Warm words as Tribune turns up heat for tenants
Shelving of midnight switch-off policy welcomed
TENANTS praised the Tribune this week after heating which was being switched off at midnight remained on for 24 hours under orders from the Town Hall.
In the coldest winter for 30 years, old people, mothers with babies and the sick living on estates complained they were suffering under a policy of switching off communal boilers late at night.
Most residents at Redbrick estate in Finsbury had 24-hour heating restored this week but tenants in Steadman Court were still without night heating yesterday (Thursday).
Lib Dem council leader Councillor Terry Stacy pledged last week that heating would stay on round the clock, at least until the end of the cold period. Then there will be a full investigation into whether or not to provide 24-hour heating rather than switch it off at midnight.
Silvia Hawkins, from Elthorne state in Archway, said she had been campaigning for the restoration of 24-hour heating since it went off at midnight last year.
She added: “Even Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was having no luck and officials at Homes for Islington refused to talk to me. I’m delighted that the Tribune succeeded in changing their minds.”
June Horth, 76, from Halton Mansions, in Canonbury, said: “Our heating started to go off at midnight in 2008 without any consultation. I contacted MP Jeremy Corbyn and councillors. Everyone said there was nothing they could do.”
Theresa Taylor, a receptionist from Vickery Court, on the Redbrick estate, said that this time last year her flat was so cold she had been unable to bring her mother, who was very ill, home to stay with her to give her dad a break.
Sadly, her mother, who lived in New North Road, Holloway, later passed away. “We couldn’t have her at our flat because the heating went off at midnight,” she said. “Now it is back on and I want to thank the Tribune for fighting our cause.”
Anne Sharpe, 68, from Bartholomew’s Court, on the Redbrick estate, is delighted to have heat all night. “These places are so cold at night,” she added. “We tried to get heating switched on 24 hours last year with a petition. It’s thanks to the Tribune it has finally happened. It really is a relief.”
PETER GRUNER