The 'last man standing' on a housing estate being demolished is still refusing to move after two years - after the council upped its offer to £40K.
Nick Wisniewski, 67, is the sole resident of flats in Gowkthrapple, Wishaw, Scotland, which once held over 200 people across 128 blocks.
Authorities want to demolish the whole estate and everyone else has moved out - but Nick isn't budging.
He bought the home 22 years ago through the Right to Buy scheme and had planned to stay permanently to avoid paying rent or a mortgage after retiring.
North Lanarkshire Council have made multiple attempts over the years to purchase the property from Nick, to no avail.
Nick was initially offered £35,000 for the property, which then increased to £40,000, but refused the offers.
The council have since applied for a Compulsory Purchase Order to remove Nick from the flat - and he and the authority have recently held new talks.
Nick also has become the subject of a new documentary 'Exile on Stanhope Place' by Ryan Pollock, which chronicles Nick's battle with North Lanarkshire Council.
Speaking to STV News Nick said: ''“I bought the flat so that if anything happened to my son when I’m not here, he’d have a roof over his head, but that safety is obviously gone now.
“I also bought it to save me paying rent after retirement, but now because the council have decided to go ahead with these redevelopment plans, I’m suddenly expected to start paying rent again, why should I? I’m not prepared to leave myself skint.”
Now, fellow Wishaw resident and filmmaker Ryan Pollock has released a documentary chronicling Nick's first discussions with the council in over a year.
Ryan, who has family ties to the estate told STV that the "injustice was too important to ignore."
He said: “I’m hoping to make some noise about what’s going on and bring the community’s attention to it, because I think it’s an indictment on our country that a pensioner is being treated like this and will remain so until he gets a fair deal.”
North Lanarkshire Council have confirmed that they still intend to progress with the demolition of the block, and are "exploring options" for housing arrangements for Nick.
A spokesperson said: “Our contractors are progressing with the demolition of low-rise blocks as part of our ambitious plans to transform this area of Gowkthrapple.
“We continue to explore all options available to provide Mr Wisniewski with suitable alternative housing, to try to avoid the need to use a Compulsory Purchase Order.”
Nick Wisniewski, 67, is the sole resident of flats in Gowkthrapple, Wishaw, Scotland, which once held over 200 people across 128 blocks.
Authorities want to demolish the whole estate and everyone else has moved out - but Nick isn't budging.
He bought the home 22 years ago through the Right to Buy scheme and had planned to stay permanently to avoid paying rent or a mortgage after retiring.
North Lanarkshire Council have made multiple attempts over the years to purchase the property from Nick, to no avail.
Nick was initially offered £35,000 for the property, which then increased to £40,000, but refused the offers.
The council have since applied for a Compulsory Purchase Order to remove Nick from the flat - and he and the authority have recently held new talks.
Nick also has become the subject of a new documentary 'Exile on Stanhope Place' by Ryan Pollock, which chronicles Nick's battle with North Lanarkshire Council.
Speaking to STV News Nick said: ''“I bought the flat so that if anything happened to my son when I’m not here, he’d have a roof over his head, but that safety is obviously gone now.
“I also bought it to save me paying rent after retirement, but now because the council have decided to go ahead with these redevelopment plans, I’m suddenly expected to start paying rent again, why should I? I’m not prepared to leave myself skint.”
Now, fellow Wishaw resident and filmmaker Ryan Pollock has released a documentary chronicling Nick's first discussions with the council in over a year.
Ryan, who has family ties to the estate told STV that the "injustice was too important to ignore."
He said: “I’m hoping to make some noise about what’s going on and bring the community’s attention to it, because I think it’s an indictment on our country that a pensioner is being treated like this and will remain so until he gets a fair deal.”
North Lanarkshire Council have confirmed that they still intend to progress with the demolition of the block, and are "exploring options" for housing arrangements for Nick.
A spokesperson said: “Our contractors are progressing with the demolition of low-rise blocks as part of our ambitious plans to transform this area of Gowkthrapple.
“We continue to explore all options available to provide Mr Wisniewski with suitable alternative housing, to try to avoid the need to use a Compulsory Purchase Order.”
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FunTranscript
00:00 Welcome to Gowthrapple, my name is Nick Bysboski. I've stayed here in Stanhope Place for 21 years.
00:07 There used to be about 200 families stayed in this street. Now I'm the last one. It's certainly a ghost town.
00:26 I had a newsletter through the door a few weeks ago about out here and it basically said that in July they would be doing the roads.
00:40 In August you would see foundations being started and actually in September you'll see houses starting to be built.
00:48 Whether the council is going to offer me one of them I don't know but that is how it's going at the moment.
01:06 When I moved in here 21 years ago this place was a nightmare. It was all horrible purple painted and horrible.
01:18 The place wasn't full at that time. It was basically druggies and junkies that stayed here.
01:27 There were just a few in the block and when the right to buy was due to complete a few years ago I decided rather than pay rent it would be beneficial for me to buy the flat.
01:45 Once the few druggies and junkies moved out years ago the block was filled up, everywhere was filled up with Polish people and it was fine. Everybody spoke to you.
01:59 The council, I said that guy phoned me a year past November, it all started from then.
02:23 They kept emailing me telling me you're going to need to move out, we're going to start demolishing in April.
02:31 April last year we're going to start demolishing which was total lies. You're going to be the only person left there.
02:38 I would speak to other people in the block and say have you been told you have to get out?
02:45 They would say no, nobody said anything to us but they had said it to me. That went on for months and months and gradually you see an odd person moving out.
02:57 It took a long time for them to gradually get one by one, get people out of the different blocks. I don't mean this badly but the ones that didn't work, the incentive they were given was to move out.
03:17 It was a great day, getting a lot of money to them and slowly and gradually they all started to move out.
03:39 It's hard to think but you were struggling to get a car parked out there, that's how busy it was, how full it was with all the Polish people. Some of them had two cars.
03:59 It's a shame in a sense, quite honestly. They say it's progress, I don't know that it is.