{"id":221,"date":"2016-11-06T01:37:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T01:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=221"},"modified":"2017-07-10T01:40:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T01:40:33","slug":"edinburgh-city-council-the-leak-2-a-half-years-a-collapsed-ceiling-still-leaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh City Council & The Leak – 2 & a Half Years, a Collapsed Ceiling & Still Leaking\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"

MUCH of old Muirhouse is gone now, blitzed in advance of the ill-fated Waterfront Project in an orgy of city council vandalism remembered as \u2018the Muirhoose Clearances.\u2019 The empty acres that once held hundreds of families in social housing were sown with wild flower seed and hilariously <\/span><\/strong>re-branded<\/span><\/strong> as \u2018the Meadows.\u2019 But this fly-tipper\u2019s dream is soon to be developed with new-builds \u2013 over half private and for sale, and only 30% genuine social housing for rent.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The rump of the remaining Muirhouse of old is the cluster of high rises, all named after islands in the Forth – Oxcars, Inchmickery, Birnies, Gunnet, Fidra . . . When Holyrood decreed that all kitchens and toilets in Scottish homes must meet a certain criteria the contract for the Muirhouse high rises was handed to the Mitie mega-corp and the result was a mighty shambles of exploding boilers, broken flushes and leaking pipes until a flood of tenant complaints saw Mitie kicked off the job, though years later council plumbers are still repairing the mega-company\u2019s shoddy work. One 14-story block, Birnies Court, which suffered from the Mitie shambles, then had the further indignity of having the lovely shrubbery at its foot, against the protests of its tenants group, bulldozed and replaced with a \u2018recycling depot,\u2019 which soon become little more than a communal rubbish dump.<\/span><\/p>\n

But 150 feet above the dumped mattresses and cookers and burst bin-bags, things are little better. On the block\u2019s top floor council tenant Eddie M, who has lived in Birnies Court for almost 20 years, has spent the last two and a half years fruitlessly trying to get its leaking roof fixed.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2018The leak was first reported on the Easter Weekend of 2014,\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2018That was the start of a long, frustrating process of complaints that were ignored or met with lies and deceit. Nothing was done.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Nearly two years after his initial report the sodden ceiling in the small bedroom came down. Subsequent investigations found that the whole roof was rotten and would have to be replaced.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018<\/strong>If they had fixed the leak when it was first reported,\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0he says, \u2018<\/span><\/span>the roof wouldn\u2019t have to be replaced. The folk in the block who own their flats will have to pay a fortune. In my own case the council has been in breach of its tenancy agreement for years, but no offer of compensation or rent rebate has been made.’<\/span><\/span><\/em>\u00a0The Scottish Government has paid \u2018spare room subsidy\u2019 for a \u2018spare\u2019 room that is unusable.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After the ceiling collapse promises were made of putting out tenders for the roofing work, which would be started in late summer. \u2018<\/span><\/span>A letter came,\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/em>\u00a0says Mr M.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2018This is it, I thought, at last. But no such luck. The letter said that the cooncil was going to replace the lifts in Birnies Court. The roof\u2019s falling apart, but they evidently thought new lifts were more important.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

An enquiry from Mr M brought the \u2018promise\u2019 that work on the roof was planned to start in mid-November and finish in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2018Replacing a whole high rise roof in the wettest, windiest and coldest months of the year? I\u2019ll believe it when I see it,\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u2018I\u2019ve got to the stage now that if someone from the cooncil told me that New Year\u2019s Day was on the First of January, I\u2019d check a calendar just to make sure.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Leak – the video<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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