SWNJfence – By Adam Dutton
Locals living by a picturesque marina are fuming after housing bosses ripped out plant-lined walls and replaced them with “prison-style” fencing – to stop people passing over their shopping.
Residents of flats in Albion Mill, Worcester were previously asked to pay £10,000 for a new privacy fence following just two complaints about boat owners ‘trespassing’.
Narrowboat dwellers at Diglis Marina had been leaving shopping at metal railings to be handed over by kind-hearted residents at the apartments in order to avoid a 20 minute walk.
But apartment bosses said that boat owners were trespassing when using the car park for a detour and asked residents to cough up thousands for a new fence to keep them out.
Now, two metre high railings have been erected along the pontoon leaving the quaint marina ‘like a building site’ after the previous walls and fencing was torn down.
Locals say FirstPort, which manage the apartments, ripped up the plants and decorations which lined the waters edge without any proper consultation leaving behind an ‘eyesore’.
Diglis Marina resident Tony Wass, 67, says he spent over £1,000 decorating his side of the fence – but was shocked to hear contractors had removed it all while he was on holiday.
He said: “It was put up after we went away for six months to Australia over Christmas.
“FirstPort now say they own the wall. At some point they ripped the fence out and put this very badly fence up.
“Albion Mill and our residence is not only ugly beyond belief but is also actually now compromising our security
“It’s not safe as it’s held together with two cable ties. You can cut them in two seconds and get in without issues.
“Now we wait I suppose and see what happens next. We have every intention of putting everything back. There hasn’t been any compromise from them.
“We’ve got everyone telling me how awful the fence looks. It looked nice before.
“It’s tarnished our whole view here. We have lovely fri in the community, but it just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.”
Tony sp just under £9,000 a year to moor his longboat on Diglis Docks but says he’s now thinking about leaving.
He says the trouble started last year when one angry resident spotted them transporting shopping over the old, lower fence, despite having the permission of a resident.
Tony added: “We get charged by Aquavista £6,000, on top of that we have to pay the Canal and River Trust over £1,200 for our license.
“Then there’s a risk of council tax which would add another £1,500 if we had to pay it, taking it onto £9,000.
“Once we started handing things over our part of the fence, that’s when the situation started.”
Professional sound engineer Tony, who lives on the boat with his husband Stuart, says they are now facing a mile walk with their weekly shop.
He added: “We have to walk our shopping from the car now which is at least 1km away, and I’m 68 next month.
“We could pull up by the side of the road illegally near the apartments but we don’t want to risk parking tickets.
“There’s two ways to go, one is the circular path but that’s around mile. The only other option is to go over the top lock gate but it is dangerous.
“You could fall, slip, there’s also huge cast iron hinges that I’ve tripped over numerous times in the dock.
“You’d have to walk a mile with your shopping from the car. It’s nonsense.
“We’ll have to try and get the shopping over by other means, we’ll try and use a pole or something. The whole situation is ridiculous.”
One resident of the apartments, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s been a lot of fuss over nothing really, all to stop people passing over some shopping bags.
“The fences there all looked really pretty and everybody looked out for each other – now we have this horrible fence that make it look like a prison.
“They have already been up for a couple of months and who knows for how much longer. They are shoddily put up and a security issue too.
“People are feeling a little bit more vulnerable and exposed and all over a couple of complaints about something so trivial.
“Because two people didn’t like others being neighbourly, we’ve had our apartment complex turned into a building site. It’s barmy.”
Firstport has been approached for comment.
POS MFL – FIRSTPORT STATEMENT
