A group of Newcastle pensioners say they were stuck outside in the baking sun for six hours after both lifts in their tower block broke down.
Residents of the 28-storey Vale House, in Jesmond, were left fuming when its two lifts stopped working simultaneously during last week’s hot weather. The double failure last Tuesday, June 13, meant that around a dozen people who were in the building’s garden at the time were unable to get back to their high-rise apartments, while others were effectively trapped inside.
Lynne Tait, chair of the Vale House residents’ committee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that elderly residents and people with disabilities were unable to access their medication and did not have any water or toilet facilities. Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), which manages the over-55s housing block, apologised for the inconvenience and said it believed a power cut was responsible for the lift failures, while also insisting that bottled water was distributed.
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Lynne said: “There were a lot of pensioners out in the garden and it took them nearly six hours to repair the lifts, during which time we had no water and no facilities. Some of those tenants live really high up in the building and I know two people walked all the way to the 24th and 25th floors because it was taking so long.
“We did get some water eventually, but it came just as one of the lifts was fixed. There were a lot of unhappy people and sick people. People needed their medication, carers could not get in to see their patients. It was shocking.”
The two lifts were said to be out of action from roughly 12.30pm to 6.30pm, in a building that is the second tallest in Newcastle. The 58-year-old added: “It wasn’t just us stuck outside, but other residents stuck inside too. It's like they were prisoners in their own home.”
Residents of tower blocks across the city have complained regularly of lift maintenance problems since Newcastle City Council appointed a new repairs contractor last year, with some left out of action for weeks or even months at a time.
David Langhorne, group director of assets and development at YHN, said the social housing managers “appreciate the inconvenience caused to residents of Vale House by the fault with the lifts and apologise for this”.
He added: “We were made aware of the issue with the lifts at 1.30pm on Tuesday 13 June and reported this to our contractor, RJ Lifts, immediately. They prioritised the job, were on site 40 minutes later, and began to assess what was needed to fix the lifts.
“Once we understood the potential impact of the repairs, we sent additional staff to the block and called all known vulnerable customers to check whether they needed anything while the repairs were being carried out. All customers in the building could also use their intercom to contact us at any time.
“There is a communal flat on the ground floor of Vale House which has kitchen and toilet facilities, the residents’ committee hold keys to this flat and were able to access it whenever they needed to. Once we were able to gain access to the communal flat, we opened it up so that residents who were not able to use the stairs could get water, tea and coffee and use the toilet. We also keep bottles of water to hand in case of issues like this, and, once it became apparent that the lifts would be out of service for a while, we distributed those as well.
“R J Lifts believe the issue was caused by a local power outage, due to both lifts stopping working simultaneously. They have carried out follow up visits since completing the repairs and have found no further issues.”
Residents told the LDRS that they experienced broken lifts again on the night of June 13 and the following day.
Vale House occupants’ sense of isolation was further compounded last week because the M6 bus service that previously stopped close to Vale House was withdrawn in March, with some residents unable to walk far enough to reach another stop.
Nexus said that the service was used by “very few” people and that its running costs could no longer be justified, with the nearest alternative service being the 32 and 32A stopping around 300m down a hill from Vale House at Vale Walk/Springbank Road.
