Hundreds homeless after Kirkby flats ruled unsafe

Hundreds of people in flats in Kirkby are being made homeless after two tower blocks were declared unsafe by the fire service.

Knowsley Council has told 160 households at Willow Rise and Beech Rise, in Roughwood Drive, they will have to permanently leave their homes within weeks. One resident, Christopher Penfold-Ivany, 53, said it was a “catastrophic situation”.

The council said a failure by the building’s management companies and agents to carry out required works had led to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS) issuing an enforcement notice against the buildings’ Responsible Persons.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has contacted all relevant parties for comment.

A letter from Knowsley Council sent to 160 households at Willow Rise and Beech Rise, seen by the LDRS, confirmed they would have to permanently vacate their homes in a matter of weeks.

The tower blocks home hundreds of residents, both tenants and leaseholders, and are owned by TR Marketing Ltd. The headlessor of both Willow Rise and Beech Rise is Rockwell (FC100) Ltd.

Parklands Kirkby Management Company Ltd is the board elected by leaseholders to contract a management company to take care of health and safety issues, general maintenance and service charges.

Dempster Management Services Ltd took on this contract in 2023 but at the start of this month informed all tenants and leaseholders it had decided to immediately terminate its contract with Beech Rise and Willow Rise.

This has left residents without a contracted management company.

Resident Mr Penfold-Ivany, who lives on floor 13 of Willow Rise and is currently undergoing treatment for a serious health issue, said it was a “catastrophic situation” and “should never have been allowed to happen”.

“We’ve been plunged into uncertainty and we’re all effectively being made homeless.”

Arunee Leerasiri, who owns a flat and has lived in Willow Rise for the past two-and-a-half years said it had been “very stressful” and that residents had been “living with an increasing sense of fear with no solutions or answers to questions”.

Resident Denny Walton, 83, described the news as a “bombshell” and said he did not know where he and his wife would go.

“We would’ve died here, we love it,” he said.

“Now this bombshell – ‘out’. I don’t know what we can do”.

Rockwell (FC100) Ltd, the flats’ headlessor or primary landlord, said responsibility for managing the buildings and ensuring they were safe rested with the resident management company, Parklands Kirkby Management Company Ltd.

A Rockwell representative said it was “extremely disappointing that the buildings have been allowed to deteriorate to the extent which they have”.

Adding: “We are now, as a matter of urgency, investigating how best to move forward.”

A Parklands Kirkby Management Company Ltd representative said the board had been “left with an impossible situation and amounting legacy issues”.

“We volunteered to be directors of the management company in late 2023, following years’ worth of neglect and repeated failings,” a representative said.

“When we became directors there was unfortunately no funds left and a substantial amount of money (£700,000) owed by way of service charges and hundreds of thousands of pounds owed to creditors.”

Dempster Management Services Ltd has been contacted by the LDRS for comment.

The LDRS has also made attempts to contact building owners TR Marketing Ltd.

Leader of Knowsley Council Graham Morgan said the local authority was in the process of contacting all residents to ensure they received urgent support, which could include emergency re-housing.

MP for Knowsley Anneliese Midgley said she had been contacted by concerned residents and was calling for a long-term plan to address the issues.