Negative claims made about the Willaston regeneration scheme have been rubbished by senior members of Douglas Council.

Willaston Community Association, chaired by Manx Labour Party member Peter Washington, recently raised concerns about the impact renovations by Douglas Council are having on residents.

The refurbishment includes external work to alleviate damp problems and the installation of new kitchens.

Council leader David Christian and councillor Claire Wells, who chairs the council’s housing committee, week criticised the suggestion that the work has been a disaster in last week’s Douglas Council meeting.

They accused Mr Washington of using the issue as a ’springboard’ ahead of the local authority elections. Mrs Wells said the statements had been ’scare mongering’ while Mr Christian labelled the reports as ’utter tripe’.

Mr Washington, who is standing as a candidate for Douglas North in the April local authority election, believes the work is taking too long, which is ’unacceptable’ for tenants.

He claimed that residents had been left without a kitchen for about a month, forced to rely on take aways, use the Foodbank and ’wash their dishes in the bath’.

However, Mrs Wells told Douglas Council that Mr Washington was ’scare mongering’ and ’telling outright lies about how little we care about residents’.

She added: ’I feel disappointed about people putting out a statement about the situation. If we didn’t care about our tenants, we could’ve just left the houses to fall over.

’But we are spending an awful lot of money on ensuring our tenants are well looked after.’

Mrs Wells acknowledged that during the early parts of the work, there were problems and that ’not everything was ever going to go right’. She also accepted that there are still concerns over damp in the properties.

However, Mrs Wells added that the council ’is learning as we move on with the scheme’.

The chairman of housing was supported by council leader David Christian who told councillors that ’some of the comments are going back to day one’.

Mr Christian added: ’We have had a running battle with the Department of Infrastructure during the scheme.

’They wouldn’t let us do the paths and fences at the same time as the other work so we have to go round and do that now.

’We’ve overcome the problems we faced and I don’t want anyone waiting to have their house done concerned about what they’ve heard.

’I also think it would be sad if someone gets elected to this council on putting out that rubbish. The housing committee and the contractor has done very well despite what people who believe this tripe believe.’

Mr Christian also called on the council to write to all Willaston residents to explain the intricacies of the scheme including how problems have been overcome.

Mrs Wells said the housing committee would be writing to residents and said she wanted people to ’look for the positives’.

She also criticised media reports of the scheme saying ’bad press sells newspapers’.