Photo courtesy Architects for Social Housing
LAMBETH HOUSING SCANDAL – SIX: “WHERE’S OUR MONEY GONE?”
Central Hill estate should never have been allowed to get into the position it now is, residents leader Nicola Curtis told the meeting.
“Lambeth should have maintained it properly.
“Lambeth says it needs too many repairs – whose fault is that?” she asked.
“They can’t afford to do it up. “Where’s our money gone?” she asked.
“The only decision to be made is what type of demolition – and how many homes are going to be built on the estate.
“We’ve been working with Lambeth to explore possibilities but Lambeth aren’t listening to us. “You will have received a letter explaining that to do up Central Hill would cost £18 and a half million.
“Well we pay rents, service charges and council tax. “I think they should do our estate up. “We’ve been paying these for 43 years since the estate was built.
“It shouldn’t have got into this condition.”
She said ASH’s plans showed you could get a lot of houses on the estate. “We’d like money to repair our homes so the community can go on thriving.
“We got involved with ASH and asked them to help us, so ways of building on the estate will not harm the fabric of the estate so residents can remain on the estate, while providing much needed homes for other people.”
After the meeting ASH told News From Crystal Palace: “Mould, or leaking roofs, or condensation, or uneven walkways, are easily fixed problems, and usually the consequence of bad maintenance, and not grounds for the demolition of 456 homes.
“There are some design problems, the use of flat roofs being the key one, and our proposals addresses this. “The rest come from a lack of maintenance or bad maintenance.
“The uneven walkways, for instance, are caused by the use of high-powered water jets that have eroded the grouting, not their initial design or build quality.
“Condensation and mould comes from the poor ventilation consequent on the badly made windows Lambeth installed and the lack of opening window panes.”