Makeover for Whanganui section where house burned

Lynette Keast was appalled when a truckload of rubbish was dumped in the front yard of a burned out house in her street. Photo / Bevan Conley

A Gonville home gutted by fire, graffitied and turned into a dump will be demolished to make way for a new home - much to the relief of nearby residents.

Gonville resident Lynette Keast is relieved and pleased that the property opposite her Akatea St home will soon be upgraded.

She moved to Whanganui from Kekerengu four years ago, at a time when a lot of Housing New Zealand properties in the street were being sold. Many were bought around the same time, Housing New Zealand has built more, and her neighbours all look after their properties.

On July 1 the house opposite hers burned while its owner was asleep in his bedroom.

He escaped out the window, with firefighters calling him "the luckiest man alive".

The burned house sat empty, and in the last school holidays a vandal broke its windows and walls, and graffiti appeared on the house and fence.

Then, on January 4 after dark, a truckload of rubbish was dumped on the front lawn.

"Whanganui was awarded most beautiful city in New Zealand and we have a lot of environmental focus here to beautify things and not dump in landfill. It just hurts my heart," Keast said.

She contacted police about the vandalism and Whanganui District Council about the rubbish. A greenie, she would like to recycle some of it but was told no one could touch it because that would be trespassing.

The owner sold the house recently, and the buyer is New Plymouth man Tom Burrell, who calls himself a "young, keen entrepreneur and property investor". His Inspiring Property team operates a rent-to-buy scheme.

Its mission is to make home ownership possible for all New Zealanders, and its website says it is "passionately not-for-profit".

The house at 43 Akatea St will be bowled later this week, Burrell said, and he hopes construction of a new house will begin in March.

"It will be great news. It will definitely bring the street up a lot," he said.