C HRIS Millman, Green Party officer, asks why Bristol City Council allowed the property known as Telepathic Heights, Cheltenham Road, pictured right, to become derelict and occupied by squatters. (Evening Post letters, Saturday, June 9).

His letter misunderstands both the situation with regards to this particular property and the council's position on empty properties.

The property, which had been privately-owned until very recently, had stood semi-derelict for more than 10 years and the council only took possession in December 2010 after it made a Compulsory Purchase Order.

The council took this action as a last resort after lengthy negotiations with the owner had failed to bring the property back into use. It was sold at auction last February to a private bidder, as reported by the Evening Post.

The exchange was completed on July 1, 2011. The building had been occupied by squatters for some months prior to the Compulsory Purchase Order.

These squatters moved out of the property, before the trouble referred to by Mr Millman.

It was another group of squatters who entered the property on the day the disorder broke out outside Tesco, a group that attracted police because of intelligence that petrol bombs were being made at the property.

Mr Millman also asks why the council has not intervened to prevent absentee landlords allowing buildings to fall into a dangerous state of disrepair.

The answer is that the city council does intervene with regards to empty properties and it does so very effectively. It has for some years operated an Empty Property team to identify and bring back into use empty buildings across the city.

Last year the team brought back 454 empty homes into occupation, the vast majority of which through negotiation with the council only having to resort to CPOs three times.

The target, for the period 2010/2011 to 2014/2015 is to bring 2,000 empty homes back into use.

But while Bristol City Council is doing very well, I want us to do even better and recently met with representatives from the Homes and Communities Agency which is compiling a best practice case study on empty properties so that we can learn from other councils.

We have also signed up to Kent County Council's No Use Empty campaign in order to take advantage of its expertise and resources.

For more information about what the council is doing and what help is available for anyone with an empty property who wishes to bring it back into use, or if you wish tell us about an empty property, please go to http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/housing/private-housing/empty-residential-properties at the city council's website.

Councillor Anthony Negus

Cabinet Member for Housing, Property Services and Regeneration