CHISLEHURST: Michael Jackson stay confirmed week before death (From News Shopper)

CHISLEHURST: Michael Jackson stay confirmed week before death

7:40am Tuesday 30th June 2009

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BROMLEY police were only officially told Michael Jackson would be living in the borough just a week before his death.

The star was due to start a series of 50 concerts at The O2 in Greenwich in July and had been scouting out properties in the area.

Just a week before the singer’s death, the security company he hired to protect him during his stay confirmed he would be living at Foxbury manor in Kemnal Road, Chislehurst.

A Bromley police spokesman said: “We have been trying to find out since the initial rumours started.

“The first we knew about it was what we read in the papers a few months ago.

“We obviously tried to confirm that was true. We put calls into his management and to the 02 Arena in Greenwich.”

In the days before the 50-year-old suffered a heart attack, security staff had asked police if they could supply two officers for six months to patrol the Chislehurst property at a cost of almost half a million pounds.

A Bromley police spokesman said: “They would have had to pay for it.

“Obviously he was going to attract attention, and rather than have us called out every half an hour or so, it would have been better to have someone there.”

At one point, the Foxbury estate was 100 acres in size but parts have slowly been sold off since the original owners of the house, the Tiarks family, moved to Somerset before the Second World War.

Kemnal Residents’ Association committee member Tony Allen said: “A long while ago there were rumours he was going to come to Chislehurst.

“The people living on the road were intrigued by the possibility and there was excitement and interest that a world famous celebrity could be living among us.

“There were of course some concerns as well. There were security implications because Kemnal Road is private but has a right of way running through it - we wouldn’t be able to stop people coming down it.

“In the end, I think the negatives outweighed the positives.”

Mr Allen said fans had already made contact with the association about Jackson’s stay, with several fans even paying Foxbury a visit in advance.

He also revealed the star’s plans was nearly derailed after his entourage found evidence of paranormal activity in the house, finished in 1877.

“We think he was worried for his children more than anything. The whole thing was very strange and it was the first any of us had heard about ghosts at the house.

“But at a meeting a two weeks ago we found out he was definitely coming to Chislehurst.”

The association even mooted the possibility that the platinum-selling artist could cut the ribbon to the Chislehurst Festival in September.

Mr Allen added: “His people were supposed to speak to all the residents in the road to offer assurances they were going to take care of us. But, of course, that didn't happen in the end.

“Nobody wished him harm and it is a great shame that he died but there was some relief that he wouldn’t be coming to Kemnal Road.”

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