'It's not fair' - Amesbury residents still living in hotel months after a fire ripped through flats

Four months after a fire ripped through a block of flats in Wiltshire, people who live there say they're angry that work has still not started to re-build their homes.

The fire broke out at the property in Sandell Place in Amesbury in June.

No-one was injured, but since then, many of the residents have been living in hotels or Air bnb's.

The fire started in a bin store behind a shop, but soon spread to the flats above.

All 16 flats were evacuated at the time of the blaze, a total of 33 people lost their homes.

But four months later, six people are still living in hotel rooms or Air bnb's - frustrated that the scaffolding is only just being put up.

Ben Appleby said: "At the start we were told that scaffolding would be put up in a week, but we were also told we would be back in the flats within a week as well. 

"Communication has been poor, inconsistent, scattered.

"It's not right or fair on me or anyone else."

Resident Elizabeth Zajac says she is unhappy that she's been placed in an Air bnb 10 miles away in Salisbury.

"Now will be four months like this," she said.

"After hotels, bed and breakfast and then other hotels.  But it's far away to travel because it's Salisbury and we know nobody."

The leader of Wiltshire County Council, Cllr Richard Clewer says with 5000 people on the housing waiting list in the county, finding accommodation to suit the residents is not easy.

"I'm afraid if someone is on the housing register, whilst there is a chance they will end up exactly where they want to be, they are going to need to be flexible based upon what becomes available and where we have it," he said.

"So if someone is looking for accommodation in a village, the odds are they will be looking at another village or the nearest settlement to it.

"Amesbury has a limited stock of social housing."

Dave Lockerman from the Stonewater Housing Association says because his organisation doesn't own the building, it has not been able to speed things up.

He told ITV Meridian: "Of course I understand, it's been a really difficult and frustrating situation for our residents.

"We are doing everything we can to the point where we are looking to buy four houses on the open market so residents can move into them as a longer term solution while Sandell Place gets repaired."

Work to rebuild the block of flats is about to begin and is expected to take about 12 months.

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