At last week’s Full Council meeting, the issue of residents waiting to move into the housing development at Branstone came up.
The ward councillor for Newchurch, Havenstreet and Ashey, Clare Mosdell (Con), explained how embarrassed she was that residents were still waiting to move into the new homes.
Months of delays
Due to be completed by March 2022, in August this year families were told there could be another ten-month wait to move into the 42 new affordable homes, having already suffered several delays. A couple of days later it was suggested some of the issues had been resolved and some families could move in to the homes in early September, but never materialised.
Mosdell: We need to get to grip with this
Cllr Mosdell told the Leader of the council, Lora Peacey-Wilcox (Alliance),
“Any developer worth their salt would get the services in place, and I find it really embarrassing as a county councillor, it’s in my ward, nobody can move in.
“As a council we need to get to grip with this, we want to go into the world of developing and on the first new project we can’t even put the lights on and let anyone move in. When are going to have an actual date when this council will get it sorted and residents will finally move into the houses that they really need at Branstone?”
Peacey-Wilcox: Assured they will be in absolutely by the end of October
End of October was the date that Cllr Peacey-Wilcox said she’d been assured would be when residents could move in by.
She defended the actions of the council, saying,
“I can utterly assure you I got on the phone and I was extremely curt and persistent that somebody got on the phone with SSEN and if it took all day that’s what was they needed to do.
“Within three days the boxes had gone into the housing and I am assured by Martyn Peal from Vectis Housing that they will be in absolutely by the end of October. I can only go by what he says because he knows what he’s talking about.”
Pitcher: A national problem
Cllr Daryll Pitcher (Vectis Party) added that in his view this was not just a Branstone problem, but something that happens all over the country, stating that developers can wait up to a year from first contact to having services like electricity, gas and water installed.
