Alison Hopkins has now received a reponse from Metropolitan Housing regarding the concerns she raised over conditions at Archery Court, Wembley that were publicised on Wembley Matters. LINK
I
am amenable to discussing your concerns further. I was unable to locate a
contact number for you, but I can be reached on the direct number below this
afternoon before 6pm.
Dear
Ms Hopkins
Thank
you for your emails to Geeta Nanda, Chief Executive Officer received on 15 and
28 December 2017 Geeta was concerned to note the continuing difficulties
residents in Archery Court are experiencing at this time. She has asked this
team to look into your concerns and to feedback to her.
I
firstly must offer our sincere apologies for our failure to respond to your
earlier communication of 15 December 2017. Whilst it is evident there has been a
lot of work carried out by ourselves and Barratt Homes it has become apparent
that we did not take the opportunity to update you personally. I agree that this
is disappointing, and we will be seeking to understand why such a fundamental
part of the process was overlooked.
It
is vital that we do not lose sight of any unresolved issues moving forward, and
as such I have recorded your concerns as an official complaint, as this will
enable us to keep track and, more importantly, keep you appraised. A formal
acknowledgement will follow in due course.
In
the interim, I wish to advise you of the action taken thus
far:
·
A
number of residents reported individual failures of electrical items in their
homes to the concierge on duty at Archery Court on 09 December 2017. This
appears to be the consequence of a power surge;
·
I
understand that Barratt Homes, our developers, visited Archery Court over the
weekend of 09/10 December 2017 in response to these reports and to effect
repairs. I believe there were staff from Barratt Homes present to address any
immediate concerns residents had during this weekend;
·
As
a consequence of the significant numbers of electrical problems being
experienced by a number of residents, helpfully summarised by yourself, we
identified we should carry out emergency electrical checks of each flat to
ensure there were no ongoing concerns, this being over and above what Barratt
Homes were doing. These checks did not reveal any immediate
risks;
·
We
provided temporary heaters to those residents who had lost use of their heating,
again over and above what Barratt Homes were doing;
·
I
was particularly concerned to note from your email today that one resident has
no hot water Barratt Homes have attended the flat in question today and
diagnosed a fault with the programmer, a consequence of the power surge. I
understand a similar scenario occurred in other residents’ homes and programmers
have been replaced. Please be assured we are now working with the resident and
with Barratt Homes to ensure a replacement is fitted as quickly as
possible;
·
Barratt
Homes are currently carrying out further investigative work to identify any
ongoing faults with the communal heating/ventilation system, and we are liaising
closely with them to understand the current position, and to establish what the
next steps will be to resolve this. We should have a clearer understanding of
the position early next week.
I
agree that consideration needs to be given to how each resident has been
affected by recent events, and as such we will consider the impact on a case by
case basis, based upon the information you provided on 15 December 2017 to
identify the support we are able to offer.
If
you are aware of any other residents who experienced difficulties or damaged
electrical items, please do let me know.
We
will contact each resident affected in due course.
In
summary I believe that appropriate steps have been taken as quickly as they can,
but acknowledge there remain some issues which are still under investigation,
and more importantly some concerns residents have about losses they may have
incurred.
