Ah, the council serving the citizens...

they only need the space for the schools becuase the have already sold of the playing fields for development

Mr Gordon should get a five bedroom home in the new developement which was part of the old Craigroyston High School. That seems fair since Mr Gordon owned his home and was probably offered peanuts for it.

The cooncil at its best,Not giving a toss,More developers with brown envelopes.

RIP Coconut Faces.

Before I pass judgement It would be nice to know the offers made that were not suitable?

If Mr Gordon owned the property which I presume he bought from the council under the right to buy scheme can someone please explain why the council have the right to evict him from a property the council were not the owners of?

I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here, I'm not talking about this family but in general it appears the councils;
build more flats, fill them with scum, let the scum destroy them, then knock them down, build more flats, fill them with scum, let the scum destroy them, then knock them down....and so on and so on.
Does someone other than the scum who get a new house benefit from this?

7 - Schemies = scum. Ah, now we know. Always thought I was a decent sort but apparently I'm not.

Methinks it wouldn't happen in Morningside or Stockbridge.

Moscow Central 42, I thought as much.Seems you can have your cake and eat it.

Pity we could not compulsory purchase all council buildings and build a super building on inchkeith island.

#9, I was talking about the scum not the schemies. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Another CPO carried out by CEC Services for Communities Department. More of this will be hapening through out the city - add these to the ASBOs, ABOs etc and the Director Mark Turley will further convince himself that he is doing the business!

seems like the citizens of edinburgh have no rights left. a private house owner is being evicted to make way for a new school. how much was he offered for his property? people are entitled to know this . where was he to be re-housed? we are entitled to know this also. not that the cooncil will consider this to be contravening the families rights as private tax-paying citizens.

2#3 Eve

So what if he was offered peanuts for it? These flats would have been bought for peanuts.

Many of us had to work hard and pay the market rate for our homes whilst council tenants got their at highly subsidised rates.

Mr Gordon is selfish. Why has it taken so long to get him evicted? At the end of the day, the taxpayers are the ones that pay for all these delays.

Surely a new high school has to take priority over some misguided fool thinking he can do as he likes? Perhaps the problem might be that Mr Gordon doesn't want to move away from his mother's ashes. People don't think beyond the immediate future when burying remains.

The man lost his house now their charging him with assault shame

The council has the right to take the property through emminent domain for the greater good.
However Mr Gordon is entitled to fair compensation

Under a compulsary Purchase Order he would have been paid full market value for the house, so whats his problem?
Burying his old dears ashes in the back garden,what a radge thinking pennywell was going to be there for ever?

Mind you for a hoose in Muirhouse you be lucky to get 2 balloons and birler off the rag man for it.

#15.
What did you want the council to do build the new school around him?
I went to Graigy in the 70,s the building was minging then so christ knows what it is like now.
Isabel(16) is right it will be us tax payers who will be forking out for the delays caused by this arrogant fool.

Well Mr Gordon was living in the family home under false pretences as his siblings part owned that flat and they got nothing while he was staying there. His mothers ashes are not scattered at the house. I think to stay there with 4 kids under 9 while the place became a dump shows what kind of person he is - a nutter! I feel sorry for his wife...she and the kids have suffered enough! Hope they find somewhere decent to live soon.

And while my tounge is still sharp, yet more sloppy journalism from the EEN "he vowed to hire a lawyer in order to continue fighting" in Scotland we go to a solicitor who in turn will instruct an Advocate to represent us in court. Hiring lawyers is how you go about it in the US

theres no info on what the council offered him - it could have been 5p and a shed in the allotments for all we know.

#18
Definitely Services for Communities Department judging by your description!

he was offered £85000 for the flat

sooner or later, friends will tire of the family bunking in with them and the Gordons will have to accept some sort of compensation or new housing. Having four kids and two adults buking in may be okay for a few days but it will soon cause resentment on all sides. Unfortunately, emininent domain always wins out, right or worng . Good luck to all concerned!

#15 Thomas "seems like the citizens of edinburgh have no rights left"

You talk as if this was a right that we lost. But was there ever a time the council/government did not have a right to compulsoraly purchase a house?

I bet it was worse 500 years ago. The king probably sent round a few horseman to throw you out without any notice or compensation.

#23 freedom fighter, how do you know his mother's ashes aren't buried there?

These people paid next to nothing for flats they bought off the council. He stood to make a HUGE profit off it, courtesy of us taxpayers who will privately rent forever after subsidising people like him to buy.

Imagine laying someone to rest in that dive!

I lived there myself and it was the scummiest, dirtiest, foulest place I've ever found myself in outside of a slum in Manila.

And the people in the Manila slum were FAR better behaved.

Good riddance, Mr Gordon!

If £50,000+ taxpayer monies aren't good enough for you then you deserve what's coming!

Hey julian #30

Mothers ashes were scattered at Auchtermuchty as she wished!

#7 and #10.
I lived in a Glasgow housing scheme for about 12 years and I can assure you that most of the people living there were decent and hard working. As for the Morningside comment well I think people have the wrong impession of the area and the people, again most people I know are decent and hard working . As for Mr Gordon well I cant really comment as t what i would do in his position. Sorry I am making a late comment but as a decent and hard working person I was at my job. Peace be with you.

Libertarian (who sez the Yanks have no sense of irony ? ) 19 - Since when did Embra cooncil have anything in common with the greater good ? congestion charge poll, central traffic plan,statue of Joe EveryNuLabman, Caltongate, trams etc etc ad nauseum.

Do what the cooncil sez or they'll get the stormtroopers onto you !

#32 Ned
"Sorry I am making a late comment but as a decent and hard working person I was at my job"

You forgot to mention modest.

