Appeal for owner to clean up house (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Appeal for owner to clean up house

A PRIVATE house in Malmesbury has been empty for so long that rats and other wildlife have moved in to the property and the brambles and shrubs in the garden are almost at roof height.

A county councillor has this week made a public appeal for help to trace the owner of the long abandoned and almost derelict house.

Number 127 White Lion Park has been empty for several years since the couple living there split up and went their separate ways.

Neighbours have meanwhile seen rats scuttling around the early1970s three-bedroomed property and the back garden is head high with dense bramble, scrub and trees.

The window frames are rotting through lack of maintenance. A front window fell out in gales on Boxing Day about five years ago and the frame has since been covered with polythene.

Red tape has thwarted Cllr John Thomson's efforts to contact the owner so that the property could be brought back into use once again as a family home.

Under the Data Protection Act, North Wiltshire District Council is not allowed to reveal to him - or anyone else - the owner's identity.

However, the Standard understands that it belongs to Sheila Stanbridge-Miles, who lived there with her husband Vic. She is thought to have moved to Swindon after she and her husband split up.

Mr Stanbridge-Miles, a former building control officer for NWDC is thought to have moved to Chippenham. The former couple are thought to be in their early fifties.

"It's not fair on the suffering neighbours that this situation has gone on for so long," said Cllr Thomson. "They've witnessed this property slowly rotting away before their very eyes.

"I just feel it's wrong that that there's an empty house here that could be upgraded and provide a good home to a young couple or a family. A housing association could take it on and produce a good rental income for the owner if they did not want to sell."

Cllr Thomson added that he felt obliged to go public and appeal for the help through the Standard because of the problem posed by the Data Protection Act: "If you own a property and you're not using it, I think you have a social and moral responsibility to ensure it can be used for someone's benefit.

"So I'm asking the owner to please contact me so that we can discuss a solution that helps everyone concerned."

Stacey Golding moved in next door last August with her husband Stephen.

"I saw a lady visiting no 127 about five months ago, arriving by taxi, just after we moved in. She just came and went. We get loads of people calling at the door inquiring about the place, but we just don't know what's happening," Mrs Golding said this week.

"It's quite embarrassing really and not very nice for us."

Gordon Williams, who lives next-door-but-one to the empty property said: "It's such a shame. Many people have expressed interest in buying the house and doing it up. We have seen rats running about the the place, a fox made a nest in the garden one season a couple of years back."

Mark Newman, environmental health technical officer for NWDC has written to the owner to try to get the matter resolved and plans to do so again. But he has also told Cllr Thomson that he is unable to disclose the owner's identity.

Cllr Thomson is therefore appealing for the owner of 127 White Lion Park, or anyone else with relevant information, to contact him on Malmesbury 01666 840785.