A disabled father of four has described the “living hell” of having no working gas at his Archway housing estate since the summer.
Daniel Glasgow, 42, and his family live in Crouch Hall Court, in Sparsholt Road. The estate has been without gas since June 13 but Islington Council only this week got the go-ahead to start fixing it.
The council has compensated neighbours £10 a day for the duration and has given Daniel two “small electric heaters” to warm his three-bedroom flat, costing £20 in electricity bills every two days.
Daniel told the Gazette: “During he summer it wasn’t so bad because it was warm but once it started to hit October and the nights got dark you’re sitting in a freezing house.
“You’re all basically huddled around a heater trying to keep warm and then you’re having to go and check on kids in the night and make sure they’re OK and switch the heaters around.
“For the last few months it’s been a living hell.”
Daniel’s 10-year-old daughter has recently been diagnosed with a heart condition. He says the lack of heating has added to her distress.
He also claims his flat already had a problem with damp but this has “spread and become rampant” due to the cold.
The father also expressed his disappointment at the lack of communication between the council, its contractors and neighbours, claiming there have only been two meetings in the past six months and one of these was on Monday last week.
An Islington Council spokesperson said in the days before Christmas: “We’re very sorry about the interruption to gas supply and heating at Crouch Hall Court and that the repair work has been very delayed. We understand that residents are frustrated, especially as the weather turns colder.
“Works on the gas supply pipework are now complete and [on December 18] received approval from the government’s health and safety regulator,the Health and Safety Executive [HSE] to turn the new gas supply on.
“We will now begin working on individual boilers to check their supply pipes, pressure and safety and we will do everything we can to try to get heating and hot water operational for all residents [within days].
“In the meantime, residents will continue to receive compensation to assist with the costs of running electric heaters and measures to safeguard vulnerable residents have been put into place.”
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