Flats rebuildbid survey set to start

The housing assocaition wants to knock down 12 blocks in the town, and rebuild them in a £70 million project that has the backing of the Scottish Government and North Lanarkshire Council.

Between February 7 and 25, interviewers with researchers Research Resource will visit all affected tenants and resident owner-occupiers to ask whether the plans should go ahead.

Answer options will be: “Yes/ No/ Don’t know”.

Lorna Shaw, of Research Resource, said: “We are registered under data protection laws and work to the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct, which guarantees confidentiality.

“All responses will be recorded as given, so ‘Don’t Knows’ will be marked down as ‘Don’t Knows’”.

But Derek Condon of the action group opposing the rebuild was sceptical of this assurance.

“From the beginning this whole survey has been slanted towards demolition and not refurbishment,” said Mr Condon who lives in Scott House. “At the end of the day we have been promised nothing by Sanctuary but we are being expected to give up our houses and also the right to object to these plans.

“We will be staging our own drop-in meetings and hope to hold a public meeting on this subject in the near future.”

For the full story see this week’s Cumbernauld News and Kilsyth Chronicle.