Agenda item

As part of the scrutiny review into district heating the commission will hear from council officers and residents of the Aylesbury Estate who have experienced systematic breakdown and failures of estate boilers.

The commission will also hear from the cabinet member for housing management and modernisation on how the £3m investment into district heating will be allocated.

The commission heard from Aylesbury Estate residents (Stephen Davis, Donna Grant, Harry Matthews, Keith Bent) on their experience of district heating on the estate.  The commission also heard from local ward councillors, Councillor Paul Fleming and Councillor Lorraine Lauder, Faraday Ward.

The following issues of concern were raised by the residents and local ward councillors:

Problem with heating system and lack of hot water has been on going, year after year and never properly fixed.  

Planned shutdowns always in the winter.

When boiler breaks down council issues tenants with a heater which results in residents having to pay extra money for energy used for electric fan heaters.  Residents paying a lot more for electricity than the council gives back. Having to boil kettles to have hot water for which one resident who is registered blind needs to carry up two flights of stairs to the bathroom which is a health and safety issue.  If having to keep doing this why can’t the council install electric showers.

Particular problem for people who have to go work or children going to school. Having to boil water and share bathrooms, impacts on children’s time when they are supposed to be in school.

Have scheduled outages, but are now seeing outages between scheduled outages.

Temporary boilers installed but there are still issues with these.

Perception of poor maintenance.

Young Aylesbury Estate resident with nieces and nephews and friends who do not have heating and hot water as well – this is a shared experience amongst them and he questions the mental health affects this may be having on residents in the area.

If having to travel a distance to work, having to heat hot water impacts on the day.

This time round heating has not worked properly since December, including the Christmas holiday period which had a significant impact on Christmas.

OCO contractors not having key to cupboards to carry out work.

Lack of heating and hot water has knock on effects on the daily lives of the people that live in the area, this needs to be considered.

Contempt tenants are treated with by engineers, being told anything just so engineer can get in and out of the property as quickly as possible.  Unclear whether engineers get paid per visit [incentivising them not to complete work first time round].

Workmen not completing jobs as they are being called to other jobs.

The breaking of access points by workmen creates a point of entry for mice which aree a problem on the estate.

The commission heard from local ward councillors, Councillor Paul Fleming and Councillor Lorraine Lauder.

Councillor Fleming reported that the issue of heating in particular has been largest area of casework since he became a councillor in 2014.  A lot of money had been spent during that time fixing or mitigating problems with the system.  Residents recognised that there is a systemic problem with the district heating system due to its size and being encased in concrete with pipes that cannot be accessed.  The question was why this had been done in the first place.  Significant investment made in 2015, residents told that the level of reliability would leap but this did not happen.

Councillor Fleming reported that one of the suggested ways to reasonably mitigate the effects would be through the provision of electric showers to homes.  A number of explanations had been given by the council as to why this was not feasible ranging from expense, water pressure to electric load on the system.  He pointed out that showers were much cheaper than the price quoted, leaseholders had installed their own electric showers with permission from the council and with respect to the electric load, residents were being issued with electric heaters which did not seem to be causing a problem.

Councillor Lauder stressed that what residents have had to go through has been abominable.

The Commission heard from Councillor Kieron Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing Management and Modernisation.  Councillor Williams apologised to residents for still having to experience this problem and acknowledged that it had been going on for a very long time.  He shared the frustration that a large amount of investment had been put into the boilers and they were still not working as well as expected. 

Councillor Williams reported that what he has now asked for following a meeting with ward councillors and TRA chairs was for a full review of all of the options to provide heat going forward.  The review would look at whether the current system was renewed, whether the current boilers remain or whether the council would provide electric heat to the blocks.  This review was underway and was expected to be finished by the end of March.  The council would also be looking at all the blocks on the estate, to get an understanding of how long their life span, noting that the regeneration has taken longer than planned.  This would feed into questions about the heating.  The council would not want to spend lots of money on a block that wasn’t going to be there for many years.  A proportionate approach would be taken – in some blocks it was anticipated that residents would be moving out after a few years, a temporary heating solution would therefore be sought, whilst other blocks based on the regeneration timetable were anticipated to be there for another 10 years or more therefore requiring a longer term heating solution.

The commission heard from Councillor Martin Seaton, North Walworth ward councillor, who also lives on the Aylesbury Estate.

The issue of compensation was raised.  It was agreed that this be reported back to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the report on District Heating outages be noted.

2.  That an update report be submitted to the next meeting in respect of the heating issues on the Aylesbury Estate (including the issue of compensation).