Sort your house out!

11:27am Tuesday 20th May 2008

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DISMAYED neighbours are calling on borough councillor Anne Kenwood to sort out her 'dilapidated' Weymouth property.

Mark Allen and June Stone claim the future deputy mayor's house on Portland Road in Wyke Regis, Weymouth, has been left practically derelict.

They say abandoned cars have been left rusting on the driveway for years and the garden is neglected and overgrown.

Last year Mr Allen had to call on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's own pest control officer because there were rats coming from the decaying property.

He says Mrs Kenwood, who is due to be made deputy mayor on Thursday, no longer lives there - and now he and Mrs Stone are demanding to know when she will put it right.

Mr Allen, whose 71-year-old mother lives next door, said: "What kind of example is she setting?

"I think the way she's treating her neighbours is appalling.

"She's using it as her address but she cannot live there. There's no way anybody could."

Mr Allen, 43, said Mrs Kenwood's property has been 'falling apart' for years.

He said: "The main house is decaying and dilapidated. The windows are rotted and the brickwork has fallen away.

"Last year there were rats coming into my parents' garden. The pest control officer had to come in through their house because Mrs Kenwood was unavailable.

"The abandoned cars haven't moved for years, they're just rusting and falling to pieces.

"A wall fell down two years ago and she promised to rebuild it but we're still waiting."

Dorset Primary Care Trust worker Mr Allen said his late father Roy tried to get the problems sorted many times.

"Dad died three weeks ago and this is really getting mum down," he said.

"Very occasionally Mrs Kenwood comes to pick up the post but that's it, she's got no interest in the property.

"We've asked her nicely but nothing's been done. We've approached the local Labour Party but they say there's nothing they can do."

Mr Allen, from Rodwell, said the state of Mrs Kenwood's house is devaluing nearby properties.

He added: "All I want is for the place to be sorted and tidied up so it's environmentally-friendly and nicer for my mum and for June.

"Dad tried his best and got hacked off with it. Now I've taken it on myself and I just don't know what else to do."

A Weymouth and Portland Borough Council spokesman confirmed that the authority's pest control officer visited the site in February 2007 in response to complaints.

She said: "The council has not received any further complaints since that time."

Mrs Kenwood, who represents Wyke Regis, lists the Portland Road property as her official address on the borough council's website.

She also lists the same address on the Dorset County Council website. She is a county councillor for the Portland Harbour division.

Mrs Kenwood said she does live at her Portland Road address although she admitted that she was often away from it either visiting family in Devon and Somerset or fulfilling her duties as a borough and county councillor, duties which she said often filled an entire day.

And she said of her neighbours: "I don't want to put anything in the paper about them. I would not dream of doing so."

She added that they had not approached her at all about the story and said: "They could have phoned me or put a letter in my letter box but they have done neither.

"I am appalled at this, really appalled."

She explained that she was a widow and did find things difficult to do at home, but she said she had talked to her sons about the situation and work was pending both for the garden and for window repairs.

Mrs Kenwood also admitted that a pest control officer had visited her property but she said that rat bait left under a shed to tackle the alleged rodent problem went untouched But Mrs Stone, 74, who lives next door, said she 'never sees her'.

She said: "The garden really bothers us. It's very overgrown and I have to keep getting people in to cut it back.

"The cars in the driveway have not moved since 2000 and they look so bad. I can't understand why she's let it get into such a state.

"As a councillor she should be trying to help us. She knows exactly how we feel about it."