Housing group sorry for state of Daventry garages

The garage doors appear to have been crowbarred open

Futures Housing Group was undertaking a review of the garages in The Stour, having applied for planning permission to demolish them and build two affordable homes on the site.

After forewarning residents of the inspection, the garages were seemingly crowbarred open, and the area was left untidy with sharp metal and garage doors lying on the ground.

A Futures Housing Group spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for the disruption caused and the condition the area was left in. To ensure the safety of all residents in the area we have visited today [May 16] to make the area safe.

Some garages had abandoned pots of paint and chemicals

“We would like to reassure our customers that the garages we opened before our surveyor arrived were unoccupied and are not rented out.

“However, the way they were opened has fallen below our expectations and we are investigating why they were accessed in this way.”

Futures Housing Group owns the 17 garages on the site, six of which are rented out, and explained that the keys for the remaining garages were not returned by former customers, which may explain the reason for the forced entry to the garages.

One resident, returning home about half an hour ahead of the scheduled visit, noticed the mess and potential health and safety hazards.

Some children had been playing with a toy tractor inside one of the garages.

She said: “The damaged doors were left lying on the floor and sharp pieces of metal were left hanging from the inside of the garages.

“The manner in which the Futures Housing Group has carried this out is atrocious.

“Leaving the sharp pieces of metal and misshapen doors on the floor are a clear danger to health and safety, especially considering that many young children and their pets play by these garages.

“There is now easy access to the inside of these garages which contain asbestos dust caused by porous asbestos and leaking roofs, and abandoned chemicals and property.”

Inside some of the garages were pots containing paints and solvents.

The residents tried to keep children away from the area as three youngsters had been seen entering one of the garages to play on an abandoned toy tractor.