Residents of a 22-storey MediaCity apartment block slammed ongoing issues with the lifts as 'unacceptable'.
One of the two lifts in the Number One building has been out of order for 'a number of months' and Tom McCafferty, who lives on the 21st floor, claims that the other has been in a 'constant state of disrepair' since he moved in more than two years ago. Tom told Manchester Evening News about a 92-year-old woman lives on the top floor of the building who is 'housebound' when the lifts are no operating properly.
He said: "For the last two years the lifts have been in a constant state of disrepair or not working. For nearly six months now, only one lift has worked out of the two in the building, and the second regularly stops, breaks down or jams.
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"They'll come on for a few weeks and then they'll be off for a massive amount of time. We've been told they can't get parts and two tower blocks have gone up in the time that they've been trying to fix the lifts.
"Urban Bubble (the management company) told us it would be fixed by the middle of May, it's now June and there's still no lifts. We receive patronising letters saying that parts can't be got. We're being fobbed off and nobody seems to want to do anything.
"Some of us pay £300 per month on maintenance fees and this is what we get. It's unacceptable."
Melissa Cosgrove lives on the 16th floor with her baby and pet dog. She told M.E.N : "Two or three days ago, the lifts were broken and I was stuck downstairs with a pram and a dog. I got in touch with them and they told me someone would be with me in four hours but it was 7 o'clock at night and I needed to get upstairs to put my daughter to bed.
"It's just ongoing. It's a nightmare. Everyone's just so angry about it."
Management company Urban Bubble admitted that one of the lifts has been broken for 'a number of months' and apologised for 'longer waiting times' and 'disruption'. Head of Operations Steve Austin conceded that it could be the end of June before the lift is working again, blaming Brexit and Covid for the delays.
He said: "We accept that only having one operational lift for a number of months has caused longer waiting times and disruption to our residents’ living experience and we would like to apologise for this. Unfortunately, the lifts are very complex pieces of equipment, therefore, we appoint a specialist lift contractor to maintain and repair them.
"We have experienced a very long wait time for the essential parts needed to repair the lift. The parts are manufactured and shipped from elsewhere Europe and due to the effects of Covid and Brexit, the parts are taking much longer to manufacture.
"Assessors have deemed the lifts unsafe which therefore means that we are unable to put this back into service until the parts have been installed. Although we appreciate that the length of time the lift has been out of order is causing disruption to residents, we can assure residents that we have been doing all we can to try and get it repaired as soon as possible to make this a safe working lift for all.
"We have been providing information via letter, app posts and media screens to residents to keep them updated on the situation, however, we do appreciate the delays are incredibly frustrating. We have now been given an estimated arrival date for the parts to be shipped from Europe which is 9 June 2022 .
"With this in mind, we are hoping to get the lift repaired by the latest end of June. We would like to assure our residents that the parts will be installed as soon as they arrive."
Mr Austin told M.E.N that Urban Bubble has tried to improve how regularly the second lift is maintained and added that vulnerable residents are 'supported'.
He continued: "We have increased the maintenance frequency to the lift that remains in operation, and also reduced the contracted call out time for engineers to attend should it fail. In addition, we have also identified those residents who are deemed vulnerable within the building and have been providing support and welfare checks where necessary, especially on those occasions where we have encountered issues with the second lift."
