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RBH News
Gritty response from Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
January 19, 2010, 03:42:19 PM
| RBH staff have worked hard throughout the cold snap to help tenants and residents, and especially the vulnerable, to stay safe during the severe weather.
The Rochdale North and Heywood Estate Caretaking Teams have worked to clear ice and snow from around sheltered housing schemes, and to clear and grit paths around bungalows and flats on estates. Team members hand- gritted College Bank Way in Rochdale and Angel Meadow estates for example in Heywood where there are large communal bins to ensure access for Council refuses wagons, which also meant they had to dig out several cars in the process. Rochdale North Housing Officers checked on vulnerable tenants and offered to shop for essential food. On Martin Lane, caretakers cleared a path for a 96 year old tenant.
In Rochdale South and Pennines, the Estate Caretaking team has worked in partnership with the Youth Offending Team to clear pathways on Kirkholt. They also cleared around sheltered housing schemes across the borough, together with a large area around the busy Strand shopping area and responded to numerous specific calls for help. Members of the roofing team joined in this effort. The caretakers have also ensured that communal bins have been emptied as no refuse collection service has been possible.
In Middleton, local resident Ian Harlow, board member and Chair of Staffing-sub Committee, was impressed with how workers rallied round.
He said, “I obviously receive reports on the performance of our staff, but last Tuesday (5th January), I was forced to go on foot to our local shops in an horrendous blizzard and was amazed to spot one of our RBH staff in Alkrington driving through treacherous conditions. He told me he wasn’t based locally, but had been asked to drive several miles to help overcome the particular problems caused by the harsher weather Middleton was experiencing. It was good to see first hand that RBH and its staff were taking a boroughwide view and putting its resources into all areas of need.”
Our Central Heating Engineers have worked round the clock to respond to calls from tenants. A full complement of staff worked through the weekend with supervisors also carrying out repair works. Engineers from RBH’s central heating servicing contractor, JA Finnerty, have also joined in the effort.
Last Friday evening one of our engineers, Andy Prince, responded to a request from Springhill Resource Centre, a Council Care Home, where there had been a burst on the central heating system. The engineer successfully dealt with the problem preventing the 16 frail elderly residents having to be moved out to emergency accommodation. In Heywood, two caretakers Carl Wild and Ian Lord dived in to help a local resident clear a bad flood from her house, before John Tilby from RBH’s repair team arrived to fix the pipe.
Ian Agnew, RBH’s Chair said “Many of our staff have been involved in the effort to keep tenants safe during the severe weather conditions. Just a few are mentioned here. All have worked in very difficult conditions and I would like to thank them for their efforts and also thank tenants and residents for their support.”
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