Newport residents living next to the derelict Polars Residential Home have called on the owners to make the building safe.
The former home, on Staplers Road, was sold in 2017 by Somerset Care, who still own Inver House in Bembridge, to private owners and then closed.
Since then, however, the building has stood empty, causing issues for residents of next door’s Wallace Court, independent housing properties owned by Sovereign.
Snow: Building in a real state
Tina Snow, a blind resident who lives opposite Polars, says the building is in a real state and people don’t realise how bad it is.
Tina has lived in Wallace Court since 1999 and one of the issues she now faces in the winter months, thanks to the deterioration of Polars, is sheet ice formed by waters coming from the broken gutters.
Another is overgrown bushes and brambles which are at the right height for her to walk into.
Snow: “Just a matter of time until someone gets seriously hurt”
The building itself, Tina said, is falling to bits with lots of debris and it is just a matter of time now until something happens or someone gets seriously hurt.
With no CCTV or security guarding Polars, Tina said she fears for her safety as the building is a fire hazard and she does not know who is in the building.
She felt the owners would have a duty of care towards resident safety.
Having to shoo people away from the building
Les, another resident who can practically touch Polars from his front door, said he is now used to shooing people away from the building and has had to take measures to stop people breaking in by screwing down fences and unprotected doorways.
He said he has now lost count of the number of times he has phoned the police.
Inside Polars completely smashed up
Moving into Wallace Court in 2017, before Polars was abandoned, Les said there has now been an unreal amount of damage caused, with broken windows and the inside completely smashed.
Tina is hopeful a solution could be sorted, between all interested parties, as Wallace Court is directly affected by it and said she would be in favour of social housing built on the site, so long as it was safe.
Sovereign trying to make contact with owner
Sovereign’s area property manager, Charlee Caddick, said she was sorry to hear residents felt at risk due to the disrepair of Polars and were currently trying to make contact with the owner.
In the meantime, she said, they have engaged garden maintenance contractors to cut back the overgrown vegetation coming from the site.
The owners of Polars have been contacted.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is part of. Read here to find about more about how that scheme works on the Island. Some alterations and additions may have been made by News OnTheWight. Ed
