WHAT IS GOING ON, MR BUTTERWORTH?

WHY HAS 
RIVERSIDE 
LET THINGS
GET SO 
BAD? ASKS

TENANTS`
M.P.

Rory Stewart  M.P. ( left)  has just got a  big new job at Westminster which involves a lot of tough questions he has to ask. Back home in Cumbria, no questions  can be tougher for him to ask than questions about the Longtown solar panel fiasco and why it has gone on  for so long.

For  months,  Mr Stewart has been asking questions about  the  fiasco and the distress caused  by the rocketing fuel bills  faced by  about sixty of his Longtown constituents. All of them have suffered after these panels  were installed on  the roofs of their homes two years ago.

 Mr Stewart, who represents Penrith and The Border, has also been trying to put the questions face to face  with Mr Dean Butterworth, the boss of Riverside Housing Association which owns the homes.

But Mr Stewart  so far has got  no answers. And the planned face to face meeting with Mr Butterworth has still to take place ten weeks after it was arranged.

Mr Stewart`s difficulties are explained in a letter this week..

The letter says:“ I have tried to meet with  Mr.Butterworth on three separate occasions to understand why Riverside have allowed things to get so bad, and to press them to definitively resolve constituents' concerns as soon as possible.

“ To Mr Butterworth's credit, he remains keen to meet, and has tried hard to find alternative dates,” says the letter which is addressed to Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation which is supporting the tenants.

It is now more than two months since the face to face meeting was arranged--the news was disclosed in a post on this blog on March 12.

The meeting was planned after a Riverside threat to evict one of the Longtown tenants who was complaining about the second winter of  no heat in his flat and the rocketing fuel bills he faced.

At that time, Mr Stewart described the eviction threat as “very alarming.”

Armed with this support from Mr Stewart, the tenant met Mr Butterworth and the threat to evict was withdrawn and Mr Butterworth announced that he had arranged to meet Mr Stewart in London the following Wednesday(March 12). Mr Stewart said he would be pressing for what he called a timeframe for improvements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               But But that March 12 meeting did not take place and   ten weeks later it now appears that Mr Stewart is still waiting for it to take place.

Dean Butterworth

 

 

Ten weeks is too long  a time to wait for a meeting to take place, Mr Butterworth. Two winters is too long a time to wait for  proper heating in your home, Mr Butterworth.

What is going on, Mr Butterworth?

The sixty distressed Longtown tenants need to know.

On this, Mr Stewart`says he remains very willing to provide any support  he can to constituents

His new Westminster job is chairman of the prestigous House of Commons Defence Select Committee which examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Ministry of Defence including the armed forces. In an election for the job  involving all  M.Ps, Mr Stewart  topped the poll, beating seven other candidates.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is on the first  post of the blog, dated March 25 2013.