Midweek Herald sets the record straight.

In our report Better deal for battling OAPS, published on February 16, we quoted residents of Haven Court, Seaton, referring to Peverel Mangement Services Limited and Consensus Business Group as the managing agent and owner of the Harbour Road flats complex.

The residents have now stated they got their facts wrong.

It was also reported last week that Peverel Management Services Limited was owned by Consensus Business Group (CBG). This is incorrect. The development is, in fact, owned by Fairhold.

For clarification, Consensus Business Group was not responsible for the on-going upkeep of the development. CBG acts as an advisor to a family trust which is the ultimate beneficial owner of Peverel. Peverel was responsible for the upkeep.

The residents also stated that, on the BBC Breakfast programme on November 19, 2009, a spokesperson for CBG called complainants “dribbling geriatrics”.

This is incorrect. A written statement from CBG (in its capacity as advisor to the ultimate beneficial owners of Peverel and Fairhold) was read out by the presenter. The full statement described the majority of residents as being satisfied and attributed the majority of issues to a small number of “serial complainers”.

A live interview with a CBG spokesman followed. In response to a question by the presenter, suggesting that residents were elderly and vulnerable people who might be too afraid to complain, the spokesman replied: “It is easy to use emotive language. We are NOT talking about dribbling geriatrics, we are talking about people in their latter years, who are very well aware of what they are doing.”

The Midweek Herald apologises for the inaccuracies and is happy to set the record straight.