| |
Sante Zanello at his Macintosh House home |
‘WE WON'T BE FORCED TO LEAVE'
Elderly pair refuse to budge from care home council want to cash-in on
TWO defiant pensioners under siege in a Marylebone elderly people’s home have warned council bosses: “We will never leave!”
Sante Zanello, 70, and Herbet Tan, 72, have refused dozens of offers to move out of Macintosh House in Beaumont Street since 2006.
The four-storey building – once home to 28 pensioners – was earmarked for closure by Westminster Council after housing chiefs claimed the home was too expensive to maintain.
Desperate to sell the valuable property, officials offered tenants £3,500 each to pack their bags and move into other homes. One by one they left, fearing the offer would not last forever. City Hall officials even removed the home’s communal television, books, snooker table and later refused to collect the rubbish in a bid to oust the last two tenants from their homes. Some died during the long-running upheaval – but the two remaining pensioners are fighting on.
Mr Zanello, a former maître d’ in top West End hotels including the Savoy and Dorchester, has been repeatedly threatened with eviction over two years – but the council appears to have given up on its threats of legal action.
The stalemate has led to Westminster Council paying to power, heat and hire 24-hour security for the near-empty building for more than two years.
Mr Zanello said: “Everyone said I had to move – but I have shown them differently. I am still here. I will never go. Every week they sent me a list with offers of another home. But they are like prisons. I have heard stories about other homes where there are mice in the beds and there are tiny sinks.
“Nothing can be as good as here. We have our own laundry room. I have my own shower and bathroom if I want. We have a wonderful garden, huge windows and the stairs are so wide. Imagine, you have your own bath for eight hours. What can be better?”
He added: “Of course, I would like it if more people were living here. But we’re happy to stay.”
Mr Tan and Mr Zanello live at separate ends of a corridor on the second floor. A security guard was patrolling the building when the West End Extra dropped in yesterday (Thursday).
Mr Tan, who recently turned down a move to his own flat in St John’s Wood, said: “The rent was much higher – so why should I go? I said to them, let me move there on the same rent as I am paying now for 10 years and I’ll go. But they refused.
“They use sweet words in City Hall, but they are descendants of Shirley Porter – they are rich men’s children.”
Westminster Council was given Macintosh House on a 99-year lease paid for by the estate of Lady Macintosh. A plaque at the entrance described her as “a tireless campaigner for the old people of the borough”. She was a good friend of Lucy Nettlefold, former Tory Alderman of the old Marylebone Borough Council.
The agreement between landlords Howard de Walden and the council was that the premises should be “used and occupied for the purpose only of old people’s dwellings”.
Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour Group, said: “It is an absolute scandal that the council does not refurbish Macintosh House so that it can provide a decent home for older people in housing need. Mr Zanello and Mr Tan should be congratulated on their stand and they will continue to have our full support.”
Steve Moore, deputy director of housing at Westminster City Council, said: “We pride ourselves in offering the best possible facilities to our older residents and made the decision to decommission
Macintosh House as it does not meet modern standards.
“Since then, we have successfully rehoused nearly all residents into better quality housing. However, there are currently two tenants remaining and we have made
several offers of new housing to each of them, which they have unfortunately declined.
“We will continue to try and resolve this situation and we will explore all venues before we
reconsider our current position.” |
 |
|
|
| |
| |
