Here's an interesting one: Bristol woman refuses to give up garden for new housing A 97-year-old Bristol woman is refusing to give up a strip of her front garden needed for a new housing development ...... Bristol City Council and developers have offered her a "five-figure sum" for the land, which is owned by the authority, to widen access to the site ...... But Ms Burton, who has lived there for 50 years, said: "They could offer me £100,000 and I wouldn't budge." The authority and developers need permission to take a two-metre slice from Ms Burton's garden, to widen the development's access road so it can be adopted as a public highway.What would *you* do?
I would ask for 25 grand for every property being built. Take the cash and spread some of it around some local small charities. Well done to her for not rolling over
I'd probably refuse. I wouldn't want them building close to me, anyway! That could be anything from £10,000 to £99,999
Just looked at the photo on that BBC link and her front garden looks very tiny, a 2m chunk would mean a new road right next to her front door maybe, so not very nice.
Thank you for taking the time to look - you are, of course, quite right. It would be a sizable part of her front garden! At her age, why would money matter? I'm thinking that her peace and security would far outweigh any monetary value offered. Conversely, the Council are numpties: at her age, it is merely a waiting game! Let her have her end of life in peace!
She's quite right to stand her ground (excuse pun) for her peace of mind, the powers that be seem to think throwing money at a problem will solve it. With nearly fifty properties to be built, that creates quite a bit of traffic past her front window if the ground is claimed.
From what I read into the situation, and from what little I know about these things , it's not actually a problem for the Council. The road is 'unadopted' as it is not wide enough to come under the adopted classification. All this means is that the landowner is responsible for the maintenance of the road as opposed to the Council. As it's a Council estate the owner of the land is the Council. So no difference - except - that the maintenance budget comes out of 'Housing' instead of 'Roads'. There are slightly more stringent rules about adopted roads but not an enormous amount. The heavy traffic that will occur during building would probably put more stress on the road than its current maintenance programme has accounted for and the continued use by the new residents will need more maintenance. As it's all Council it doesn't really make that much difference. The road has street lighting (a lot of unadopted roads don't) so they can even put in traffic calming measures if necessary (against the law if no lighting ).
If they are going to take it in the end, i would be a pain in the back side for as long as pos, then take the money and get away, if traffic is going to be that close to my house i wouldn't like it how much damage would be done to the house by the traffic,
As the lady is a council tenant they can't force her to let them take it . She has an assured tenancy that can't be altered without her permission.
Unless that's going to happen fairly soon they would have got all the logistics and building on the way - or finished. I can't really see that she was the only one that they approached as it's unlikely that only one property in a road is causing it to be unadopted. Therefore they would need to get the approval of all the tenants. I can't see it was only one that objected but a 97 year old makes good news copy.
