<![CDATA[DON’T MENTION THE “SLUM” WORD.]]>For some strange reason our local Labour Councillor, Judith Blakeman, gets very upset when anyone refers disparagingly to the current state of the housing stock on Lancaster West Estate and, in particular she does not like the Estate being described as a “slum”. 
We find it strange for Councillor Blakeman to have any views about the wellbeing of residents on Lancaster West or the state of our homes as the general consensus is that the Leader of RBKC Labour Party betrayed and abandoned our community’s interests a long time ago when she sacrificed her soul at the alter of KALC and we certainly don’t think that Cllr Blakeman has the  right to ban us from describing our housing as we see fit!
Still, we thought that she might enjoy our portrayal of life in a 21st Century slum with respect to an old comedy sketch of Monty Python:

Resident 1: Hah! A torn plastic bag. We dream of living in a torn plastic bag. It would have been a palace to us.

Resident 2: You are lucky, we are forced to live in a rolled up newspaper in a sceptic tank.

Resident 3: A rolled up newspaper in a sceptic tank would be luxury to us, We dream about living in a rolled up newspaper in a sceptic tank. We live on Lancaster West Estate where residents are forced to block off the rotting wood of their door frames at night with bits of cardboard to stop vermin entering our homes.Where there has been no significant investment in our housing infrastructure for nearly forty years and our windows and heating system are no longer fit for purpose.

Where fuel poverty and financial hardship are rife. Where the Council tell us they have no money to invest in our properties but then find £30 million to spend on paving stones for Exhibition Road and a £1 million yearly subsidy of the Opera in Holland Park.

Where if you are two seconds late with your rent the TMO are on to you like a rabid pit-bull chasing their “arrears” and making tenant’s lives a misery.

Where if you require a repair service from the TMO you can expect a long and stressful wait followed by endless grief.
Where our hot water and heating are constantly not working but our landlord, the TMO, keeps demanding extortionate service charges.
Where it is only ever possible to have about 3″ of hot bath water to bathe in. 
Where residents of Grenfell Tower were recently terrified by an 18 day long power surge that could have caused a fire disaster akin to Lakanal House and had the very real potential to have burnt us all to death..
Where the seriousness of this danger to residents was hushed up by a TMO report to the Scrutiny Committee that denies fire risk and claims smoke was caused by steam rising from a hot surface! 
Where residents are refused justice and have their legitimate claims for compensation for destroyed electrical equipment denied them by an uncaring Council and a heartless TMO.
Where Lancaster West Estate has become a cash cow for outside TMO contractors and a “carcass” for them to feed and get fat on.
Where residents legitimate complaints are marginalised and those brave enough to seek justice are subject to seeming harassment from RBKC Legal
Dept.and unwarranted smears from Councillors and Council Officers.
Where our green space and residential amenity have been brutally stolen from us by the local Council and we now have nowhere to get fresh air, nowhere for our children to play and no-one who is interested in addressing these issues.
Where our long standing “rights of way” from the Estate up towards Ladbroke Grove and Portabello Rd were taken from us by the Council without care or consideration and we now have one path covered in dog excrement as you enter into our Estate and one concrete path covered in dog excrement as you leave the Estate and that is all. 
 
THIS IS SLUM LIFE THAT COUNCILLOR BLAKEMAN FORBIDS US TO MENTION WHILE SHE LIVES COMFORTABLY AWAY FROM THIS BRUTAL NEGLECT AND THE “SOCIAL APARTHEID” EXPERIENCED BY RESIDENTS ON LANCASTER WEST ESTATE.
SHAME ON HER AND ALL THOSE AT THE COUNCIL/TMO WHO THINK THAT LANCASTER WEST ESTATE RESIDENTS SHOULD SIMPLY ACCEPT THE “MANAGED DECLINE” OF OUR HOMES WITHOUT THE RIGHT TO PROTEST. 
                                                               
                                                          INVEST IN LANCASTER WEST!.

 

 

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