Elderly resident fears for future as Dunmurry tower block home to be demolished

Marie Cunningham has lived in Rathmoyne Tower for over 40 years but says she “felt forced” to accept a “poor” financial offer for her flat ahead of bulldozers moving in next July. The demolition is part of the Housing Executive’s £308 million Tower Block Action Plan aimed at replacing ageing tower blocks with new homes. But 76-year-old Marie says she feels she has no where to go thanks to being a private homeowner as opposed to a Housing Executive tenant. She said: “I felt so low this morning, just thinking about how I’m going to pack up all my belongings after all these years to move out of my own home. I don’t know where I am going to go to.

“I had to even go and seek legal advice to get a solicitor to look in to putting me on a list for Executive housing and I just don’t think that will even happen for me. They (NIHE) valued this flat some time ago, but mortgages and house prices have changed so much even in the last few weeks. What am I going to be able to afford? “The money they have offered isn’t going to allow me to rent for long or buy me a new house and at my age I won’t be getting a mortgage.” The two high rise blocks of Rathmoyne and Coolmoyne, opposite the Seymour estate and built in 1966, are due to be demolished in July 2023 or as soon as the flats are “cleared of residents”. However, according to the local community association, vulnerable people including those affected by domestic violence are said to have been given temporary accommodation at the towers. The business case for the tearing down of the Dunmurry blocks and the redevelopment will see £6.8m spent to deliver the scheme. Lisburn North councillor, Jonathan Craig (DUP) said: “The NIHE is going to be making these private tenant people homeless with the demolition of the towers. “The walls of the towers are just single concrete and there can be no exterior insulation put on them after the tragedy of Grenfell. So we are looking at home owners, some of many years, being effectively put on the streets to gain points to be put back into a NIHE housing system of backlogs. Something that they had got out of when they had bought their own homes decades ago.”

A Housing Executive spokesperson said: “Our Tower Blocks Action Plan was approved by the board in March 2019 and by the Department for Communities in August 2019. “Prior to these approvals, a full, public consultation was carried out in 2018. Our overarching aim is that everyone has a safe and comfortable place to live. Prior to the launch of our Tower Block Action Plan, the estimated investment required for our tower blocks was in excess of £308 million. “We believe this money will be better spent on replacing the tower blocks with new accommodation.”