Broken...
The term 'broken' refers to the dysfunctional housing department at Bristol City Council. There's more than enough evidence to justify using that term...
We've written a fair number of posts about the saga of Barton House, a social housing block in the east of Bristol that had to be evacuated back in November because of concerns about its structural integrity in the event of a fire or an explosion. After extensive survey work on the block, it looks as though the residents will eventually be able to return to their homes by the start of spring. Meanwhile, they're being housed in the Holiday Inn in Bristol in conditions that leave a lot to be desired.
The way the situation has been handled from not responding to concerns about the block that were raised years ago, the rushed evacuation and the subsequent piss poor communications between Bristol City Council and the evacuated residents is a sorry saga of incompetence and neglect. This is the most recent post we've published on the situation:
Possibly a small step in the right direction, but... 20.12.23
The residents of Barton House should never have found themselves in this situation in the first place. Had the current and previous administrations at Bristol City Council been on top of their jobs and taken note of timely warnings about potential safety issues, the whole issue could have been much better handled than the shambles that has ensued.
While Barton House was grabbing the headlines, mainly because of the evacuation, out in Brislington on the south eastern fringes of the city, the mainly elderly residents of Gilton House are having to endure freezing conditions in their flats as the result of a botched and delayed refurbishment programme. This is what we had to say about the issue:
Systemic neglect 23.12.23
There's a programme of refurbishment underway but, as described in the Bristol Post article linked to above (Pensioners facing winter in freezing tower block after severe building delays - Yvonne Deeney | Bristol Post | 23.12.23), it's been plagued by delays. The refurbishment involves the installation of new windows, the stripping away of the old cladding on the outside of the block, and replacement with new cladding. The cladding on the block has been stripped away and should have been completely replaced by July 2023. It has not been replaced. The delays in replacing it have been caused by a shortage of the materials needed.
It doesn't end with Barton House and Gilton House, there are more issues with Bristol City Council's housing department and botched and delayed refurbishment projects. The latest one to come to light concerns an over 60s sheltered housing block in Walwyn Gardens in Hartcliffe, as reported here: South Bristol pensioners 'feel trapped living on hell hole building site' - Alex Driscoll | Bristol Post | 6.1.24.
Work on refurbishing the sheltered housing block started four months ago. The work is being jointly undertaken by Bristol City Council and Synergize Ltd. The problem is that work on the block ceased in mid December, leaving the site in what residents have said is an unsafe condition. The council's excuse for this is that it's down to their resources being diverted to deal with the situation at Barton House. A situation that as we an many others have said, could have been avoided if the council had been on top of their job.
Barton House, Gilton House and now Walwyn Gardens. One inner city block and two in peripheral suburbs. Regardless of the location and the demographic of the residents, there's a clear pattern emerging. Namely one of a housing department that's broken. They let issues with their stock develop into major crises rather than having an effective ongoing programme of maintenance and repair. They can't effectively manage any major refurbishment projects, with delays and the attendant dramas that come with that. They're piss poor at effective and sympathetic communications with their residents.
As we've previously mentioned, it's not just Bristol City Council who seemingly don't give a shit about their social housing stock, it's pretty much every local authority in the country, as we wrote in this piece:
Systemic neglect 23.12.23
There's an all too obvious pattern across the country of the systemic neglect of social housing blocks alongside delayed and botched refurbishment programmes. It's almost like social housing is an afterthought, regardless of the political composition of the council in question. The three councils mentioned in this post, Bristol, Thurrock and Basildon, all bang on about 'regeneration', 'urban renewal' and 'attracting investment', yet they all seem reluctant to do the basics of making sure their social housing tenants are in decent accommodation.