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Think of that new kitchen and bathroom? No thanks
• I AM one of the “fortunate” council tenants having my kitchen and bathroom upgraded by Apollo for Camden Council.
My fellow tenants and I are shocked at how badly the job is organised; how low the morale of the workers is (every day sees them walking off the job); how the inevitable disruption to our lives is maximised when we are asked to wait in for workers who don’t turn up.
The automatic default setting of those running the job when you request something perfectly reasonable is: “No, it can’t be done”.
The so-called liaison officers are never available to liaise with.
As a result of this, work done is having to be undone and done again properly.
A job that was supposed to take three weeks now looks like taking six weeks.
Ah, you might say, but think of the new kitchen and bathroom at the end of it all!
We try not to.
My home is now networked with obtrusive cable ducts (any concealment of cables is too expensive, apparently).
The emphasis is on cheapness, cutting corners and our functional needs are disregarded.
And the new cupboards?
Out of the 55 sets of dinner plates in the Argos catalogue, only four will fit in the new Apollo cupboards – and two of them only because they are square.
Much-needed council housing stock is being sold off to finance something that is shoddy and contemptuous of decent rent-paying council-tax-paying tenants.
The council’s rental income from my flat over its years of existence must have paid for it many times over, with plenty left over to maintain it in a decent condition.
What happened to all that money?
Name and address supplied, NW3
Making a sell-off loss
• THE auction of the two council flats in Winsham, Churchway and Levita House, Ossulston estate two weeks ago raised £177,050 for Winsham and £175,000 for the flat at Levita… yet on talking to estate agents they tell me that these flats could raise more than £250,000 each.
So Camden Council has not only sold off, as it does all too frequently, badly-needed properties for those on our housing list; but managed to make a loss…
The New Journal has made the anger of tenants, tenant associations and Labour councillors at this appalling sale of our housing stock all too clear.
I have asked for militant action by all tenants against this stupid Liberal Democrat/ Tory administration ruining our local authority’s housing stock which councillors like me, who joined Camden in 1964, fought to create and modernise and care for.
Now people who want to bid for the properties under the Right to Buy scheme say there are very few flats available now under Home Connections to bid for; few if any accessible flats for disabled and elderly people; few large flats for large families; all going under the auctioneers’ hammer for some property magnate or developer or private landlord.
We are going to fight this… watch this space. And we are, at the same time, seeking a meeting with the minister for housing to get much more government funding for repairs/ improvements/ maintenance; since it seems that the all-party deputation all of us, irrespective of party, sought at the housing and adult social care committee some weeks ago has not met the approval of the leadership of this council.
One minute the Camden’s administration blame the government for lack of housing funding and then at the same time won’t send an all-party deputation to the housing minister,.
Scared we might win the argument and get more government funding?
How much has the council gained in actual monies from all these sales and auctions? Can Councillor Chris Naylor tell us and can he tell us how we can replace these sold properties to seek the rehousing of the 17,487 on the housing list?
Tell us, how do we build more homes to replace those you have sold when there is no land left in Camden to build homes except the land behind the British Library and we know what is intended for that!
And can he tell us how allowing council flats to be let by private property companies to private tenants will lessen the stress that those whom I see at my advice sessions who have no decent accommodation if in the end there is no available flats for them and it has gone to private tenants?
This council has ruined and will continue to ruin – and indeed end – council housing as we know it and have known it for generations.
Join the campaign to end this decimation of our housing stock.
Cllr Roger Robinson
Opposition Lead on Housing
Camden Council
Ridiculous writer
• YOUR anonymous correspondent (Letters, Ridiculous, August 6) that Liberal Democrats are being portrayed in an uncaring light.
Well, they have failed to fund youth work in Gospel Oak and other areas across Camden, closed the Jubilee Youth Centre, raised the cost of home helps, raised the cost of community meals and are now planning to decimate the caretaking service which is so important to vulnerable people, especially the elderly, as the New Journal has shown.
They have taxed builders £33 per day to park their vans while they work, to name but a few
One would have more respect for letter writers supporting the Liberal Democrats if they put their names where there views are.
Mick Farrant
Oak Village, NW5
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