Home owners facing legal action

It was once a grand family home. But the owners of this detached mock Tudor house were today facing enforcement action after allowing it to fall into rack and ruin.

The empty building at 284 Lichfield Road, Willenhall, was largely destroyed in a fire two years ago.

Since then it has become a magnet for vandals who have broken windows and scrawled graffiti across it.

Fears about the safety of tiles falling from the four-bedroom home's badly damaged roof led to calls to Walsall Council to take action against the owners who have left it to rot.

Willenhall Councillor Ian Shires, who has been bringing the issue up at community action group meetings in the area for years, said the owners, whose identity has not been revealed, should be "ashamed" at the state of the building.

He said: "It's appalling, just the fact that it's been dragging on so long is upsetting.

"It's been two years since the fire and they are only just getting round to enforcement action.

"It's just dragging on and on and it affects a lot of people.

"There's a footpath that runs alongside and down the back of it on to Broadmeadows Road and right onto the Wood Lane estate, it's used quite heavily by pedestrians and I have seen slates falling. It's an absolute mess."

He added: "There is glass hanging off the windows which could act like a guillotine, and the place has been absolutely ransacked. The owners should be ashamed of themselves.

"It's not fair on the people living next door."

The home has been unoccupied for years.

David Elsworthy, Walsall Council head of planning and building control, said: "We don't tolerate landowners who fail to uphold their responsibilities in looking after their properties.

"We have been pressing the owner of 284 Lichfield Road, Willenhall, to carry out improvement works to this site for over a year but nothing has happened. We are now preparing formal legal proceedings against the owner to resolve the issues at this address."