TENANTS TO FORM AN ACTION GROUP

RIVERSIDE: ANOTHER

FIASCO

ON ITS WAY?

As council elections get underway in Carlisle, the increasing rows involving Riverside Housing Association are appearing on the agenda.

Questions are being asked  about the city council`s links with the housing organisation and just how accountable Riverside is to its 6,000 city tenants and 200 leaseholders.

Tenants and leaseholders once had a right as taxpayers to get  grievances and problems sorted out through their local councillors. It was a democratic grievance procedure. But no more.

Since the Riverside takeover eleven years ago, grievances and problems are not being sorted out. And Riverside has no grievance procedure to get them sorted out.

So it is doubtful if questions asked of  candidates during this election period will amount to very much.

In Longtown there has certainly been no sorting out and Riverside tenants have been forced to form an action group after a two year fight to have proper heating in their homes  without the sky-high energy bills that followed the botched solar panel scheme.

Leaflets are going out this week inviting tenants to a meeting when  an action group will be formed. The meeting is  on Thursday May 15 at 7pm in Longtown Community Centre.

In Carlisle also, there has been no sorting out and the city weekly newspaper, the Cumberland News splashed the front page with a Riverside story under the headline:”Pensioners charged thousands for work they didn`t want done.” One woman was suicidal over a huge repair bill, claimed the story

And in the city county court there were two other cases waiting  to be sorted out involving Riverside leaseholders.The two were summoned for refusing to allow Riverside to enter their property to carry out internal work in the roof space.

The two leaseholders say that allowing Riverside this access would be against the terms of their leases.The  cases were adjourned until  next month but not before speculation about why exactly Riverside needed to enter the roof space of the two properties.

Riverside said  their planned entry was connected with fire safety work. But critics of Riverside had another theory.

It is this:

Is another solar panel scheme planned?

Is there to be another Longtown fiasco?

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