HC Deb 29 July 1980 vol 989 cc1473-5 12.56 am
Mr. Peter Hardy () Rother Valley

Although it is almost 1 o'clock, I should like to present a petition from the Rotherham borough council. My hon. Friends the Members for Dearne Valley (Mr. Wainwright) and Rotherham (Mr. Crowther), who are in the Chamber, wish to be associated with the presentation, and we offer our full support for the petition.

Given the relevance of the petition, in view of the embarrassing position in which the Government have been placed in another place, it may be appropriate for me to read the petition in full. It says:

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of the Rotherham Borough Council. Showeth: That your Petitioners, being the local housing authority for their borough, have taken note of impending legislation contained in the Housing Bill in which it is proposed to provide for the sale of council houses and, further, have taken note of a public petition to them on the matter". That petition was taken by my hon. Friends and I, with the mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Sidney Bennett, and the housing chairman, Councillor Fred Cooper, to the Department of the Environment last week. That petition, which is part of the council's submission reads: We the undersigned, being residents or ratepayers within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, urgently request the Council to petition the Secretary of State for the Environment to reconsider that part of the Housing Bill now before Parliament which deals with those properties which are to be excluded from sale by the local authority. We ask that the number of those properties be increased to include all purpose-built units of accommodation for the elderly, i.e. bungalows and ground floor flats, and ail purpose-built or purpose-adapted accomodation for the disabled or handicapped so that such units of accommodation are available to let to all those elderly, disabled or handicapped whose names are on the Council's waiting list for such properties. The council's petition goes on:

Your Petitioners did on the Second day of July 1980 pass the following resolution:—

This Council

Take Note of the proposed legislation contained in the Housing Bill concerning the sale of Council houses;

Take Note too, of the public petition on the matter which is to be forwarded to Her Majesty's Government for their information.

Welcomes the proposals to exclude some 2,200 units of purpose-built sheltered accommodation for the elderly in Rotherham from such sales;

Deplores the proposals of Her Majesty's Government not to allow a further 4,300 units of purpose-built accommodation for the elderly, i.e. bungalows and ground floor flats, plus a further number of purpose-built or purpose-adapted properties for the handicapped and disabled, to be excluded from such sales, despite, in the case of the 4,300 units recognition of those units as special accommodation by the Home Office for the purposes of concessionary television licences;

Invites Her Majesty's Government to reconsider its position and to reconsider the plight of the 5,910 aged Rotherham residents whose names are still on the waiting list for sheltered or purpose-built accommodation.

Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will ensure that the Housing Bill is amended to provide appropriate safeguards in respect of purpose-built and purpose-adapted accommodation for the elderly, handicapped and disabled. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound will ever pray, Etc.

The Commons Seal of the Rotherham Borough Council was hereunto fixed this Twenty-first day of July 1980 in the presence of Mr. Lawrence Frost, Chief Executive.

To lie upon the table.

Back to