A COUNCILLOR has pledged £25,000 of his own money to the fight to stop hundreds of addresses being changed on Laindon’s Five Links Estate.

Frank Ferguson, Basildon councillor for Lee Chapel North, says he is ready to go to court to block the council’s plan to rename the roads.

Councillors voted in October to back a motion, calling for the scheme to be scrapped, but the Tory administration is pushing it through nevertheless.

Ukip member Mr Ferguson, a retired telecoms manager said he had the money and was determined to fight the changes.

He said: “To support the residents, I am prepared to commit my own money to indemnify them against the possibility of costs being awarded against them. This is a measure of my commitment to local democracy.

“The people affected by this plan have demonstrated their rejection of it, by organising and lodging with the court, more than 420 letters of objection, but the arrogant Tories just will not listen to the people.”

The council wants to rename and renumber 533 houses in Somercotes, Somercotes Court, Mellow Purgess and Newberry Side, giving them street names taken from flowers – a theme chosen by local schoolchildren.

However, residents are worried having to change addresses on official documents and bills, will cost them money and cause them problems.

Objections have been lodged with to the magistrates’ court, rather than directly with the council, because the changes relate to the 1925 Public Health Act.

Mr Ferguson pledged the cash at a meeting of the Five Links Residents’ Association this week.

The council has said it will insist on being represented by a barrister at any hearing on the matter, further increasing the cost of proceedings – and the amount residents would have to pay in costs, if they were to lose.

Mr Ferguson said: “It is beyond me why the council’s own solicitor is not capable of defending in court what is a very simple case.

“This money would be better spent making some real improvements to the estate, instead of pursuing a vanity project. It is in stark contrast to the mere £50,000 recently committed to improving the Laindon Centre.”

A council spokesman said: "The council is unable to estimate legal costs at this early stage.

“However, we do have a duty to ensure naming and numbering on the estate is logical and coherent.

The council will nowwait for advice from the court.”