We shall not be moved

DEFIANT: Gerald Mortell will continue to fight for his right to stay in the home he has lived in for 30 years

A GROUP of battling Derker residents who failed in their High Court bid to save their homes from demolition are to appeal.

The Derker Action group says it is disgusted with the judge’s decision last week not to overturn the council’s compulsory purchase order to make way for regeneration and has vowed to fight his decision which affects around 200 homes.

Jackie Proctor, who has lived in Abbotsford Road for 30 years with her husband Anthony, said: “We have been fighting this for five years and we don’t give up easily.

“People have worked hard all their lives to pay for these homes and the council is taking them away without giving them enough money to get anything else. There are people here who are in their 70s and 80s and they can’t get a mortgage.Jackie is one of just five defiant households who are still occupying their homes in Abbotsford Road and she’s not the only one who has come out fighting.

Gerald Mortell (59) who has led the fight, also lived their for 30 years, resents the fact that he has paid a mortgage for three decades and has improved his home, only to have the threat of demolition hanging over his head.

He said: “If everything fails, I will end up in a council flat somewhere, miles away from all my neighbours and friends, who I have grown really close to and who help me when I’m too ill to go out.

“Having to go into a council home would be like going back to square one after paying my mortgage for so long. I’m having panic attacks regularly and have had a heart attack with all the stress this has caused.”