Spurs legend launches campaign to light up his Islington estate
Pictured from left is Cllr Gary Poole, Terry Naylor, Warren Levy. Credit Dieter Perry - Credit: Archant
Former Tottenham Hotspurs player Terry Naylor is waging a new campaign – this time for his neighbours rather than his team-mates.
Former Tottenham Hotspurs player Terry Naylor is waging a new campaign – this time for his neighbours rather than his team-mates.
The ex-defender, who played at White Hart Lane in the 1970s, is trying to get the lights turned back on at his estate.
The lights in the entrance, stairwell and hallways at Flitton House B, at Sutton Dwellings off Upper Street, Islington, are meant to come on as night falls. But residents claim that they stopped working on January 24 and were not fixed until around 10 days later, despite Mr Naylor making around eight phone calls – and by then, other lights were not working.
Residents in the block’s 12 flats had to equip themselves with torches in order to come and go – and one elderly lady ended up moving out after falling on the stairs.
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Mr Naylor, 63, vice-chairman of the estate’s tenants’ and residents’ association, said: “It was pitch black. It was scary because there could have been someone lying in wait, like a robber, and if you dropped your keys, you would never be able to find them.
“One woman in her 70s fell as she was walking up the stairs because she couldn’t see where she was going. She scraped her knees.
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“If there was a fire, the firemen would have struggled to see. People were walking up and down with torches.”
“They were putting people’s lives in danger. If you fall down a flight of stairs, it can kill you.”
As the Gazette went to press, residents said that the front door light to Flitton House B was still not working and that lights at the back of Datchworth and Cadmore houses were also broken.
Warren Levy, chairman of the estate’s tenants’ and residents’ association, is demanding a written apology.
He said: “Why did it take so long for the lights to be fixed? There are elderly people living in the block. There are people with children. We were told that it was classed as an emergency.
“The light at the front door still isn’t fixed and that’s the main one where people have to fumble around with their keys.
Sue Cooper, director of property services at Affinity Sutton, which is responsible for the block, said: “We are sorry for the inconvenience and disruption the delay with this repair caused. We would like to stress this is extremely rare.
“Our contractors have been working hard to find out what the problem was – which was a fault with a cable – and we can confirm that all of the lights at Flitton House are now working.
“We have also asked them to investigate reports of problems at the other blocks and fix these as a matter of urgency. On average our repairs contractors complete nearly 550 repairs every working day and over 96 per cent are within our target times.”
