Mr.
Tom Taylor is so disgusted at a raw deal he claims he has had concerning
the Aire-Street re-development scheme, that he has sent his five Second
World War medals to the K.U.D.C. in protest. Mr. Taylor told the ‘Express’
about what he describes as the unfair attitude of the Council in making
compulsory purchase orders. He said: "I suggest that property-owners
are not paid out on the face value of their property, but on how their
faces fit. Some owners have got four times what their property is worth
whereas others have been offered only one fifth."
"Some
property in Aire Street is worth six times as much burnt down as it is
standing, according to the council’s valuer. After more than 11 years
war service between us, my wife and I are stunned to think we are to lose
all we fought for. When I left Northern Italy in 1945 I thought we had
seen the last of Hitlerism, but in the past ten years we have been
subjected to nothing else. In fact, it is even worse than the war from my
point of view. In the desert we could fight back, and we did, but we
cannot fight back at the council, they hold all the cards."
Mr.
Taylor ardently believes that Aire Street has become a battle-ground. On
the Aire Street project, he said the council had wasted thousands of
pounds. Ratepayer’s money had gone on abortive plans and architect’s
fees as they had on another housing estate in Knottingley, where 200
houses were still empty.
"In
Aire Street, four shops have been built. It is a sin that the tenants were
indirectly led to believe that more were to be built, more houses, more
multi-storey flats, a new road an open market and a bus service which
would flood the street with shoppers. After ten years we have nothing but
eyesores. I was born and bred in Aire Street and my family for 200 years.
It is sad to see the massacre of old Knottingley."
