Residents living next to the derelict Polars Residential Home in Newport have called on the owners to make the building safe.
The former home, on Staplers Road, was sold in 2017 by Somerset Care, who still own Inver House in Bembridge, to private owners and then closed.
Since then, however, the building has stood empty, causing issues for residents of next door’s Wallace Court, independent housing properties owned by Sovereign.
Tina Snow, a blind resident who lives opposite Polars, says the building is in a real state and people don’t realise how bad it is. Tina has lived in Wallace Court since 1999 and one of the issues she now faces in the winter months, thanks to the deterioration of Polars, is sheet ice formed by waters coming from the broken gutters. Another is overgrown bushes and brambles which are at the right height for her to walk into.
The building itself, Tina said, is falling to bits with lots of debris and it is just a matter of time now until something happens or someone gets seriously hurt.
With no CCTV or security guarding Polars, Tina said she fears for her safety as the building is a fire hazard and she does not know who is in the building. She felt the owners would have a duty of care towards resident safety.
Les, another resident who can practically touch Polars from his front door, said he is now used to shooing people away from the building and has had to take measures to stop people breaking in by screwing down fences and unprotected doorways. He said he has now lost count of the number of times he has phoned the police.
Moving into Wallace Court in 2017, before Polars was abandoned, Les said there has now been an unreal amount of damage caused, with broken windows and the inside completely smashed.
Tina is hopeful a solution could be sorted, between all interested parties, as Wallace Court is directly affected by it and said she would be in favour of social housing built on the site, so long as it was safe.
Sovereign’s area property manager, Charlee Caddick, said she was sorry to hear residents felt at risk due to the disrepair of Polars and were currently trying to make contact with the owner. In the meantime, she said, they have engaged garden maintenance contractors to cut back the overgrown vegetation coming from the site.
The owner of Polars, Laurie Gustar, have been contacted.
What is happening to Polars?
The care home closed down in September 2017 after the property was sold by Somerset Care, who still own Inver House in Bembridge.
In 2015, when Somerset Care still owned the building, it received planning permission to demolish Polars and its outbuilding, replacing it with a 67-bed care home and 12 houses.
In the recent draft Island Planning Strategy, however, plans appear to have changed as the site was listed to potentially yield 50 homes.
Hampshire Constabulary said they were aware of the ongoing concerns, having attended the site in response to criminal allegations and reports of anti-social behaviour.
A spokesperson for the force said they have made arrests at Polars as part of ongoing enquiries. They also said they will continue to liaise with the new owner of Polars, Laurie Gustar, who retains responsibility for the site’s security, but strongly advises against people accessing the site and asks anyone concerned to report incidents to the police.
comes as no surprise – sneakily change it to build more houses, which will be advertised on the mainland, as there is no natural demand from islanders
In the recent draft Island Planning Strategy, however, plans appear to have changed as the site was listed to potentially yield 50 homes.
“no natural demand from islanders” are you kidding? Island girls are knocking out babies faster than I can blink
Well done for advertising that is has no CCTV or security
No doubt will have a suspect fire that will hit the place
What a missed opportunity back at the start of the covid pandemic to have converted an almost ready made establishment into a St. Mary’s overspill either for covid patients or to free up beds from the bed blockers. However, there probably wouldn’t have been sufficient staff and funds so it would never have got off the ground. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and what a retrograde step it was to close the Ryde hospital as well as all the cottage hospitals.
The wealthy could not care less.
They have private care,live miles away in a leafy land, and ‘Mummy’ will have a beautiful warden assisted luxury apartment to look forward to in old age, whilst we will be at the mercy of the criminals that our council import to fill the homes that the rich make their millions from.
If those residents think things are bad now, with the occassional break in of anti-social people, just WAIT until 50 or more houses are filled with the mainland’s finest rejects.
This will be the ‘good times’ as sadly they will only realise when it is all too late.
Watch and learn.
I live one door away from Polars, on Sunday there were three children running amok in the grounds.
I used to call the owners so many times, now lost count. Also rang the Police more times than i can remember! Given up bothering now, as my neighbour Tina said, it is only matter of time that someone is injured by this building, or it catches fire! Our properties are already being effected by the wanton vandalism, and a fire a night by such a close a building, could threaten our lives.
Then it will be to late. We live next door with a worry and fear.
When it was a care home I seem to recall the details of interior, tiled decoration in the main entrance area, was beautiful. Can anyone else recall that?
Maybe someone thought the only way to be able to knock the whole thing down would be to let it first fall into rack and ruin. What a shame.