NEW DUTY-OF-CARE CHALLENGE FOR RIVERSIDE

TWELVE YEARS OF 

CONFRONTATION

FOR PEOPLE WITH 

NO VOICE

For the first time since Riverside Housing Associaton took over Carlisle social houses twelve years ago, the Liverpool-based association faces a public challenge tomorrow(Saturday).

The challenge comes with a visit to the city of  a national organisation, the Leaseholders` Advisory Service.

Its representatives will meet Riverside`s 200 leaseholders at a meeting in the Civic Centre to give advice on Riverside`s controversial  bills and  service charges. 

Campaigners say these bills and charges are causing  such worry and  distress  that some leaseholders are becoming suicidal.

That deplorable situation will hopefully be eased at tomorrow`s meeting. But the meeting poses new questions for Riverside and its long-running disputes with  leaseholders going back almost to the  handover of the city council houses twelve years ago.

Help and support for the leaseholders during those frustrating 12 years was in fact given by the community group, Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

But that  help and support failed badly. At all times, Riverside  rebuffed the Federation with threats and intimidation and wrongly invoking the Data Protection Act.

On two occasions, the Federation representatives were  publicly humiliated by being ordered out of meetings. On another occasion, Carlisle City Council  banned all emails from the Federation following false representations by a Riverside-backing councillor.

Needless to say, Riverside`s perpetual conflict with its leaseholders resolved nothing.

But what  the conflict did was to highlight the fact that Riverside had no grievance 

procedure in  place to resolve genuine concerns of leaseholders. Many people would say that this Riverside failure demonstrated lack of duty of care.

Only in recent weeks has it emerged that there is in existence the Leaseholders` Advisory Service, which is a public body funded by the government.

That advisory service would in fact have been prepared to help the Riverside leaseholders during their 12 years without a voice.

The big question now for Riverside  is this: Why for 12 years were these desperate people with no voice not put in touch with the Leaseholders` Advisory Service?

And why instead, did Riverside chose a policy of outright confrontation?

Community Voice Carlisle is the blo g of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation iscontained in the first post of this blog dated March 25 2014