I write with regard to the letter in the Chronicle of November 30 when the future of No 59 Colebrook Street was discussed as a possible home for refugees. 

Another house that has been empty for many more years is No 7 St Cross Road. 

This beautiful house in a Conservation Area just a few hundred yards from the city centre is in a terrible state with encroaching mother nature slowly destroying the outside and unseen but predictable damage on the inside. 

Although I imagine its owner has to pay council tax, it seems to be beyond the jurisdiction of either the city council or the City of Winchester Trust to persuade him or her to look after it. 

This lovely house - which should of course be lived in - is not dying from old age, but from the total neglect of an owner who simply doesn't care. 

Rosemary Poole, 
St James Villas,
Winchester

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