'The council demolished by garage without permission'

BBC News

08-07-2025

"All I know is I've now got a square where my garage used to be", says Annette Holliday, of Loughborough in Leicestershire.The building, in Tuckers Row, was one of four to be demolished after a council mistake over land ownership when a fallen tree damaged the roof.This led to a report of asbestos debris, the council said, and the building was deemed "structurally unsafe" and a "risk to life" and needed to be demolished.But Charnwood Borough Council later said it had been "wrongly identified" that the council was the owner of the garages and apologised.
Ms Holliday says she has lost thousands of pounds worth of property after the contents of the garages were thrown into a tip and the demolition has devalued her home.She adds that garage owners were not informed about the contractors' visit, leading to the loss of belongings and potentially a devaluation of her home.An unknown third-party contractor had removed the fallen tree in December.Ms Holliday, 62, said branches were sawn through and damaged the roof of her garage and a neighbours.They believed the council had sent these workers, but the authority denies this.
In May, Ms Holliday said she was contacted by a neighbour who said someone was "dismantling" her garage.She said they were not informed of the contractors' visit in advance.The only item she was able to retrieve was her trike but more than £5,000 worth of her belongings were lost.Ms Holliday said: "This massive skip came, and everyone's belongings went in there. "Then everyone just disappeared, and there was no garage left."She said without a garage, the value of her house had decreased.
Ms Holliday added: "I was getting on with other stuff that was going off in my life, and then the next minute everything stopped."They've taken my property, and I've heard nothing."A spokesperson confirmed the council had received the report of asbestos debris being found at the site of four garages off Tuckers Road, Loughborough, on 12 May, and a specialist contractor attended the site on 20 May.
They said: "It was determined the garages were structurally unsafe and a risk to life, contained damaged sheet asbestos, and needed to be demolished."Fencing was placed around the garages, and the contractor demolished the garages on 22 May."At the time of demolition, it had been wrongly identified that the council was the owner of the garages."We would like to apologise to the owners of the site for this error and for any inconvenience and distress caused. We would be happy to discuss the situation with them directly."We are now reviewing our processes to ensure a similar situation does not happen again."The spokesperson added that the garages would ultimately have needed to be removed and items such as electrical goods and soft furnishings "may have become contaminated" so needed to be disposed of "as they cannot be safely cleaned"."The contractor was able to retain some items found in one of the garages," they said."We are aware that a nearby tree was cut down by a third party, but the tree was not owned by the council, and it was not on council land."