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After writing to councillors, MP and THH, to alert them to design features of the new doors, THH have now confirmed that they will speak with AD about options. Our local Member of Parliament Rushanara Ali has also confirmed she is supporting this issue.
Thanks to the swift actioning of the problem with door replacements, a building insprector came to see me today and explained that those doors, which were installed roughtly 10 years ago around our estate were made by Masterdor, the same company that supplied doors to Grenfell Tower, which were found to fail the fire safety test.
That, of course,is a very good reason to change our doors according to government advice.
Luckily the inspector was very interested in Residents’ safety and promised me to look into the problem with letterboxes. I mentioned to him the problems residents have in the blocks near the Regents canal and he will look into this early next week.
I have been offered an appointment to see the new doors and visit the site office of the company installing them.
Through the chat we had I learned that the new doors by default do not automatically lock when closing and I was very concerned about this.
I have been told that anybody has to request a self-locking lock on the door. A door that doesn’t automatically lock when it closes will give an extra opportunity for a thief to come in. Many people forget to lock doors. I said that all doors should have self-locking mechanisms unless specifically requested and not the other way around.
Whilst we have very little gardening space on Parkview estate, balcony boxes were my choice of growing tomatoes this year. Not knowing how large those beefsteak tomato stalks actually get, I struggled to keep them upright during those very windy nights. Even without the wind those stalks are not easy to manage in a window or balcony box.
Still, next year perhaps tomatoes are better grown inside the balcony because of the problems keeping the stalks upright.
I’d also like to experiment with fastening the stalks horizontally somehow.
My recent posts about noise and cargates from St. James Avenue into the cul de sac between Rosebery and Sankey House I had to withdraw because of legal issues.
As a Neighbourhood Watch coordinator I have to keep to the rules.
The case is I had been approached by a resident about his problem with noise being generated from a parking area near the Gatehouse school wall.
I have no problem with that because as I can show you, I cannot even see that area, nor can I hear a lot of noise from it. I did however complain about the tree being too near the house but apparently some people oppose the tree being removed. This case is currently still ongoing.
I can only complain about things that affect me. I would not complain on behalf of a resident who is perfectly capable of making their own complaint. I would only complain on behalf of people who are either incapacitated or have no access to the internet or ask me in writing to do so. Everybody else needs to approach the housing provider THH here.
I could raise the issue as a general concern during an estate walk-about with the estates officer why there is no cargate but that is as far as I can act.
All particular complaints need to be made formally and then the rule generally is, the more people complain about an issue that is generally unpleasant for them, the more attention will be paid to the issue.
I did have the cycle gates installed because obviously this issue caused direct health and safety issues for all who used the walkway near St. James the Less vicarage and Sankey House but the cargate problem doesn’t cause such direct threats to people’s safety as of now.
Looking at the crime figures in the area, we do not have a rise in burglaries in the area. If there was it would be raised at the SNT Panel meeting, which would prompt extra police support for the issue.
People can use this online form to directly voice concerns to the local police. You can see all relevant statistics here.
Please contact me if you have further comments about this.
