Demolition Derby - Update

This morning I heard loud noises from the garage area.

I still hadn't completed emptying my garage, already disabled, when, without warning and during the time I had been given to clear it, the fencing was put up and later removed I had injured myself whilst trying to at least remove my husband's belongings before access to the garage was permanently denied. Having spent several days completely out of action, I could only manage two trips to clear the garage on a good day.

I went to investigate and the garage doors were being opened with a crowbar and checked for remaining possessions prior to the fencing going up (again) this morning, it must now be in place as my neighbour is using my offer to walk through our back garden to access his car which he has parked at the back of our properties.

The Housing Officer was in attendance, she confirmed that garage tenants would be charged for the removal of any remaining possessions in the garages. Fortunately, the workmen wielding the crowbars have emptied my garage for me at their supervisor's suggestion. Maybe the expressions, facial and verbal, of anger and distress that I was unable to suppress at yet again having not been warned after having been told, unofficially this time, that I probably had until 12 May to empty the garage had a part in them helping, whatever, I'm grateful for their help. Our remaining possessions are now residing at the bottom of the garden where the heavier items will have to remain for now.

So again, with no prior warning communication, the area is fenced off, this time permanently while the garages await demolition.

This is going on across the estate, I can hear the sound of the doors of one garage area after another being crow-barred open; it's a very melancholy sound that seems to herald a new low in the relationship between local residents, both homeowners and tenants, and the association. For me it feels as though they've somehow proved their authority over my life, I have no voice, I wasn't asked, the impact on my life is irrelevant, I'm powerless. And I feel a certain sadness that this area is going to change in some intangible way not least because of the very palpable anger that is displayed in faces and voices because I'm not alone, everyone is expressing the same feelings of anger and defeat, heads are down, shoulders hunched; we, and our opinions, count for nothing.


(Since writing this I have been to look at the garage area; behind tall wire fencing units the garage doors are up at various angles, one has been reversed, mine, not mine it was never mine, is fully open as I left it this morning, water is pouring from the tap that was provided for cleaning cars, there is an air of abandonment and of desolation, of no-one caring any more. How very appropriate.)