Unsold home near Gypsy site at Shirenewton, Cardiff, to be demolished

From the BBC

A couple say they are demolishing their £450,000 home after failing to sell it because prospective buyers are put off by the Gypsy Traveller site next door.

Phil and Kathleen Lacey plan to develop their land in Cardiff as a caravan site to be able to collect rent.

But the couple, who have have lived in the four-bedroom bungalow for 25 years, say they are disappointed by attitudes.

Their Traveller neighbours welcomed the plans, but called househunters' objections a form of racism.

The council-run official travellers' site at Shirenewton was set up in 1985 and is home to 300 residents.

Mr and Mrs Lacey believe that their home has not sold because viewers are not happy about the caravan site, which over the years has spread out alongside their home.

They put the house on the market last year with the intention of downsizing after bringing up their four children.

But after no interest they have decided to bulldoze the house and use the land to build a caravan site for the travellers to use.

Businessman Mr Lacey, 54, said: "We can't sell it because of the locality of the travellers' site.

"We had a lot of responses because it's a lovely house, but I think nobody fancied living next door to the caravan site.

"If this place was anywhere else it would probably be worth £750,000.

"But it's "location, location, location," which is disappointing."

Caravan plots

The couple say they are not moving because of any problems with the Gypsy community.

"We don't want anybody to think we are leaving here because of the Travellers - they will always be friends of ours," Mr Lacey said.

"We have had 25 years here. If we had a problem we would have moved ages ago."

The Laceys say they will be heartbroken to demolish their family home, which has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sun room overlooking the countryside.

The couple have submitted plans to construct 11 caravan plots, including concrete hardstandings and amenity blocks.

They plan to manage the one-acre site and rent private plots to the travelling community.

Residents at the site welcomed the plans, and said they needed twice the space to accommodate people wishing to move to Shirenewton.

Travellers on the site told the South Wales Echo newspaper that it was a form of racism that people lost interest in the Laceys' bungalow when they discovered the caravan site next door.

An unnamed mother-of-two living on the site said: "People are never going to change their minds, because it has been like this for the last hundred years."

Cardiff council will discuss the proposals for extending the caravan site next month.

See also The Sun - Couple to tear down home left unsellable by Gypsy camp

Wales Online - Couple to demolish bungalow next to Cardiff Gypsy site

ITV - Lack of buyer forces family to demolish home

The Daily Mail - Couple who can't sell £450k home because it's next to Gypsy camp plan to bulldoze it and turn land into... a caravan site