Vulnerable Islington residents have been left shivering in the cold after council contractors failed to mend tenants’ heating despite freezing temperatures recently.
Some residents were left without heating for days even after repeated requests for help from the council.
Enquiries by Liberal Democrat councillors have shown:
l The council’s new heating contractor in the south of the borough has not coped with the demand from tenants with faulty heating.
l The new heating contractor was unable to respond to tenant calls because their staff and vehicles were snowed in.
l Booked appointments with tenants were broken time after time with no explanation
l Tenants had to chase new appointments themselves.
l Tenants were left waiting while the necessary parts were ordered and report not being offered any alternative heating in the meantime.
l Boilers on some estates with communal heating systems were operating well below capacity.
This is a disgrace. Islington’s elderly, the disabled and families with young children have been left shivering in the cold because of council bungling.
This is no way to treat people. The council owes its tenants an explanation why one of its heating contractors isn’t coping just a couple of months after starting work. – Councillor Terry Stacy, Liberal Democrat housing spokesman, Town Hall. Upper Street, N1.
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