Living in squalor in Parson Cross-waiting for council repairs

[hackey lad]

1 hour ago, Delbow said:

 

Totally. It all got a lot worse after the coalition government removed legal aid for what is known as 'disrepair'. After that decision, people could go to Shelter for legal representation, but that was limited by the amount of funds Shelter could afford to put towards case workers. Otherwise, they were on their own and landlords have made the most of that lack of representation by really slacking off on the repairs.

Tories fault 

[redruby]

7 hours ago, Delbow said:

 

I'm a member of Acorn, the community union. One of our members in Sheffield, a Council tenant, had been told umpteen times that their repairs would get done but it never happened. Then Acorn took it their case up and members bombarded the repairs service and the relevant councillor with emails and phone calls about it. Repairs done in less than a fortnight. So maybe that's where all the activists and progressives are.

Good work 👍

 

I think the point gamezone07 is making though is that we hear much in the news about problems like this. 

[Delbow]

6 hours ago, hackey lad said:

Tories fault 

 

Yes, plus the Lib Dems in this instance. And landlords.

[RollingJ]

9 hours ago, redruby said:

I’d say that unsafe staircase is a more ‘dangerous path to tread’ than making assumptions!!

Of course contacting a councillor is a valid thing to do.  But that isn’t the point I was making.  The point is that the responsibility of for sorting out essential repairs lies with the council.  It shouldn’t be a requirement or  normal practice for a tenant to have to escalate matters to their local councillor.

Obviously, in a council property, the responsibility for performing repairs lies with the council.  However, if, for whatever reason, said repairs are not done within a reasonable time, then contacting your local councillor(s) usually results in a response.

 

Not 'repairs' as such, but I remember  when the roads underwent the massive resurfacing exercise, I noticed that Amey had 'forgotten' to take away a large quantity of their hardware - signs, barriers etc., - and I reported this to them, via their 'liaison officer' and by hone to the control centre and nothing got done.

I then emailed all three of my local councillors with photographic evidence and some action was taken - after we had a walk round the area - and some of the items were removed, unfortunately not all of them. There was occasion  for other work by Amey, and I collared the site engineer - a really committed guy - who saw what I was talking about and within a day, he had organised a crew with a wagon to sweep the area and remove everything, actually inviting me to direct the operation. Within four or five hours, everything was sorted.

 

Anyway, where is the council response to these 'reports' in the media?

[redruby]

54 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Obviously, in a council property, the responsibility for performing repairs lies with the council.  However, if, for whatever reason, said repairs are not done within a reasonable time, then contacting your local councillor(s) usually results in a response.

 

Not 'repairs' as such, but I remember  when the roads underwent the massive resurfacing exercise, I noticed that Amey had 'forgotten' to take away a large quantity of their hardware - signs, barriers etc., - and I reported this to them, via their 'liaison officer' and by hone to the control centre and nothing got done.

I then emailed all three of my local councillors with photographic evidence and some action was taken - after we had a walk round the area - and some of the items were removed, unfortunately not all of them. There was occasion  for other work by Amey, and I collared the site engineer - a really committed guy - who saw what I was talking about and within a day, he had organised a crew with a wagon to sweep the area and remove everything, actually inviting me to direct the operation. Within four or five hours, everything was sorted.

 

Anyway, where is the council response to these 'reports' in the media?

Yes, but we’ve already established the poor track record of council for property repairs.  Although tenants can escalate matters it shouldn’t be happening on a regular basis.  
As for the council response to media reports, I’ve already said I don’t know.  You would have to contact Yorkshire Live if you really want to know why it isn’t in their report.  Meanwhile I think it rather unfair to imply that this the is the tenants  fault or that there are untruths in this report.  Victim blaming!

[RollingJ]

5 minutes ago, redruby said:

Yes, but we’ve already established the poor track record of council for property repairs.  Although tenants can escalate matters it shouldn’t be happening on a regular basis.  
As for the council response to media reports, I’ve already said I don’t know.  You would have to contact Yorkshire Live if you really want to know why it isn’t in their report.  Meanwhile I think it rather unfair to imply that this the is the tenants  fault or that there are untruths in this report.  Victim blaming!

Underlined - I have  my  suspicions, and a possible explanation, which includes very poor 'journalism'.

Bold - I haven't implied it is the tenants fault, there is obviously more to this than we are being told, and you appear to take a one-sided report as gospel. Fed up of your 'victim blaming' comments.

[Resident]

On 04/08/2024 at 18:32, Stannington Lad said:

 

Yeah and largely funded by central government.  

 

Austerity hitting Labour councils harder than Tory areas | Government Business

 

Labour councils in England hit harder by austerity than Tory areas | Austerity | The Guardian 

Could that be that Labour councils aren't financially responsible with their spending? 

How many failed projects have SCC used taxpayer's cash to fund & then gotten away scot-free from consequence. 

[redruby]

4 hours ago, RollingJ said:

Underlined - I have  my  suspicions, and a possible explanation, which includes very poor 'journalism'.

Bold - I haven't implied it is the tenants fault, there is obviously more to this than we are being told, and you appear to take a one-sided report as gospel. Fed up of your 'victim blaming' comments.

I think if you were living in squalor in an unsafe council house in Parson Cross you would really have something to be fed up about!! 
Im sorry if you are not blaming the tenant but unfortunately it has come across this way with various comments you have made.

[redruby]

2 hours ago, Resident said:

Could that be that Labour councils aren't financially responsible with their spending? 

How many failed projects have SCC used taxpayer's cash to fund & then gotten away scot-free from consequence. 

I understand the funding for certain projects, such as the containers on Fargate, comes from central government and can only be spent on specific projects.  However, it is ultimately taxpayers money of course.  I doubt a Tory council would be more proactive with council house repairs than the current lot though.  

[RollingJ]

6 minutes ago, redruby said:

I think if you were living in squalor in an unsafe council house in Parson Cross you would really have something to be fed up about!! 
Im sorry if you are not blaming the tenant but unfortunately it has come across this way with various comments you have made.

I think you are missing something here - these 'multiple issues' the tenant is facing didn't all appear at once, and although the council can be less than efficient, I doubt they would let them build up to this degree - for one property.

No  'victim blaming' here, but maybe, just maybe, as we have still not seen a response from SCC, there is something we are not being told?