectly good houses in both Grove Hill and Gresham, they have decided to renovate. Other towns and cities up and down this country refused to demolish but renovated instead and their success was featured on national TV. How come this council was so slow to realise that this was by far the best option? An apology should accompany an admission that they are now making another u-turn.

JOAN MCTIGUE, Independent Councillor I READ the article "Have your say on future of housing" with an air of disbelief.

"The authority wants a strategy which will reverse a decline in the town's population... " Ray Mallon had a strategy. The houses in Gresham ward were causing people to leave Middlesbrough, he said, and his strategy was to demolish large numbers of houses in Gresham and build executive type houses which would attract people with money.

This would transform the centre of Middlesbrough. He was aided by Labour councillors with the exception of the councillor for Gresham ward Ken Walker who was expelled from the Labour Party for refusing to toe the Party line.

In vain Councillor Walker and others argued that the cause of population decline was not the type of housing in Middlesbrough but lack of work.

Another target for demolition was Grove Hill. Ray Mallon actually had the Gazette photograph him driving a so-called "wrecking machine" demolishing perfectly good houses in Pinewood Ave. These houses had been modernised at a cost exceeding pounds 26,000 each. There was opposition to such wasteful demolition but residents continued to be moved out regardless of public opinion. A few months ago the council revealed in the Gazette its plan to demolish The Vale in Grove Hill, a long avenue, and turn it into a "linear park". Meantime there is a shortage of housing in Middlesbrough. Strategy? Public consultation? I'm surprised they know how to spell these words.

BERT WARD, Marton