A CAMPAIGNER fighting to save a sheltered housing scheme in Martley has accused Elgar Housing Association of running it down on purpose.

The man, who does not want to be named, has joined with elderly residents at Heaton House in the battle to save the building from the bulldozers.

Elgar was considering building 10 bungalows on the land but following a meeting with residents they have been told "it will take a court order to move us".

A document, leaked to the Evening News by the campaigner, reveals Elgar will have to spend £850,000 in the next 10 years to maintain the building.

It also shows the housing association is running the scheme on an annual rent loss of £17,551 as there are 33 bedsits and only 26 are occupied.

"It's clear Elgar would like to eventually phase out this type of social housing and as we can see from this report they haven't put any major investment in Heaton House during the past six years," said the man.

"They say the corridors are dark and dingy but whose choice of dcor was it? They've shown no consideration for the elderly residents."

A recent stock condition survey by Elgar revealed work needed to be carried out on fire alarms and smoke detectors, heating systems, emergency lighting and the door entry system.

All of the Malvern Hills District Council housing stock was transferred to Elgar in 1996. Heaton House was one of 41 sheltered schemes in the Martley, Upton, Bromyard and Ledbury areas.

Elgar Housing area manager, Jonathan Greenwood, denied the organisation was running down Heaton House or wanted to phase out sheltered social housing.

"We'd need to spend £1.7m on Heaton House over the next 15 years and there's a real problem over filling the bedsits. Seven are empty and we don't have a waiting list," he said.

"The last thing we want to do is spend a lot of money and find that these properties are still not viable."

Elgar had made improvements to corridor lighting and enhanced the ambience with new table lamps, mirrors and decoration. Decorators were due to start repainting the outside of the building this week and this would include window repairs.

A consultation group with residents' representatives, members of the district and parish councils and Elgar managers held its first meeting this week to look at options for the venue's future.

"The mood was very positive and we're going to ask the parish council to carry out a survey of the housing needs in Martley and find out exactly what people want," said Mr Greenwood, who added he was producing a newsletter to keep residents informed.