“Imagine being told everything you’ve worked for, all that you’ve built in your life is about to be flattened… how would you be? We’re heartbroken.”
These are the words of Lynn Winstanley, one of the homeowners coming to terms with news that the Aberdeen City Council appears poised to demolish their homes because of Raac.
The dangerous material was discovered in studies last year, and a mass evacuation was launched this spring as residents began being ferried from unsafe homes.
In a tumultuous week for residents of Torry, I spent two days with those at the very heart of the Raac crisis: the beleaguered families of Balnagask.
Read on to hear stories from:
- A retired nurse who has lived in Torry for 43 years
- A former councillor now faced with having to find a new home after buying his flat five years ago
- A young teacher who bought her house just under three years ago
- A dad worried about his son’s future schooling
- And many more stories of the real human impact
It’s Wednesday morning and, as I drive to the Bridge Centre, my phone repeatedly beeps.
Homeowners of Raac-affected houses have received a hand-delivered letter, and my Facebook messenger inbox is filling up.
By the time I plug in my laptop in at the community cafe, where I’ll be for the next two days, there’s already a queue of people who want to talk to me.
First up was Pam Milne, one of many whose home is affected by Raac.
Pam Milne, a retired dinner lady from Victoria Road School
For 41 years Pam has lived on Balnagask Road. She began her time in the three-bed “hen house” as a council tenant but was later able to buy her home.
“I’ve just put two new showers in, and wardrobes. I’ve spent a fortune on it over the years.”
Pam moved to Torry when she left her husband. Any sense of loss was quickly replaced by a community that became her extended family.
“I’m mortgage-free now,” she says.
“What will we all do if they give us a low offer?
“I can’t afford to rent somewhere else, and I won’t be able to get another mortgage. I’m devastated if I’m honest with you.
“The thought of losing my home is keeping me up at night. The thought of leaving Torry is unthinkable.”
‘We’re just heartbroken’
She’s not the only one struggling to sleep.
Pam’s friend shares that she’s crying most nights and is anxious about the future. She withdrew from speaking on the record. It’s all too much.
As we talk further another lady comes in. Carol Lawrie.
Carol is a front-line campaigner. She isn’t taking the news she could lose her home lying down.
In her three-bed “upside doon hoose” on Pentland Road, Carol is also a previous council tenant, now a homeowner.
She’s been attending meetings to keep up to date on the situation in Torry.
“It’s just one more thing happening to Torry and we’re heartbroken. The real cost of Raac is what it’s doing to us.”
‘None of this is fair’ says retired nurse Dianne
I decide to visit Sandy and his wife Dianne on Farquhar Road. They’re in a four-bedroom house with their black Labrador Max.
“Come away in for a cup of tea,” says 69-year-old Dianne, a retired nurse, from the gate of her perfectly cultivated, colorful garden.
“We’ve been here 43 years,” Sandy tells me from their kitchen. “I was going to knock that wall down but didn’t want the mess.”
He’s pointing to the division between the kitchen and living room. Unlike the empty house opposite, Sandy and Dianne’s house is beautiful.
Surrounded by photos of their grandchildren, with Max at my feet, they both express their fears about what’s to happen next.
“I mean, if they say they want to knock them down [the Raac houses], they’ll need to buy the houses from the homeowners.”
Dianne says she’s going to ask for “pre-Raac valuation and 10% on top of that”.
“They keep talking about fair compensation,” she says.
“Fair to who? None of this is fair.”
She adds: “We don’t have a mortgage. I feel for the young ones. If they get a low offer they’ll have thousands to pay the bank and will be starting from scratch with debt.”
More and more neighbours are disappearing
As council tenants sign new leases across the city, more and more of Sandy and Dianne’s neighbours are leaving.
“We’ve had no issues here, and we’ve had a good life here. But day by day it’s becoming a different place, and I don’t think they realise what it’s doing to people,” adds Sandy, 74.
“If we have to go, where will we go? How will we afford it? We dinna want to go back to renting.”
As I go downstairs from the lounge to the front door a neighbour walks by.
“Here, I’ve got a new place,” she beams, “better than what I have now, riddled with damp.
“But I’ll come and see you before I go.”
‘We pay council tax, where’s our help?’ says dad worried about school for son
Stephen Mitchell is 51 and a speech and language therapist at Cornhill Hospital.
He and his wife Heather, and their two boys, 13 and 11, live on Downies Brae. Just along the road from the McDonalds, Stephen tells me he’s suffered anxiety during this process.
“We were private tenants for a few years then we bought our three-bed for around £120,000. There’s a lot of that left to pay off. I can’t help but be concerned about that.
“Whatever they offer us, we need to stay in the area because our boys have school.”
“I really feel the council does have a duty to us as well. We aren’t their tenants but we do pay council tax. They are the ones who commissioned the building of the houses, and accepted the use of inferior, cheaper materials.”
Local teacher feels Torry is an ‘afterthought’
As the day winds up on Wednesday and I head home, another Facebook message drops in.
It ends with the words, “Well, we’ll find out more next Wednesday.”
By 11pm on that Wednesday night a new council report goes live.
