Labour Accused of Scare-mongering

8.57.13pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 12th Jul 2006

The Council's Liberal Democrat administration has attacked the Labour Party for continuing to deliberately raise residents' fears over demolition. Although both the Council's Lib Dem Cabinet and Milton Keynes Partnership (MKP) have clearly stated that the growth plans for Milton Keynes do not require any demolition of existing homes, Labour are still upsetting residents by telling them that there are demolition plans for their areas.

Liberal Democrat Council Leader, Isobel McCall, said, "Labour are playing politics with people's lives. They are still claiming that there are plans to demolish people's homes when there are not. In their political newsletters to residents, through letters to the press and in a Council motion on 11th July, they are still intent on worrying residents. My conscience wouldn't allow me to sleep at nights if I was deliberately frightening people in the way that they are doing."

The demolition threat comes from a consultants' report commissioned by MKP. This report suggested that high numbers of new homes could be accommodated within the existing urban area by demolishing parts of a few estates. The demolition aspects of the report were rejected by both the Council's Lib Dem Cabinet and by MKP and have been excluded from the proposals currently out for consultation.

"Not only have Labour been telling residents in areas identified in the consultants' report that their homes could be demolished but they have also been worrying residents about demolition in other estates that have never even been a gleam in the consultants' eyes. Labour's behaviour is totally irresponsible and is causing huge amounts of totally needless distress," continued Isobel McCall. "It is about time that they put residents' feelings before party politics."

The Council is taking every possible opportunity to reassure residents that there are no plans for demolition, including sending a letter to every household in the estates mentioned in the consultants' report and on Labour's fictitious list. "Labour is costing the Milton Keynes taxpayer money," said Isobel McCall. "The Council is having to send letters to three additional estates, nearly 6,000 houses in total, because Labour has been telling residents their homes are under threat."