#35
At least I didnt say " In my humble opinion " Actually I take some pride in my modesty and its a great blessing and a wonderful gift. Peace be with you Julian.

FREEDOM FIGHTER
or is it Eric
you seem to know a lot,pity you have not got all the facts,all the ashes are not at muchty,on to more important things,initially the housing said they where not legally bound to offer any houses to the family , as to what they where offered a top flat in a tenement,certainly it is wind and watertight but hardly a great choice for 4 kids under 9,but no doubt someone will come on here and say at least it was a house,while it was bedlam in the area Colin and his wife still kept the house in good order ,kept the kids up to their usual high standards,it just beggars belief at some of the comments on here just hope that the people who think its a matter for joviality are never in the same position

a family member

Detain a thief and the police will not attend (Evening news article Thur 19 July) but when the council requires them to do their dirty work, they are there with zeal.

just thought i would present a fragment of another headline.

Swallows halt flats demolition

Local councillor Elizabeth Maginnis said the swallows could "manage to achieve what some of the residents could not" by holding up the demolition. One resident, Colin Gordon, barricaded himself into his Pennywell Place flat to try to stop the bulldozers from moving in.

Cllr Maginnis said: "I was told during a recent visit to the site that the whole demolition programme could be delayed because swallows are nesting in one of the perimeter blocks.

"Not even the people who have tried to barricade themselves into their homes have managed to hold up the project, so it's a little funny that these birds can.

"As an endangered species, I suppose they can delay progress where human beings can't, as it is illegal to move them until they have moved on

MY COMMENT
PC gone mad.

a family member

Nice one NED. At least you're not taking all the credit for your modesty;-)

Family Member # 39,

I hear they're demolishing these houses to make way for a new high school. What's happening to the old school and it's grounds? Are these being turned over to developers with the final result being council makes lots of money but green land is lost overall?

Julian
You have it in a nutshell.

a family member

If you are looking for corrupt local councillors for the area concerned you have LOADS to pick from...........Steve Cardownie and leslie ( Im not interested but have loads to do with the waterfront ) Maginnis.......... Just look who Stevie boy is best pals with and you will see how corrupt he is...Ask his pal buddy Mr Nolan !!! A fine upstanding person who everyone trusts !! Ha Ha !!

Morag # 42,

How does that work? You sell off a house in "the scummiest, dirtiest, foulest place I've ever found myself in outside of a slum in Manila." and make a huge profit?

And you can't exactly blame Mr Gordon even if he did make a good profit. All the guy did was follow the policies of the Thatcher government when he took up his right to buy and now he has benefited as a result of rising house prices. And if you think that area is bad now you should have seen it 25 years ago. The price he paid for it probably wasn't far off the mark considering it was probably worth next to nothing at the time anyway.

I take it you're against the councils policy of affordable housing as well then?

re-edinburgh people losing there rights.
when did the consultation process take place?
council has in the past closed roads to allow private houses to be built on temporary postings only to turn around and make the postings permanent.
brown envelopes do not lose there appeal to the politicians.

even if he was offered 85,000 what can buy for that nowadays.it still is a case of edinburgh people losing their rights.labour might be out but the muppets that supported them are still around.

£85k is a hefty deposit to say the least.On top of a mortgage of say £50k,or do they not want to pay market values and instead get another free house off the cooncil?

Rather than conjecture the price he got was £42,000 split between the whole family ,his mother bought it in 1981 at £7,000 after staying in the house since 1956 and upgraded it central heating /double glazing etc ,at that time the area was totally different to what you see now ,and Mr Gordon has continued to pay his council tax since this saga started although he has had non of the services,its all very well having an opinion but voicing your opinion without the facts is rather a pointless exercise,all i see is a couple of rather bitter twisted people who do not appear to have an ounce of human compassion but on behalf of Mr and Mrs Gordon i would like to thank the positive posters on here who voiced their support

a family member

Reading these comments, there's obviously some family disagreement as to who's entitled to what. But that's a family matter which is none of my business and which I feel uncomfortable reading about. (It happens in most families, including mine).
Here's a man who stuck to his principles in facing up to the Cooncil we all love to slag off , and he did it in style. I think he deserves the Bruce Willis Dirty Vest award
There's a parallel here with President Mugabe's tactics in clearing areas he wants control of in Harare. Might is right, and to hell with the little man.

Of course its all within the ultimate remit of the Scottish Nazional Party now.
You have been warned.

The Council Sucks !

43:- You are spot on ... Alot of these shoddy, vomit worthy Labour sorts are corrupt and would never dream of serving the public over their own self interest.

Regretfully not enough decent councillors and MSP's got in the last ime to put a stop to Labours rot.

Scotland needs to dump Labour if it is to move forward from these bad old days.

I salute Mr Gordon for his direct action.

Mr Sensible # 49
"get another free house of the council"

Usually the word free means you get something for nothing. Since he paid for this one (it appears £7000) that word would not apply.

Not only did he not get the house "free" but I would say for a 2 bedroom flat in Muirhouse in 1981, £7000 is a rip off.

No eric but Mr Gordon didn't pay for the 3 bedroomed flat himself it was bought and paid for by his parents and I wonder if Mother is turning in her grave seeing whats going on.

Sorry Mr Gordon lost his house but he should look ahead and get on with finding a decent home for the family. Best of luck!

FREEDOM FIGHTER
whoever you are i think you should change your title/name to EMBITTERED as the name FREEDOM FIGHTER conjures up a slightly different attitude to the one you portray, and as you pointed out in you previous post her ashes are at muchty,ashes means she was cremated so his mother would have a very hard job to turn her grave ,most of your posts/replies are contradictions and also you seem to have toned down from your previous venomous reply,i like to think i know exactly what his mother would think as i had the privilege to call her my friend