East West Rail: Property company sorry after compulsory purchase letters sent to wrong Marston Vale homeowners

The letters were sent out by property company Carter Jonas informing residents that their homes may be compulsory purchased because they lie ‘within the development boundary of East West Rail’s proposed Marston Vale route.

Central Beds Councillor John Baker, who represents Aspley Guise and Woburn, says the properties have been incorrectly identified, demanding all residents receive an apology from Carter Jonas.

The company has now accepted letters were sent in error after East West Rail said any homeowners affected by would have been notified directly by EWR.

East West Rail said it was 'disappointed’ in Carter Jonas’ actions.

In a message on his Facebook page, Cllr Baker said: “East West Rail (EWR) has announced that property company, Carter Jonas, has written to homeowners informing them that their property may be compulsory purchased because it lies “within the development boundary”.

"The company is touting its services to ensure residents receive “fair compensation”.

“Except, Carter Jonas has incorrectly identified properties and caused great anxiety and anger by sending letters to homeowners.”

He added that East West Rail had acknowledged the letters had not been approved by EWR, which had assured residents anyone homeowners impacted by the project would have heard from directly from EWR.

He said EWR had stated: “The letters were sent by Carter Jonas to solicit business and were not approved by East West Rail. In some instances, Carter Jonas has incorrectly identified properties as being impacted by East West Rail when they are not.

“Any residents impacted by East West Rail will have been contacted by us already and only information from EWR should be taken as accurate with regards to property being impacted by the scheme.”

Reassuring residents, Mr Baker said: “I’ll be seeking an apology from Carter Jonas,” adding he believed the company should “personally write and apologise to each resident to whom they have written these letters. This project needs to be handled competently and with great sensitivity. Legal firms touting for business in such a fashion is really not acceptable.”

David Hughes, chief executive, East West Railway Company, said: “Carter Jonas has acted on its own to use information on our website about the area impacted by our scheme, and incorrectly created their own mailing list with the aim to solicit business.

"We are really disappointed by this behaviour and have asked them to make amends for the distress caused. We have also been speaking to those concerned by these letters to offer reassurance that unless people have been contacted by us directly, they are not within our project boundary."

A spokesperson for Carter Jonas said: “Carter Jonas sent a letter to residents along the East West Rail route, but due to the scope being too broad, some property owners were sent the letter in error.

"Our aim was to make residents aware that professional advice is available where property is affected by major infrastructure schemes. We would like to apologise to those residents who were contacted unnecessarily.

“We are working with East West Rail to address this.”