There are lots of myths and rumours still out there about the ex-care home Holly Grange in Dukinfield I hope these facts can assist in helping remove many of the rumours
We became aware of the new owner late last year and were told that the home was going to be turned into flats nothing strange about that, local residents around the home were informed in the normal planning way there were no objections at that time.
Several months later I was informed that the new owner had recently had another property he owned in Manchester closed down by the city council and in their wordshe was a slum landlord so they refused to send any more people to his property the manchester evening news ran a story about him and other so-called slum landlords.
At this point, I informed council officers of my concerns seeking assurances that he was not just transferring his slum property from Manchester to Tameside I then found out there were 7 tenants already living at Holly Grange no problems had been reported at that time, officers visited the house seeking clarification about the status of the house officers were told it was still a care home.
It was very clear to them it was not the case no staff no officer in charge were the obvious signs, they also knew that no benefits were being paid to tenants to assist with housing and care, some resident had contacted us to see if we would help with claiming benefits we declined the request knowing that if the home was genuine this would have already been done by professionals.
The homeowners then applied for the home to be registered as a house with multiple occupants (HMO) this is normal for this type of property and we have lots in Tameside this was granted via the normal planning procedures Dukinfield councillors did object to this along with others but were told legally its got to be registered, and the concerns about the owners and the tenants were not part of the planning process.
We found out at this point that the original owner of the Manchester house who bought Holly Grange had put the running of the house in others names, we met these two at the planning meeting and made our views known basically not welcome in Dukinfield or Tameside because of their reputation being closed down by the city council for running a slum.
I hope this helps to clarify this situation the council has not given any permission for these owners to open a halfway house, to open a drug or alcohol dependency unit, to run a hostel for ex-prisoners or any of the other rumours , anyone can live there if they can pay the rent.
The situation now is the council or any other agency that works with the council will not refer anyone to this property or fund anyone living their, very similar to the city councils solution.
Our plans are to see him removed from the premises and hopefully new owners move in to refurbish the building and it becomes a useful home for other people who will appreciate the building and any services provided from it ,we have many official schemes registered with the council that do this with little or no problems in the area.
We will work with all the agencies to see this owner removed from this area work is ongoing right now to achieve this and the owners know this, we will work with any new owners to make sure our communities are safe from criminal activity arising from any premises.
