ONE family’s dream home has been ruined after they found out they were on the hook to pay part of £44,000 to scare away birds.
They’re one of hundreds of families living on a new Lytham, Lancs, housing estate that are paying for bird-scaring at Blackpool Airport.
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Richard Lewis and his girlfriend signed to purchase their four-bedroom house at Richmond Point in 2022.
He is one of dozens of home-owners on the Richmond Point estate who claim they were left in the dark about the bird-scaring fees.
He says the pair understood a £360 maintenance fee would instead take care of gardening costs and other similar needs across the estate.
But Richard told LancsLive they have since discovered the fee includes the cost of bird-scaring tactics for Blackpool Airport.
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Richard said: “I understand [Rowland Homes] agreed to take over debts from Kensington including paying Blackpool Airport for bird scaring and environmental studies.
“Despite failing to disclose this information Rowland Homes are now trying to pass those costs onto their residents under a thinly veiled guise of ‘maintenance costs’.”
Blackpool-based Kensington Developments began construction of 1,150 homes plus a nature park for the estate in 2016.
After completing the first 89 properties on the estate Kensington then sold the remainder of the land with planning permission to Leyland-based Rowland Homes.
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Around 200 properties have been built so far with each family required to pay a £360 yearly maintenance fee to cover communal amenities.
When families signed on the dotted line to agree to purchase their brand-new homes they claim that they were told the maintenance fee covered costs such as grass cutting and upkeep of the reed-bed ponds on the estate.
Our £130k new-build home is worthless after ‘huge mistake’ was missed – we can’t even get a new mortgage… it’s a mess
Another resident, David, was one of the first to move onto the new development around five years ago.
David told LancsLive: “We weren’t told anything about the bird-scaring.
“That’s not the only issue we have; we were told that where we live would be a small cul-de-sac but now it’s at the entrance to an estate which will have hundreds of houses.”
Bird-scaring at Blackpool Airport, which is owned by Blackpool Council, is understood to be carried out in-house by the full-time firefighter crew.
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A source who worked for the private company which previously carried out bird-scaring at the airport said the £44,000 cost was “ridiculously exorbitant”.
The source said: “We used falcons to manage the birds.
“Some airports use artificial methods, such as bird calls or noises, but birds aren’t stupid; they’ll eventually realise that the risk isn’t real.
“As the bird management is done in-house now there’s no way it should cost that much.
“When we worked there we had a full-time team working 24/7 but that was when the airport was busier and had commercial flights which means they had to adhere to much higher standards.”
A third resident, Jonathan, who moved into his home at Richmond Point in in 2019, said he was shocked when he discovered residents were being made to pay for bird-scaring at the airport.
He said: “You’d think that would be covered by our rates.
“We’ve offered to do it ourselves by driving up and down the runway. I held off paying it for a bit but then paid it; you will come across problems in the future if you try to sell it and you’ve not kept up with agreed fees.
“We’re not in the situation where we might have to re-mortgage or change mortgage providers but a lot will be. Most people haven’t paid it.
“From what we understand the bird-scaring costs were passed on from the original developer. [Rowland Homes] are probably as frustrated as we are. It just seems completely silly.”
Rowland Homes was set up in 1993 by founder Paul Rowley and is behind several other prominent housing developments across the North West including estates in Garstang, Preston, Blackpool, Liverpool, Ulverston, Euxton and Carnforth.
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Properties currently available at Richmond Point cost between £232,995 and £549,995.
The Sun has contacted Rowland Homes and Blackpool Council for comment.
What are your rights in this situation?
Estate charges exist as councils do not cover maintenance on private estates.
There is no way to challenge estate charges or for residents to take over their management as they are contractually obliged to pay the fee.
The only recourse for dispute is through court, which will be time consuming and expensive.
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