Glasgow pensioners face uncertain future as their neighbourhood is reduced to rubble

In the early days, would-be residents were vetted for their suitability to move to Sighthill. Forty years ago, the then emerging north Glasgow community was an ambitious project in modern towerblock living, close to the city and schools but set among fields and parks.

Back then John and Ruth Daly were among the first residents of the area – a place now failing and famed for high crime rates and deprivation. Today, though, the Dalys are one of the few families left in their corner of Sighthill. They are now the last residents of the ghost blocks of Glasgow.

In the early hours of this morning, six tower blocks surrounding the Daly’s flat were set to be demolished as part of the local housing authority’s attempts to regenerate the area. The 19-storey flats, each with 684 apartments, were local landmarks.

Today, when the Dalys return to their own flat – after being put up overnight at a local hotel as the high rises around their home were brought down by controlled explosions – they will find themselves all but alone in a sea of twisted steel and rubble.

In their own low-rise block, all but one of their neighbours has long-since left. The couple – both now in their 70s – are eerily alone on an estate where more than 700 families once lived.

Their flat, in which they have lived for 44 years, is also earmarked for demolition. The threat to their home looms over the Dalys. They say that because they own their home, they have no chance of being housed somewhere decent.

Mr Daly says that living amidst the rubble of the towerblocks will feel like “living in Afghanistan”.

“I can’t imagine looking out of the window every day and seeing the other blocks lying in piles of rubble. God knows how long it will take to clean up.”

Despite the best efforts of the Glasgow Housing Association, GHA, which owns the buildings, the Dalys are stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare. The GHA has offered the couple £49,000 for their flat, but that’s not enough to buy a new home. The GHA has also offered the couple alternative flats, but the pair refuse to move on, believing that the homes they are being offered are in even worse areas of the city.

Ruth, 75, and John, 77, raised three children in their three-bedroom flat. It’s filled with memories, but staying in Sighthill is not the easy option. Here, the couple are fearful of vandalism, crime and drugs.

“You go out there and see nothing, there’s nothing to see,” says Mrs Daly. “We’ve always been surrounded by good folk. It gets lonely; it is lonely.”

Life isn’t fun for the couple. Mrs Daly doesn’t get out much now. She suffered a stroke a few months ago and is blind in one eye. For a while there were problems with the water supply and the TV reception.

But what hits them hardest, they say, is the fact that while GHA tenants are to be rehoused in new build homes, they remain ineligible for a new house because they bought their own home 25 years ago; that means they will have to go back to renting.

It would be an incomparable blow to the couple, they say, to lose the security of owning their own home and return to renting at their age.

“It would be like going back to square one,” says Mrs Daly.

“I have worked all my life and paid my rent then my mortgage and council tax, but it’s as if we’re being punished for doing the right thing,” Mr Daly adds.

“If I had taken benefits I would be moving to a brand new house. Instead, we’re stuck here in limbo.”

But GHA contest the Daly’s claims, countering that they have offered the couple three homes, which have all been rejected.

They also claim night wardens regularly patrol the estate, though Mr Daly says there’s more chance of seeing Haley’s Comet than meeting a GHA employee.

A spokesman for GHA said: “Mr and Mrs Daly have already accepted an offer from GHA to buy back their property.

“Early next week we will be sitting down with the couple once again to discuss their housing options.”