Margaret Jaconelli Facing Eviction?

Margaret Jaconelli now faces eviction by Sherriff officers tomorrow at 12.00 noon as her legal case was yesterday overturned by the court. Margaret has told us that a negotiation space is still available today, but that she is preparing to resist the eviction tomorrow, as she has always promised. If the eviction goes ahead, Margaret will be classified as homeless. More details can be found in a Herald article here

The Herald article however, should be treated with some caution as the author, Gerry Braiden, has once again chosen to vilify Margaret Jaconelli by slipping in some disinformation which may prejudice her case in the public eye. Where Braiden states that Margaret is “holding out for £360,000”, he knows full well that it is in fact Margaret’s legal advisor, who made this ‘ambit claim’, that there is a legal requirement for someone facing a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to make a claim for compensation, and for similarly high figures to be used routinely in such instances as a normal part of the bargaining process (with no real expectation that this claim will be realised). Further, this claim arose from a pro-rata consideration of other nearby land sales. If others got it, why shouldn’t Margaret? But then Braiden has nothing to say about people like Charles Price who have profited handsomely from land sales in the area.

We’ll be following this story very closely over the next 24 hours, and we hope that people will lend their support to Margaret if her situation does end up in eviction tomorrow.