Town hall addresses hand back of Lords Walk Housing

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stephen Linch
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The East Anglia Housing Office held a town hall meeting for service members and their families living in base housing at Lakenheath High School Feb. 28.

The meeting covered topics such as security, illegal dumping and the hand back of Lords Walk.

"Lords Walk is one of our leased facilities for providing military housing to our military members," said Col. Scott Benza, 48th Mission Support Group commander. "What we are getting ready to do is divest ourselves from this lease."

The Lords Walk housing area will be returned to a local management company starting May 2013 and ending May 2018.

Air Force-wide initiatives are driving the change.

"It is happening, because the corporate Air Force has looked at our leasing and is trying to get out of leases," Benza said. "We don't need to carry leases on the books anymore, because we still pay our members their housing allowances, and we don't need to have both pots of money going at the same time."

According to Benza, the 48th Fighter Wing has supported Lords Walk residents and will continue to do so even with the upcoming divestiture.

"We have done community cleanups. We have established a neighborhood watch program, and we have established a series of town hall meetings to keep them educated on what is going on there to increase the vigilance and become more of a community," Benza said.

Initiatives like these will continue to ensure quality of life for residents in Lords Walk even with the drawdown until all service members and their families are relocated, Benza said.

"Just because they are just outside of the gate and the fence line to the installation, they are still part of our community," he said.

Other topics such as security initiatives and illegal dumping were also addressed during the meeting.

Town Hall participants were reminded to keep their car and home doors and windows locked, and call the appropriate agency in the event of an emergency. Off-base residents should call 999 in the event of an emergency and on base residents should call DSN 226-2333 or commercial: 01638 522 333.

According to the East Anglia Housing office, spring and fall clean-up days are to be announced and residents should refrain from illegal dumping and instead use the on base recycling center and Five Ways Recycling Center for items that cannot be disposed of on base.

For more information regarding base housing call the East Anglia Housing Office at DSN: 226-2000 or commercial: 01638 522 000.