Unaware of its contents, 27-year-old Amie Bruce, a teacher at Manor Park Primary School, woke up on Thursday to a call from a TV news reporter wanting a comment.
She’s told the recommendation is for Raac properties to be demolished and rebuilt.
A short walk from her four-bed house on Pentland Road, she comes in to see me on my second day in the Bridge Cafe.
“Why couldn’t they just have told us, 24 hours earlier in the hand-delivered letter?
“It really does feel like we’re an afterthought.”
Amie has lived in Torry since she was 10 and bought what she hoped would be her forever house two-and-a-half years ago. She paid £129,000 for her home.
‘I, and many others, absolutely love living here’ says exhausted teacher
“I’m prepared to move, I’m young, but my biggest concern is financial. I have most of my mortgage to pay off unless I get that amount. I’m facing an uncertain future.
“I have no debt other than my mortgage, but if I am offered a low price for my home I could owe £60,000 or more.”
I ask what living through this process has been like.
“Exhausting. It’s like having a second job.
“It boils down to the fact I, and many others, absolutely love living here.
“There can be a lot of false assumptions about Torry. But I really don’t want to be anywhere else. There isn’t another community in all of Aberdeen as special as Torry.
“And imagine being one of the many children having to move? That’s always hard, never mind in these circumstances.”
‘I’m devastated…’
As we chat Carol, from the day before, comes in for a coffee with her son.
“Carol,” I say gesturing to her. “You’ve heard the news? How are you?”
Yesterday’s feistiness is replaced with obvious upset.
Unable to speak, she holds her hands up to indicate she can’t talk.
Composing herself, she exhales, “devastated.”
Moving away is bittersweet
A queue around my cafe table forms again.
Mum-of-five Suzanne Cook is a teaching assistant at Tullos Primary School and a council tenant in Farquhar Road.
I’m pleased she dropped by.
Until today it’s been homeowners who have been more keen to discuss the situation, not council tenants.
Suzanne says the offer of a new council house in Garthdee is bittersweet.
“We’re choosing to see it as a new opportunity for our family, but my heart goes out to homeowners who could be losing everything.”
Her new property was originally earmarked for use as temporary accommodation.
“I was really anxious at first, to be starting again, but the house will be good for us,” she says. “Well, when they sort the damp out. There’s a bit of work to do but will be nice to stop living out of boxes.”
‘It’s nice… but it’s nae Torry’
Next in is Paula Fraser, 59. She’s a retired support worker and council tenant in Burnbank Place.
“I gutted my whole downstairs about nine months ago. New carpets, new banisters. I just spent £3000 on a new fence. And for what?
“I’m in a three-bed now but have been offered a two-bedroom in Kincorth so I’m lucky. The council tax is about the same.”
So far, three people have messaged to tell me moving to other parts of Aberdeen has meant a hike in rent and council tax. One had to retrospectively refuse a house because she hadn’t anticipated such an increase in rent.
“My new place is nice. Nice house, nice area, but it’s nae Torry.
“I know there were no easy solutions but I would have been happier if the roof had just been fixed.”
‘This whole thing is heartbreaking’
Within Torry, Paula is a lynchpin. She runs food banks, supports families and she’s started a pre-loved toy scheme.
“My heart just goes out to the private tenants. Some of them couldn’t get on the housing list. What will they do now? This whole thing is heartbreaking.
“Why is it always Torry though?”
It’s a question I’ve been asked numerous times.
Linda Harper from Grampian Road joins us.
The house she lives in isn’t affected by Raac…
“Except I am,” she says. “Because they’re ripping this community apart.
“First they took the school, then they came for St Fittick’s…”
“And then we were struck with the incinerator,” Paula chimes in.
“And now they’re coming for my friends and family,” adds Linda.
“My daughter was just talking to me about Torry people having a lower life expectancy. If it takes 15 years to knock down and rebuild the houses, then I’ll be spending the rest of my life in a building site.”
Does Torry need to be regenerated?
I decide to play devil’s advocate.
“What do you say to those who say Torry needs to be knocked down and rebuilt because of all the social issues?”
“Nobody is saying we haven’t got issues. There are problems everywhere. But lots of Torry’s issues are BECAUSE Torry is neglected,” Paula says.
“I think they think Torry people are stupid and we can’t see what goes on,” Linda adds.
“There will of course be some people happy to move. But there’s a whole lot of us who have to come to terms with life never being the same again after this.”
‘We’re at the mercy of the council’
Former Aberdeenshire councillor, Leigh Wilson, owns a Raac-ridden one-bedroom flat on Pentland Crescent.
The 30-year-old was a first-time buyer five years ago.
“My flat is beautiful, and Torry exceeded my expectations in terms of community. People here are salt of the earth. I just feel a bit stuck.
“A five to 15-year timeline is so uncertain. I can’t move until the council buys my flat. It’s unsellable if it’s to be demolished. But what if it takes five years to get to me? And what if I don’t get what I paid for it? We’re all at the mercy of the council and the council’s timeline.”
The council will decide the future of Balnagask on Wednesday.
Conversation