STALINIST RULE UNDER ATTACK .

Riverside procedure

is dodgy say

councillors

Polling only days away  and the debates go on, except  the non-debate about the national housing crisis. None of the political parties in the run up to the election seems able to tackle  this crisis .

For this failure, blame the incompetent politicians. Here in Carlisle, on top of the national crisis, there  is  a second housing crisis. For that, blame an incompetent landlord.

The landlord is the giant  Liverpool property  developer, Riverside Housing Association, now under increasing attack for the way it has run its  6,000 homes in the Carlisle area for more than a decade.

The incompetent politicians offer bribes and giveaways such as  a new right-to-buy to get you to vote Tory. The incompetent Riverside has nothing to offer.

Nothing to remedy its three year record of failure to provide affordable heat for its freezing tenants of Longtown. And nothing to remedy other  failures going back to the Riverside takeover of the city council houses twelve years ago

Many of  these long - standing failures are  coming under scrutiny  by members of the  local authority, Carlisle  City Council. It is the first time the council have intervened in this way and is an historic intervention.

And after that intervention, what? Surprise, surprise...it has just emerged that the councillors find their hands are tied. Why? Because Riverside`s complaints procedure which  the councillors are using to carry out the scrutiny is not up to the job. (Riverside`s many frustrated tenants and leaseholders have known  for many years that the complaints procedure is not up to the job!)

So a new complaints procedure has had to be put in place in order that  any scrutiny by the councillors will be really thorough and hold Riverside properly to account.

All very different (and a very welcome change)  from  Riverside  of previous years. 

Then, any   complaint by Riverside tenants and leaseholders was met with  a bullying response through its Stalinist Persistent Complaints Procedure, through its abolition of all  tenant groups and through its persistent threat to kill off  the activist group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

News of  the council`s frustration at the  dodgy complaints procedure  came at last week`s meeting of another activist group, Cumbria Riverside Action Group.

That group  heard from a Riverside leaseholder yet another long saga of negotiations after she was faced with inflated items on her bills.

She detailed the items and her struggle to get justice from Riverside. Her persistence paid off and she told the group that she had managed to get £1,700 removed from the bills.

All very good. But her pleasure at this success was tinged with regret.

She said :”How many other leaseholders are faced with Riverside`s inflated bills running into thousands of pounds and unlike me, they are not  ableto fight for justice?

“I feel sorry for these people. They have no choice but to pay up and keep quiet”


Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information  about the Federtion is available on 01228 522277 or 01228 532803.