MR CAMERON, MR BUTTERWORTH AND A STORM

THE RIVERSIDE NIGHTMARE GOES ON AND ON…

It is the way THEY deal with US.  

The way OUR problems are dealt with by THEM.  

OUR leaders draw a line under OUR problems.  

David Cameron is now drawing a line under immigration before he loses more M.P.`s to UKIP and more seats in the Commons.

Dean Butterworth is at it here in Carlisle with an article in the weekly paper, the Cumberland News.  He says he is drawing a line in the sand under the problems he has inherited from his long-suffering tenants of Longtown.   

Mr Butterworth’s suffering tenants live in ice box homes because they cannot afford proper heating. He also has suffering leaseholders who live in utterly perplexed homes because of Riverside bills that they cannot afford and often cannot understand.    
 All of them need that line in the sand.

Suffering tenants and leaseholders were not the only problems Mr Butterworth inherited when he became Carlisle regional director of the giant Liverpool property development organisation Riverside Housing Association a year ago. 

Notably,  there was the problem caused by his predecessor, Mr Patrick Leonard.  Mr Leonard astounded Cumbria and the British social housing industry when he stood as Labour candidate in the election for Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner and then said that he was able to combine his Riverside  job - now worth £85,000 a year plus a car - with the £65.000 a year police commissioner`s job.
Mr Leonard failed to become commissioner and did not continue for very long afterwards as Riverside’s Carlisle regional director. But Mr Leonard’s outrageous claim left behind a difficult legacy for his Liverpool bosses
Has Mr Butterworth drawn a line in the sand under that difficult legacy?

And for the distressed tenants and leaseholders?
 There has been criticism in the city council of Riverside’s bossy culture in dealing with these problems. There has been damning criticism by a county court judge about Riverside’s “absolute mess" in its failure to negotiate with two of its leaseholders who had problems.
 There was a storm of criticism of Riverside by tenants at last week’s public meeting in Longtown. Mr Butterworth looked far from comfortable facing the tenants! In the Cumberland News article Mr Butterworth says of the tenants: “We are not chaining any of them to their properties they are free to go and find alternative accommodation should they wish to do so”.  
His callous “you-are-free-to-go” ultimatum has caused another storm of criticism from tenants, who are again kitting themselves out with extra jumpers and sleeping bags.

The Longtown residents are on the brink of their third winter in ice box homes. Their questions are still unanswered about broken tenancy agreements, failure of a duty of care, no financial compensation for the sky-high energy bills and no financial compensation for their personal suffering.

Can it really be believed that Mr Butterworth still keeps his line in the sand?  
The answer is in a letter to the Cumberland News last week which so far has not been published, the letter is from Jimmy Robb, Chairman of the recently formed tenants group fighting for justice, Longtown Action for Heat.     

 The letter says: 

"I would like to respond, on behalf of the suffering tenants of Longtown, to Riverside's Divisional Director, Dean Butterworth's comments in the article featured on 10 October regarding the long-standing heating issue. When Mr. Butterworth assumed the post, he talked of how he wished to work with the tenants to bring an end to the massive increase in bills since Riverside installed heating systems in 2012. However his most recent comments indicate an altogether different solution, the essence being that if, we the tenants don’t like it we are free to leave. This seems to be a rather callous, unsympathetic approach that disregards the emotional investment tenants place in their home, and seems to contradict his previous comments and indeed the Tenancy Agreement which stipulates a Duty of Care… A duty TO care by landlords. It is also interesting to note that Mr. Butterworth is able to denounce the Avoca Report, despite commissioning it and agreeing to abide by its conclusions, dismissing it as "wrong" yet claimed to be "not technically minded" during the Riverside/BRE presentation on the 9th. His assumption that the Avoca Report is unsound - which seems to clash with his statement that, “ Avoca…have come back saying heating systems work fine and there has not been any significant increase in utility bills as a result." (Cumberland News Feb. 17th) In reality the Report is quite clear: that the energy-guzzling boilers are unsuitable and have plunged tenants into fuel poverty. Mr. Butterworth has now taken the advice of a BRE consultant that expresses the opinion that £10 per day is a reasonable cost to pay to heat a 2-bedroom flat and has now drawn a line under the issue. I only wish the tenants of Longtown paying £80 per week to heat their homes, or the tenants, who like myself simply can’t afford to and have no option but to freeze, or the two pensioners that suffered almost numerous breakdowns between them last winter could end this nightmare so easily and conclusively.” YOURS,  JIMMY ROBB OCTOBER 14 2014 THIS POST WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 22 AND LATER ACCIDENTALLY DELETED