ASTONISHED mobile home residents were forced to watch helplessly as their site was demolished around them, the Evening Star can reveal today.Diggers ploughed onto the Chantry Home Farm Mobile Home Park, in Ipswich, yesterday and began bulldozing empty caravans while other residents watched on in disbelief.

ASTONISHED mobile home residents were forced to watch helplessly as their site was demolished around them, the Evening Star can reveal today.

Diggers ploughed onto the Chantry Home Farm Mobile Home Park, in Ipswich, yesterday and began bulldozing empty caravans while other residents watched on in disbelief.

The 17 mobile homes on the site, in Lavenham Road, Ipswich are being demolished to make way for new affordable housing.

The manager says the company has lost too much money through the non-payment of rent, while refurbishing the caravans is not financially viable.

Several empty mobile homes have already been flattened, but some are still occupied.

The tenants have been told they must be out by the end of the month .

Adrian Scoffield, 41, who has lived in Chantry Home Farm Mobile Home Park for around four years, says he has nowhere to go.

He said: "I don't know where I am going to go. I have got a cat - my cat means everything to me. I haven't got anyone I can stay with.

"I am not used to bricks and mortar - it would kill me.

"The council said they can put me in a hostel or a bed and breakfast, but how can I go back to shared accommodation?

"It would not be good for my health and I am afraid of the alcoholics and druggies. I am so distraught and distressed, I cannot put it into words."

Neighbour Peter Newman, 56, added: "I am in the same boat. It has been forced upon us and we have nowhere to go.

"Ipswich Borough Council said they would put us in a bed and breakfast until they can find something else, but I'm 56 - I'm bit old to start that sort of thing.

"I have been here about 15 months and when I moved here they said they were looking for long-term tenants."

Landlady Nita Smith first served the tenants with eviction notices on November 26.

Park Co-ordinator Elaine Robinson said: "We have had the park for about seven years. But in the past two years we have had a lot of problems with collecting rent.

"We have also had a lot of various problems with the state people have left the homes in.

"We renovated once about two-and-a-half years ago, but it was not financially viable this time. A few people have spoilt it for the others.

"We are going to redevelop the land with 12 brand new park homes - affordable housing for the people of Ipswich.

"They are like little bungalows - they have brick around the bottom, but they come prefabricated. We are going to sell them.

"We are very sorry for anybody that is going to lose their home, we don't want anybody to be left homeless. To try and combat that we are working closely with Ipswich Borough Council."

An borough council spokesman said: "Some of the remaining residents of the caravan site came to the council for help at the end of November and housing staff have been working with them from that time.

"Unfortunately it has not been possible to secure suitable permanent homes for all the residents at such short notice.

"There are three or four people left to find homes and Ipswich Borough

Council has offered them temporary accommodation.

"When people are made homeless and deemed to be in priority, they are offered temporary accommodation until permanent homes become vacant. "This is a problem for some people with pets, as pets are not allowed in the temporary accommodation.

"The owner of the site has followed all the correct eviction procedures, but the council understands the Health and Safety Executive will be visiting the site tomorrow regarding work being carried out while tenants are still living on site. Work could be halted until the tenants have moved out."