Council bosses have apologised to tower block tenants in Newcastle left stranded by broken lifts this summer.
Older residents and people with mobility problems have been left struggling to get to and from their homes to do their shopping, attend medical appointments, and see family or friends due to regular lift breakdowns. Lib Dem councillor Doreen Huddart told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she had been hearing of problems since May, after a new maintenance contractor was brought in by Newcastle City Council, and it had become a “nightmare” for residents who rely on the roughly 200 lifts in Your Homes Newcastle social housing blocks.
Pensioners living in the 23-storey Cruddas Park House in the city’s West End recently complained that one of their two lifts had been out of action for several months, while the other suffered regular failures. In a question to Wednesday night’s Newcastle City Council meeting, Coun Huddart warned that malfunctions were “taking days or weeks to rectify” and asked what was being done to revise or replace the repairs contract.
Read More: Cruddas Park: Pensioner 'stranded' by broken lifts in Newcastle high-rise flats
Paul Frew, Labour’s cabinet member responsible for finance, apologised to the affected tenants and said he hoped the situation would improve “in the coming weeks”. Coun Frew said: “It needs to be fixed quickly and, unfortunately, the contract we have got at the moment has not been performing to the standard we would hope.
“There have been wider problems in the industry around skills, parts and it is not just the council that has been having problems with this, many other social housing organisations have been struggling and the Metro as well.
“Some of our lifts are old and we have been mending and making do to extend the lifetime of these, and safety remains the priority on this. We have a replacement programme and we would like to replace lifts to have the newest and best lifts but we simply do not have the resources, over the last 12 years of austerity, and this is a long-term issue and not something that can be fixed overnight.”
Coun Frew said the council had been legally unable to enforce key performance indicators in the lift repair contract in its first three month, but that discussions were now “more robust” and civic centre officials were now “pressing more effectively” for improvements.
He added: “The ultimate end is a breach of contract. Nobody wants to get to that point, no supplier wants to get to that point and we don’t want to get to that point.”
Read More:
- Councillors stage walkout after Newcastle Labour politician suspended over Islamophobia spotted at meeting
- Tyne and Wear Metro tickets could be capped at £2 to help passengers through cost of living crisis
- Veteran Newcastle East MP Nick Brown suspended by Labour Party pending complaint investigation
- Staff shortages and 'unexpected' utility works blamed as Heaton cycle lane extension delayed
- Multi-billion pound North East devolution deal close to being sealed – as Durham is given ultimatum
