THIS BLOG WAS MEANT FOR "FIGHTING"

A birthday

boy

reflects on

Riverside`s

bossy ways

It`s celebration time...this blog is a birthday boy, two years old this week.

Irresponsible claim....PATRICK LEONARD

After those two years, it`s time to reflect just how successful the Community Voice Carlisle blog has been in what it set out to achieve: putting a stop to the bossy ways of Riverside Housing Association of Liverpool and keeping a check on all Riverside activities.

We have had our successes and sadly, we have failed in some  things. But the fight against Riverside`s incompetence goes on.

Chief among our successes was the resignation of the former Carlisle regional director, Mr Patrick Leonard. He  sealed his fate when he made  a fatuous and irresponsible claim after he stood for election as Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner.

The claim was that he hoped after that election that he would  combine the police commissioner`s job with his Riverside job.

Only one job up to now...Dean Butterworth

Mr Leonard has been succeeded at Riverside by Mr Dean  Butterworth. Up to now, Mr Butterworth   has not promised to combine
his job with any other job.

Another success  was reported only very recently. It is that Riverside have decided to  shed all the work attached to running its 270 Carlise leaseholdings. It is moving the work
to  its head office at Liverpool.

News of the shift to Liverpool is  no surprise 
to the Carlisle leaseholders. They have suffered for years from Riverside`s incompetence... rocketing bills that no one understood and  numerous failures to deal with outstanding problems and difficulties.

And the fact that Riverside has had to make this shift indicates just how incompetent is its Carlisle operation.

Tenants` leader...Jimmy Robb

Will the shift to Liverpool make any difference?The only difference seems to be that Carlisle letters of complaint will have 100 miles further to travel.

 There has been success too in ending  thei advertisements Riverside has been running every week for two years in  the Cumberland News, Carlisle.

The advertisements claimed that Riverside was ”transforming lives and re-vitalising neighbourhoods.”

  

The advertisements  suddenly stopped appearing this month. Riverside may have pulled the plug on them, Or the Cumberland News may have pulled the plug.

The advertisements claimed that Riverside was supporting (presumably, financially) the page of the Cumberland News where the advertisements appear,  the district news page.

Possibly, the Cumberland News came to the conclusion that it is just not good policy to have the support of Riverside on one page  of the newspaper and to have articles criticising Riverside`s shameful record at Longtown on another page.

Whatever the reason: Good riddance to the Riverside page!

The big failure in the fight against Riverside has been over the appalling neglect of the Longtown  Riverside tenants . 

These unfortunate people are now emerging from their third winter in ice-box homes that they cannot afford to heat because of the dodgy  boilers installed by Riverside.

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation has   fought continuously for these tenants, backing Jimmy Robb leader of their   pressure  group, Longtown Action for Heat.