Lorna Fage and her partner Charlie Chivington say they have been waiting five months for the council to fix a gap in their front door that lets rainwater and the cold in, reports Marco Marcelline
A couple who say they cannot heat their Walthamstow council home because of a gap in their front door that lets rainwater and the cold in, have said Waltham Forest has failed to fix it for months.
Lorna Fage and her partner Charlie Chivington say they have had to mop up puddles in their corridor every time it has rained heavily for five months.
Since May, an anti-draft mechanism which used to close a considerable gap between their front door and the floor has been jammed inside the door. Previously, it would automatically come down when the door was locked shut. It became jammed for the first time in early 2023, but this was fixed by the council.
The consequent damp is making them both susceptible to worsened arthritis flare-ups and pain.
Lorna says she first phoned the council about the jammed draft excluder mechanism in May, and was promised a new door in “six weeks”.
Towards the beginning of July, she says she phoned again but was told the council was waiting for the surveyor to sign off a new door.
“So the following week, I phoned again to ask what’s happening. They said the same thing.
“That went on a few times. And then about a month ago they said they’ve cancelled the new front door. Everytime I’ve called them they’re telling me to ‘go [to this department], go there’.”
Reacting to the new door’s cancellation, she adds: “I was absolutely gutted because it’s not my fault the door is defective. So they’ve wasted money on a new front door; it’s just sat somewhere.”
Sat in their living room, Charlie says the draft had rendered heating the flat “pointless”.
“There’s no point putting it on because it’s just going to go straight through that door. When I sit here in the evening, I just feel [the heat leaving]. It’s going to affect our arthritis as well. It makes the condition painful when it’s cold and damp.”
Railway worker Charlie suffers from ankylosing spondylitis in addition to psoratic arthritis, which means his spinal bone is fused to his shoulder blades.
He tells the Echo that he regularly mops the front landing following rain. “When I get up [for work] at about half six, seven, I’m having to get the mop out. There’s a puddle there.”
Ahsan Khan, Waltham Forest Council deputy leader and cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said: “We apologise to the residents for the problems they have endured. We know that we have not met the high standards that we set for ourselves in this case. We are in contact with our contractors to find out what has happened and to arrange a suitable long-term solution.”
The Echo understands that the council contacted Lorna and Charlie on Friday (4th October) to arrange a visit to their flat “as soon as possible”.
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