Neighbours of 'rotting' home still wait for action
BBCA couple who have been complaining for decades about the empty home next door worry they will die before anything is done about it.
Twelve years after Kathleen and Tom Wilson moved into their home on Station Road in Wingate, County Durham, in 1970, their neighbour left their house empty and it is now slowly rotting.
Kathleen Wilson said she understood it took time to bring houses back into use but believes "nobody is bothered" about trying to refurbish it.
Durham County Council's (DCC) private sector housing manager Victoria Hall said the council was waiting for legal proceedings to be completed before selling the house at auction.
The couple were informed a year ago by DCC that the home next door would be auctioned "as soon as legally possible" but they said nothing had been done and nobody had come to inspect the site.
Kathleen Wilson said: "We have had letters promising us this will be sorted from Tony Blair when he was our MP, we had one visit from [former Sedgefield MP] Paul Howell years ago but then we never heard from him again and we haven't even had a site visit from Durham County Council.
"I'm going to be 80 this year, I'm not going to be here when it is finally fixed."
The couple said they had worked hard all their lives and loved their home but wished the derelict property next door could be demolished.
In the decades since 1982, the house has been auctioned multiple times but nobody has ever refurbished it.
The property now has an overgrown front yard and the wooden boarding covering windows on the back of the house is falling apart.
Tom Wilson said the last time he had seen inside the back room of the house he had seen the floor "rotting away".
He said: "There's not a kitchen, it doesn't have a bathroom or even an inside toilet.
"We don't know if it is structurally sound or if it is affecting our house."
Hall said the property had changed ownership several times and was last owned by a company which dissolved in 2021, before being passed to the Crown Estate.
She said: "We understand residents' frustrations and would like to reassure them that we are continuing to seek a solution to secure the long-term future of the property.
"We are currently waiting for legal proceedings to be completed, after which we hope to sell the property at auction."
