Leicester - St Peters
Neighbourhood Monitoring
LCC - An emergency request for a housing repair hamstrung by red tape.
Did you realise that as a resident of any one of the 4 apartment buildings here in the St Peters neighbourhood, that it was quite possible to have a situation where you have water pouring in from an apartment on the above floor but because you did not know that flat number on the floor above that leicester city council would not send out someone to deal with it?
Well neither did I... not until today.
Same problem resolved many times before without difficulty...
I have been a resident here for about 13 years and in all the time I have been here I have suffered many instances in varying degrees of severity, water pouring in alongside pipes that run through the height of the building from the apartment above.
In each and every case LCC has sent someone out until today (13th April) to deal with this issue. The plumber comes out looks in the water cupboard at the water coming in from above and then goes to visit each successive apartment above throughout the floors until they find the one with the issue.
He then deals with that issue.
Today, 13th April 2007 I found a torrent of water pouring in from above and called (0116) 254 9439 the emergency repair line at Leicester city council.
The call was handled by "Fay"
 I carefully explained to Fay that "I am tenant in Maxfield House" and what floor my home was located. I gave her my flat number expecting her to use that to expedite a repair call to the flats above to track down the source of the leak.
Fay was told precisely what the nature of the issue was and that as water was pouring in from above I needed a plumber to come to the building and visit the above apartments to track down and resolve the issue.
Fay then said something that I found rather surprising and that is that she needed to know the number of the flat above to action the repair request.
I explained to Fay that I did not know. At which point she said that Leicester city council could not send someone out to resolve it unless I knew the number of the apartment above mine.
I asked why on earth they couldn't just come out and find out when they visit which they would have to do so anyway.
Bearing in mind that even if i did know it would be quite irrelevant as the plumber would have to visit all the apartments above mine in succession to track down and resolve the issue as the problem in all likelihood may not stem from the apartment immediately above at all but one of five.
Essential Information not available to the call handler... why not?
 So with water pouring down I asked why on earth if they need that information why they don't have it on their own systems.
Surely if the information systems and workflow processes Leicester City Council have, mean that the repair request is impeded or prevented by a resident not knowing the door numbers of all the possible sources of a water leak in any of up to 16 apartments on 16 floors of a 17 floor apartment building that something is wrong. When the Fay in repairs dept tell a caller they can't send someone out unless the caller knows the door number or numbers for flats above to which the repair person might have to visit then heads in the Repairs Dept who devised and implemented that system seriously need knocking together.
Fay literally said "unless you can give me the door number for the flat above I can not process the repair request". She said she could not use my address as the problem was not located here. She explained that they did not have the information on hand that she was asking me to provide. If the information about their own properties is essential why on earth don't they have it?
And if they don't have it available why could Fay not refer to a line manager to authorise the repair on a discretionary basis and sidestep an element in the system?
Astounding mindlessness... So here we have yet another issue that we need to resolve as a neighbourhood management board. An essential service hamstrung by mindless bureaucracy.
As a resident and a housing management board member I am determined that the Emergency Repairs "Service" sort its act out and deals with this type of situation in a smarter way in future. To do that I have chosen to publicise this issue along side the other issues on this website.
Never Again....
The St Peters Neighbourhood Management Board will ensure that Leicester City Council Repairs Service in future equips itself properly with the information it requires and is reasonably expected to have in order to provide the service it is expected to deliver. You can follow our progress in achieving this in the "Action and response obtained" section below."
I have a distinct feeling that no other resident in these apartment buildings will ever again be asked to provide Fay with information she ought have at hand as standard to do the job she is required to do. That is precisely the service level we expect and pay our rent and council tax for.
Article Written by Mel
Photography by Mel
Date Written April 13th 2007
Date Modified April 15th 2007
Have a view or comment on this article? Then we would like to hear from you ... especially if your are a
- Local Government Councilor or politician able to influence decision making liable to bring about a resolution of this issue.
- Local Authority Manager or director of services
- A local authority employee somehow connected to the delivery of services involved here.
- A resident of St Peters concerned with the issues reported in this article.
Please use our feedback form on this website to reply.
You can help us in the following ways on this issue.
- When your politicians and elected officials come a calling cap in hand at election time... which as sure as night follows day they certainly will... then mention this issue to them and ask them what they did to try to resolve it.
- Contact our local councilor about it.
- Contact our local member of parliament.
- Email the Housing Manager Paresh Chandarana at paresh3@stpetersnm.com
- Tell your neighbours about this article on this website.
We have contacted Head of repairs at leicester city council and have sent them the link to this issue page so they can see their is an issue that needs dealing with in that department.
We have invited head of repairs to inform us when the call handling staff in repairs have been provided with the address information that "Fay" requested us to provide her with.
We have requested them to ensure that on an emergency repair such as this one where water is pouring down through their building that no administrative impediment stops or delays investigation and resolution in future.
As a result of communications on this issue we have been informed the following action has been taken or will be taken to resolve this matter.
We have available to us a wide selection of options and choices to escalate pressure and action to bring about resolution of this issue.
Our future plans include media and publicity events involving local and national press as well as broadcast media. Also we have open to us a range of web search engine publicity using carefully selected keyword in conjunction with "Leicester City Council" or the name of some other agency or body who is in someway falling somewhat short of expectations.
Additional steps will see contact on this issue with elected officials.
On this issue we also plan the following activities...
- Bringing it up at next board meeting.
St Peters Neighbourhood Management Board have issued the following press releases and statements on this issue.
Updates will be posted here on this site as they arise so check back often.
If you require further information or wish to organise a broadcast interview with a representative of the St Peters Management Board you should email us through our media and communications address. communications@stpetersnm.com
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Have you ever experienced brain numbing mindless adherence to red tape that prevented you obtaining the services you have paid for and expect from leicester city council?