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Camden New Journal - By PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 24 January 2008

Peter Harvey: ‘A lot of people here are OAPs’

Elderly trapped in tower block by broken lifts

New blow for ‘unluckiest’ residents as ageing equipment is replaced

WHEN you live with disability in a 19-storey tower block, a broken lift can amount to a prison sentence.
Disabled and elderly residents of one of Camden’s most notorious high-rises, Blashford on the Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage, have spent a week at the mercy of council lift engineers.
Despite being hardened by years in housing dubbed “Camden’s unluckiest block” during a fraught wait for public-private regeneration cash designed to paper over decades of neglect, tenants faced further frustration when their one working lift broke down 10 days ago.
Peter Harvey, a 16th-floor resident who who suffers from respiratory illness, said: “I’m disabled and there are a lot of people here who are OAPs. I am trapped in the flat 100 per cent of the time that the lift is broken.
“I have had to miss two hospital appointments because I am scared to leave in case I can’t get back in. If I had to walk up those stairs it would kill me.”
The block has two 40-year-old lifts, but one has been unusable for months while contractors replace it completely – a process which Mr Harvey claimed is going ahead “at about three hours’ work a day”.
The other, the lifeline for the block’s 120 flats, succumbed to an unknown mechanical fault on Saturday, January 12. Despite assurances that it would be fixed, residents said on Monday that all work appeared to have stopped.
Resident John Finch said: “We’re completely reliant on the Number One lift while the other has been taken out. This has more or less trapped people in the block. We have no idea when the other lift will be replaced, and the work on it is slow.”
Raising the cash to regenerate the 1960s Chalcots estate descended into farce when a plea for £110 million by the council and a private finance partner was dismissed by the Treasury in 2005. A later £65m deal was agreed for a consortium backed by United House and the Bank of Scotland to refurbish the five Adelaide Road tower blocks and maintain them for 15 years.
On Monday, a council spokesman said: “Camden Council is working as quickly as possible to repair the lifts in Blashford.
“Both lifts are being replaced as part of a £60m programme to raise the quality and safety of the estate as a whole. We’re replacing the lifts one by one.
“In Blashford, while one is out of operation, the other has broken down. Many of the parts we need to repair the 40-year-old mechanics are no longer being manufactured and we have to wait for them to be made to order to be able to fix the problem.
“The old lifts are due to be completely replaced by April 2010 with modern, easy-to-fix versions which should give a much more reliable service for residents.”

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