RESIDENTS are being asked to inform the Borough Council of empty homes that it may not have a record of.
As revealed in last week's 'Herald', Castle Morpeth Council has come up with a Draft Empty Homes Strategy to attempt to reduce the number of vacant buildings which cause a nuisance and visual problems for people living nearby.
It will go out to pu
blic consultation and when it was discussed at an Executive Board meeting, Coun Michael Jeans said this was a good opportunity for the authority to learn of any other empty properties in the area.
"Our figures are based on Council Tax records, so this means there could be a few houses that are empty for whatever reason which we do not know about," he said.
"So it would be useful if in this consultation, we gave homeowners and members of the public the chance to inform us of properties they know are empty that they think we may not be aware of."
Executive Member for Communities Glen Sanderson said people will be made aware of the opportunity to point any such homes out in the consultation.
According to Council Tax records as at April 2008, there were 324 properties which had been vacant and unfurnished for more than six months in the Borough, compared to 254 at the same stage in 2007 and 342 in 2006.
The full article contains 235 words and appears in Morpeth Herald newspaper.
