Been movement on the portaloo story:
I posted this no-repairs repairs story on Monday about a Brassett Point housing estate tenant who can’t use her toilet, because water and sewerage drip onto her head whenever she or anyone else takes a seat. In lieu of repairing the broken pipes which are leaking watery crap down several floors in the building, Newham council gave the woman a portaloo. Can’t quite imagine who okay’d that one – possibly someone who feels that council tenants don’t know they’re born.
Anyway, following publication of that story, local MP Lyn Brown got in touch to ask if the residents could contact her, which they did. An email has since arrived from Brown’s office to say that she’s pursuing the repairs with the council (wonder if the council will want the portaloo back).
The possibility of proper repairs is good news. We hope to hear the repairs are underway soon and that they take place before a buttload of poo-soaked plaster collapses through several ceilings and into a baby’s cot etc. There are heaps of little kids living in these flats.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of the mould, water and sewerage stains, and broken pipes and plastic that I took at several Brassett Point flats last weekend. Probably a good thing that you can’t smell pictures…the smell was not that great.
Mould on walls in Brassett Point flat
Broken, wet wood and plastic fixtures with mould in a Brassett Point flat
And the portaloo:
Portaloo in Newham council flat
It’s coming to something when the words “movement” and “portaloo” in the same sentence is a good thing. It must be like living inside a festival toilet living in that block of flats.
You could be onto something there. Hunt probably thinks this kind of setup is some sort of fun urban Glasto
So the lifts are the portaloos!! The Council are trying to work out when the lifts broke down, before or after they became portaloos!! At least you can still use a broken lift as a portaloo !!
er,…………….shit! That would be funny if that damn situation was at all funny.
Hope you return the crapster to the centre of the reception area of that fuckwit council.
(PS: And I’m NOT big noteing: I made the audience of Question Time this week. Why am I writing this? Don’t touch the bloody thing with a bargepole. It was the most structured orchestrated bunch of horseshit. Vox pop it was not. I won’t even watch ‘my’ episode, much less watch this sack of shite ever again).
Good luck to this lass and her neighbours. How can this be happening in 2022?
Yeah, well we know the answer to that.
Not the local Council in this case but a “rogue” landlord…
Woman with fatal lung disease from mould
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/28/woman-dying-of-lung-disease-caused-by-mould-urges-action-on-rogue-landlords
Super. Problem is too that it is incredibly hard to get a council’s environmental health team to get round and inspect this stuff and issue the landlord with an order, private sector or wherever. This is all buggered beyond belief.
This is mould in the flat of a guy with learning difficulties that I was posting about on here a few years back. Took bloody ages to get the council in and they basically said he needed to learn to air the place https://www.katebelgrave.com/2018/12/what-will-happen-to-my-disabled-child-in-austerity-after-i-die-what-happens-to-my-adult-child-who-has-learning-difficulties-when-im-not-around-to-advocate/
Horrendous.
Book Review: The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor by Stewart Lansley
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/07/08/book-review-the-richer-the-poorer-how-britain-enriched-the-few-and-failed-the-poor-by-stewart-lansley/
Cheers for this. Will take a look
Be thankful for what you’ve got. Live in a crappy rented flat? At least you’ve got a roof over your head. Suffer from Anxiety, Depression and low self esteem? Man up, what have you got to complain about? I’m struggling to come to terms with what I’ve just been through, what I have just been subjected to, one massive manipulative guilt trip courtesy of Better Working Futures and the Work and Health Programme. Take a small group of vulnerable unemployed people with health issues living in abject poverty, many of whom will be living in substandard housing, many suffering from Anxiety and Depression, many being forced to apply for unrewarding min. wage jobs, and sit them down in a classroom for a couple of hours, lecture them about Mindfulness and Positivity and show them videos of a man with no arms and legs who appears to be very upbeat, well-balanced and happy with his life. Ask the vulnerable people to write a list of things they have to be grateful for. About as subtle as a sledge hammer.
That is actually fucking horrendous
It’s about as bad as it can get. I’ve got another 10 more months of this shit.
Mindfulness and positivity. For Christ’s sake
As well as Confidence and Resilience. Employability Buzzwords.
“”sit them down in a classroom for a couple of hours, lecture them about Mindfulness and Positivity and show them videos of a man with no arms and legs who appears to be very upbeat, well-balanced and happy with his life.””
Until he wants to go toilet !! Do we see that in the video? the video is a Disability Hate Crime using disability for profit in the marketing world of Turn that Smile Upside Down. You can be happy & upbeat & well balanced going to the toilet yourself with no arms & legs. You could even wipe abled bodied people’s arses for them.
Well it didn’t quite go that far thank heavens. The video might have been made with good intentions, I don’t know, but it’s the way it’s being used that’s a bit off, to say the least. Kind of like an extension of your parents telling you to eat your greens because of starving Africans that would be glad of that. It’s manipulative and shaming. Implying that your own health problems are nothing, they don’t exist, and there really is no reason why you can’t work, no reason why you should be clinically Depressed or suffer from Anxiety etc. when other people are getting on with their lives with no limbs. I’m a bit lost for words tbh.
It is the use of disability that would make me report & charge these hypocrites & get them the sack as well as making it not happen again. Disability is not a marketing tool to be used against abled bodied people as a weapon for starters.
Charge: Weaponizing Disability.