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.
