Falinge 'B'

Not Town Hall House.

I live in Mitchell Hey, one of the above apartments which were built in Rochdale in the late 1960's. There are seven buildings, four are 20 storeys high and the other three are 16 storeys. They are attractive in design and were extremely well-built of dark brick, iron/steel frame and concrete (no cladding or gas) with an integral balcony to each apartment? They were a good example of 1960's high rise accommodation in Rochdale and are known affectionately as the "Seven Sisters". The Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council used to manage them but in 2002 the management of various housing estates, including College Bank, was transferred to a newly set-up management company calling itself Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. Since that time RBH has made some improvements. They are still in reasonably good repair but do need some further repairs, such as exterior cleaning to balcony fronts, interior repairs and painting generally.

Recently RBH are proposing to demolish the four 20 storey buildings, including Mitchell Hey where, in the Lobby, there is a beautiful ceramic mural by George and Jean Stephenson which is represented in the 20th Century Society as an example of excellence in 60's architecture! RBH must be stopped from any demolition of that, and we hope, the building it is attached to and the other three - Dunkirk Rise, Tentercroft, Town Mill Brow.

We, leaseholders and tenants, do not want to leave our homes, where some of us have lived here for very many years. I have lived here 29 years, my late mother-in-law was here 25 years, my friends on the 13th floor, came to live here immediately they were married 47 years ago!

I am 82 years old and my husband passed away just 12 months ago next week, and I and many others do not want our homes demolished on the whim of a woman who doesn't live here and appears only to be interested in glory for herself, and has no concern for who she upsets. RBH say, after the demolition of our homes, they plan to build houses. No way can they accommodate the same number of people on such a small piece of land. Rehousing is not what we want. Refurbishment, improvement and general TLC is what these buildings need.

I'm sorry to have made such an issue of this but I and many others feel very strongly about this and RBH is just not listening to us. All their placations are only "lip service" . We have heard it all before from RBH to no avail.

If there is anything you can do or suggestions you can make, hundreds of people here would be extremely grateful. We have set up a petition and there are 530 residents signed against demolition and another 345 non-residents do not want to see affectionate icons being demolished.

Yours faithfully,

Audrey Middlehurst

in the in their words "to regenerate the area". There are