Chelsea FC set to force 100 veteran war heroes from their flats

Joan fears the stress of the situation is ‘making her ill’ War veterans and their loved ones face being made homeless after the charity set up to represent them agreed to an £80million deal to sell the land their flats are built on to Chelsea Football Club. The Daily Express has spoken to more than 20 residents living in The Mansions, all of whom are deeply anxious about the prospect of being forced out of their homes. One resident, who has lived in the development since 2009, Joan Godliman, 93, believes the exceptional stress she is enduring has accelerated her serious illnesses, including bowel cancer. Chelsea wants to buy the land so it has the option to redevelop its 40,000-seater Stamford Bridge stadium. But Joan said: ‘I think it is disgusting. I thought when we moved down here, that we were going to stay here and be here permanently. It’s definitely made me ill, let’s put it that way.’ Her unofficial carer and fellow resident, Anne Widdowfield, 76, revealed the list of ailments the nonagenarian suffers from. She added the stress of being forced from her home and removed from her support network may ‘finish her off’. READ MORE The British booze cruise to France is booming despite Remoaners’ Brexit forecast Joan has lived in her home since 2009 Chelsea are poised to purchase the veterans’ site Anne said: ‘She’s had an amputation in her leg, [problems with her] ears, eyes, suspected bowel cancer… and that was all stress-related so they’re [doctors] saying. ‘Stress-related [sic] can bring it on more. It’s there but it’s bringing it quicker.’ Joan got a place at the veterans’ development on the strength that her husband – Ted Godliman – was in the Royal Navy during World War Two and fought the Axis powers in the Mediterranean. Asked if she believed Stoll – the charity selling the veterans’ homes to Chelsea – cared primarily about her wellbeing, she said: ‘Course they don’t [care about my wellbeing]. All they’re worried about is what I put on there [points at handwritten note] is money. I’ve always thought that, but there you are.’ Chelsea has made attempts in the past to purchase the land from Stoll. In 2018 former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich tried to secure a deal with the charity for 60 percent of the site. As part of the deal, he would finance the construction of a new block of flats next to the revamped stadium to house the vast majority of the residents. However, the deal collapsed. The anguish and uncertainty of the ordeal back then caused Joan to lose a lot of weight. She claimed: ‘I lost two-and-a-half stone by worrying about it and then it all fell through.’ Chelsea’s US billionaire owner Todd Boehly SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Joan Godliman, 93, faces being forced out of her home Under the terms of the new deal struck by Chelsea’s current owner, US billionaire Todd Boehly, and Stoll, no such accommodation block will be constructed to house residents on the land they call home. Joan’s length of residency at the Mansions – around 14 years – means Stoll has a legal obligation to offer her alternative accommodation. However the charity is unable to guarantee when that alternative accommodation will be available nor can it promise that Joan will be able to be near the only people left in her life. In the absence of any family or friends, she is desperate to remain close to 76-year-old Anne and her veteran husband Bill, who himself has sepsis and cancer of the liver. Anne explained: ‘If we go, or whatever happens, she wants to be with me and Bill. She wants to be above us, next to us, she doesn’t want to be on her own anywhere.’ The charity also refused to disclose the number of residents that have lived in the Mansions long enough to be guaranteed an offer of another home. According to Stoll’s ‘Commitments Charter’, obtained by Daily Express, it has ‘no statutory obligation to provide suitable accommodation’ to any resident that has lived on the site for less than five years. This means that more than 100 war heroes, servicemen and women, and their loved ones could be made homeless if the deal with Chelsea goes through. Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions sits right next to Stamford Bridge Colin Tiso, 57, hasn’t been out of his flat in more than two years due to PTSD Afghanistan veteran Nazir Ayeen, 34, who risked his life as an interpreter for the British Army against the Taliban for four years, only moved into his ground-floor flat in Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions in 2020 meaning he is confronting the possibility of homelessness if he is forced out and is unable to secure a roof over his head. He told Daily Express that Stoll’s Board of Trustees, which holds the fate of the Mansions’ residents in its hands, is ‘removing the community of veterans from here without any certainty [of where they will live]’. He said: ‘They are saying that ‘we will house them’… but they don’t have a current plan for those who are still alive here. There are people who are 90 years old, 80 years old, and disabled… they may not live another two or three years while the plan is going through. ‘So they’re focusing on building future housing for veterans but they are forgetting about the existing people who are being displaced as a result of their decision.’ The war hero, who once translated for King Charles, called on Rishi Sunak to intervene and find the £10million which Stoll claims it needs to bring the flats in the Mansions up to the ‘necessary current Government housing standards’. The Royal Marines and Scots Guards veteran, who was exposed to ‘horrible and inhospitable scenarios’ while serving on the frontline in Helmand Province, added that it’s doubly insulting for veterans to be confronting homelessness while the Home Office is spending £8million a day housing asylum seekers in hotels. He vented: ‘The Government is quite concerned that they’re spending millions of pounds per day to house refugees or asylum seekers inside the hotels, but this is people who served with loyalty, with dignity, shoulder to shoulder in defence of the core interests of this country, including myself, and they’re being deliberately displaced from their homes.’ Nazir’s anger is shared by First Gulf War veteran Colin Tiso, 57, who said he felt ‘f****** betrayed’ by the veterans’ charity over the sale of the Mansions. Stoll claims the flats on the site are not up to adequate housing standards Stoll claims the flats need to be refurbished to modern standards Colin, who served in the Royal Pioneer Corps in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the conflict in the early 1990s, now suffers with PTSD to such a degree that he’s not been out of his flat for ‘two-and-a-half years’. Now he faces being forced outside. He said: ‘Don’t take this wrong way but veterans get treated like s***. I’m a veteran, there’s a big difference between me and a civi. We’re being s*** on again.’ The veteran, who gets around his flat on crutches, added that the deal between Chelsea and Stoll reminded him of an ‘old soldiers’ saying’ that those in the military are like ‘mushrooms’ because they’re ‘fed on s*** and kept in the dark’. Residents first learned about the proposed sale to Chelsea in the media, before Stoll set up a nine-week ‘consultation process’ in which the veterans could voice their concerns. However, many tenants believe that the dialogue is nothing more than ‘lip service’ and that the Board has already made up its mind to sell. On Thursday, the Board of Trustees met with enraged residents, one of whom was Tony McNally, 67. The former colour sergeant pointedly asked the panel: ‘What do you hope to gain from talking to us that you couldn’t already anticipate yourselves? Can you give us a clue? What do you want to learn that will stop you selling?’ After a moment of silence, Trustee Chair Ray Lock said: ‘We want to know what you think’. The crowd of residents laughed in disbelief. Nazir Ayeen, 34, requested not to be identifiable