Boarded up home labelled 'the local disgrace'

Residents want action

Author: Toby Paine, LDRSPublished 21st Mar 2023

A Fareham resident has raised fears over an ‘eyesore’ property which has been boarded up for two-and-a-half years.

A local resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, is calling on Fareham Borough Council to address an ‘eyesore’ semi-detached bungalow in Lansdowne Avenue, Portchester.

The council is currently taking legal action against the owner of a property in Botley Road, Park Gate because of its ‘unacceptable appearance’.

The residents said the house has been ‘boarded up for two-and-a-half years, and previous to that, it was 12 years living next to a nightmare’.

Lansdown Avenue 'eyesore'

They said: ‘After many many letters, phone calls, emails, visits – there is still no conclusion, for us, on the horizon.

‘Is it because this Thresher Store is actually on a main road? Are we being ignored because our eyesore is in a quiet road leading to the sea? What buttons do we need to press to get some action?

‘Does anyone out there actually care about our beautiful little residential road being labelled as the local disgrace.

‘Perhaps, it is because most of the neighbours are elderly and aren’t worthy of being listened to.’

In September 2020 the Fareham Neighbourhood Policing Team secured a closure order for the property following 90 complaints about anti-social behaviour.

Police officers extended the order in December 2020 due to ‘severe anti-social behaviour and criminality linked to the address and its occupiers’.

A council spokesperson said that the property had not been reported to the authority but that it would investigate.

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