Locals 'resigned' over fate of Edinburgh flats set for demolition

Locals living in an Edinburgh tower block being considered for demolition say they are resigned to whatever decision the council makes on their future.

Council officers look set to recommend that the Oxcars Court and Inchmickery Court buildings are demolished, after possible costs for a refit project jumped massively.

Both blocks, which are occupied by council tenants, have struggled with mould and damp and long-running maintenance issues.

A renovation was planned – and Inchmickery Court was already decanted in preparation for it – but in planning, costs shot up from £51m to £86m.

Lisa Bunham, 51, has lived in the Oxcars Court flat block for over 21 years. LDRS

Officers now say the renovation works no longer represent ‘value for money’, and have begun assembling options for next steps, with demolition seeming likely.

Lisa Bunham, 51, who has lived in the Oxcars Court block for 21 years, said it was time for the buildings to go.

Speaking on the maintenance issues in her block, she said: “It’s like darkness into darkness here. Why should we spend money on something if it keeps coming back?

“Why can’t you knock it down, and just start anew, like a boxy, maybe six storey, maybe high rises?”

Inchmickery Court, viewed from its sister block, Oxcars Court, began to be decanted in January of this year in anticipation of refit works that never came. LDRS

Ms Bunham said she had persistent issues with damp throughout her flat, including in her sitting room and her toilet.

But James Wheeler, 62, had doubts that knocking down the flat blocks and starting anew was the right course of action.

The former shipbuilding welder, sitting on his couch next to a space heater to fight off the cold in his flat, also said he felt the council did not care about the buildings or their tenants.

“The residents just feel absolutely left out of it altogether. If they can’t listen to residents about a complaint about another tenant, how are you going to listen to a complaint about the state of the building?”, he asked.

Citing his experience living in the damp and cold with COPD, he added: “This house is killing me. I’ve been in the hospital so many times because of this house.”

But, he believes that anywhere he might be decanted or moved to permanently would put him in worse conditions than in Oxcars Court.

And he said he had concerns about moving to a modern flat, expressing that he was worried they were often being built to a poor standard.

Mr Wheeler gestured to two large indents in the wall by his door, which he said had been reported to the council during the pandemic, but not mended.

He said: “Because they won’t come late, and because the pandemic, they won’t come replacing them. They won’t come do the glazing on the windows.”

Neither Mr Wheeler or Ms Bunham said the council was good at communicating about the repair process, and nor did they feel they had agency over what happens to the blocks next.

Lily, another tenant in the block, said they were not surprised to learn that demolition was the option council officers were leaning towards.

They said: “When I got the letter, I was like, yeah, maybe demolition. I heard these blocks cost £50m to fix?

“If they want to, they can just give me £300,000 – I’ve been told that’s the figure per flat – just give that to me and I’ll find another place.”

When they first moved in, in 2019, they said the inside of their door was covered with water due to damp – but that some interventions had seemed to keep it at bay.

All the flats in the buildings are owned by the council, unlike many other former council flat blocks around the city.

Oxcars Court is currently mostly populated, with just a handful of its 75 units out of commission due to needing maintenance.

Meanwhile, one tenant remains in Inchmickery Court, where residents began to be moved out in January this year.

Letters mentioning the possibility of demolition have been hand-delivered to tenants in the still-occupied block, and posted to those decanted from Inchmickery Court.

Edinburgh councillors will make a decision on what to do about the two buildings at a meeting of the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee in December.

But, they are set to receive an update on options for what to do about the blocks at a meeting on Tuesday next week, which you can view here.