200 RESIDENTS and their supporters took part in an all-day picket and protest at West Hendon housing estate in north west London yesterday, where Barnet Council is demolishing the estate and evicting tenants and leaseholders.
Building giant Barratts has been handed the contract and protesters were stopping their trucks entering the building site, where tower blocks for private flats are already being constructed.
They turned a number of lorries back and also set up a roadblock which they controlled for some time.
Local resident of West Hendon Estate, Alex Finney said: ‘I am fighting to get a secure tenancy. I’ve been a non-secure tenant for about nine years. They’ve offered me nothing.
‘My building will be demolished and I’m waiting to see what the council will offer me.
‘At the moment I’m not very hopeful. We’ve got the support of other housing groups across London. There’s about seven regeneration sites across the borough of Barnet.
‘Other people on other estates have temporary tenancies as well. Barnet Council have given this estate to Barratts homes.
‘There are 700 flats here that are going to be demolished and they are building 2,000 on this footprint.
‘They are going to give back 500 to social housing, of those, 215 will go to secure tenants, the rest will go to leaseholders.
‘If they can’t afford it then they’ll just be sold off on the market. They are planning four 29-floor tower blocks here, while the secure tenants will be stuck on a traffic island.’
Hussein Mazhar said: ‘I’ve lived 34-years on this estate and am a leaseholder. They are offering me £130,000 and I can’t buy anything for that. I am almost retired, I have three grown-up children living with me and they are going to be made homeless too.
‘Never mind being forced to be moved out of London, we don’t want to be moved out of Hendon. I will never give up my right to my home.’
Ghazaleh Farnham said: ‘I’m here because I don’t think what the council are doing is right. In the last 15 years Barnet Council has promised people many different things, but every two months they keep changing it. This is not acceptable.
‘This used to be public land, but now it has been sold off. All decisions are made behind closed doors and they claim it is for the community, but it isn’t.’
