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Radiators plan would waste millions
• I LIVE on Rowley Way and I am sick to death of the way Camden Council “consults” residents (‘Why radiators offer leaves us cold’, September 10).
Over the past two years the council have been pushing for radiators on the estate and asked the tenants’ and residents’ association (TRA) to work with them. When the TRA started asking questions which the council’s own building department should have asked the council eventually got a company in to do some basic testing which concluded that the internal pipes were fine, completely contradicting the council’s assertion that the pipes were at the end of their life.
The council responded by trying to ignore these results and the TRA. Emails went unanswered for weeks.
If the TRA had not spent considerable time and money researching this, the council would have railroaded us all into putting radiators in needlessly. The council could still ignore us and at this point they are set to waste millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on this ill-thought-out scheme.
At the same time the council are “saving” money by privatising our caretaking services, a move which is deeply unpopular and has left the estate dirtier and less safe with a loss of the presence of caretakers.
Oh, the council did “consult us”, asking 40 out of 520 households if we thought the estate was cleaner at the end of a six-month pilot scheme.
The “consultation” contained no questions about safety, and no mention that the contractor, Veolia, not surprisingly, were actually coming in much more frequently than contracted during the pilot scheme.
The council then reported that the pilot had been a success and the contract would be rolled out across the borough. Since gaining the contract the estate is dirtier and Veolia are not nearly so visible as they were during the pilot.
Meanwhile caretakers are being made redundant and the estate has suffered a spate of daylight thefts which coincided with the loss of their visible presence.
At present it appears that all of this “consultation” is just a rubber stamp for a council agenda which has already been decided. The council are happy to consult with us as long as we agree with what they want.
MATHEW ROSENERG
Rowley Way, NW6
Listen to tenants
• FITTING radiators and surface piping in Rowley Way would be to make ugly something that is plain and simple and beautiful.
Let Camden Council listen to their tenants for once.
PHIL OMAN
Boundary Road, NW8
Think again
• YOUR exposé of the council’s plans for new heating on the Rowley Way estate demonstrates how little the Lib Dem/Tory administration running Camden seems to care about residents on its estates.
Rowley Way is Grade II* listed, one of the jewels in Camden’s architectural crown. Only 5 per cent of listed buildings make this grade or higher. Yet Camden doesn’t seem to have consulted English Heritage at all on the impact of their proposals.
The TRA have surveyed residents and found nine out of 10 are against having radiators. They have invested their own funds in obtaining reports from independent experts who say the current heated walls work well and radiators would just be a waste of money. In fact the cost of the council’s proposals has been estimated at £8million, a hefty bill to put in radiators nobody wants. Yet the residents’ views are ignored.
Everyone agrees a new boiler house is needed, but it is really disappointing that the council hasn’t suggested an innovative solution in keeping with the estate’s radical design. What about a cutting-edge combined heat and power plant?
And why hasn’t Camden paid more attention to addressing the heat loss from flats? As the TRA says, installing radiators without better insulation is like pumping air into a flat tyre without fixing the puncture.
There is no evidence that the radiant walls are failing so why assume they are?
Camden refuses to carry out essential work to repair and upgrade the distribution network of pipes which are in need of replacing and are the cause of almost all the repairs and complaints regarding the heating and hot water. Given the opposition to these plans, the council really needs to think again here.
MARYAM ESLAMDOUST, THOMAS GARDINER, MIKE KATZ
Kilburn Labour Action Team
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