Council tenants in Barton Hill, who have been complaining about noisy pipes that are keeping them up at night, leaks, periods without heating and hot water, mould, damp, and cracked windows have now been told they will have new bathrooms fitted in their entire block as part of a £12.5 million council 'Bathroom Programme'.
The Corbett House residents held a meeting with mayor Marvin Rees and the council officers back in 2020 but one tenant in the tower block said she had been complaining for 12 years. After being promised investment in the block that did not materialise, ACORN members living in the tower block led a protest on Temple Street and handed in a petition, demanding ‘Dignity for Corbett house'.
The council said at the time that £3 million had been allocated to refurbish the block, with the work to begin in April 2022. However, the issues of leaks had gotten so bad in the block that one 79-year-old resident had to use an umbrella to go to the toilet and the refurbishment plans did not address these issues.
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Deqa Ahmed’s bathroom leak was repaired in February but the leak returned after 6 days. She told Bristol Live at the time that she was worried about getting an electric shock due to the light bulb being full of water.
In April, ACORN submitted a petition to the cabinet member for housing, councillor Tom Renhard, demanding the council give ‘Dignity for Corbett House’. The council confirmed in July that the bathrooms in the block will be refurbished, with the contract expected to be in place by autumn this year.
A spokesperson for ACORN said: “Back in January this year one of our organisers and several of our members living in Corbett House, Barton Hill, started knocking on doors in the block. They quickly found that many of their neighbours had also been facing regular leaks into the bathrooms and store cupboards, turning their lives upside down and damaging their personal belongings.
“One 79-year-old woman in the block had for months been forced to use an umbrella to go to the toilet, so bad were the leaks above her toilet! This and the many other issues people faced had been reported to the council but, despite big promises, little had been done.
“As more residents joined up as members of ACORN, more doors were knocked, and they decided to hold a meeting for everyone in the block to discuss the common problems they faced and what action they could take. They got the kids together to make placards and marched down to the council offices to demand a face to face meeting with the head of housing to present him with their letter of demands.
“In the next few weeks a petition demanding ‘Dignity for Corbett House’ was collected and signed by a majority of households in the block and delivered to the Council’s political head of housing who promised to look into the issues at hand and enter discussions. After some short negotiations the council have now just agreed to replace all the bathrooms in the block.
“This big win for Corbett House and for ACORN Bristol was made possible by the power of people banding together and taking collective action.”
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “A £12.5 million investment in the Bathroom Programme has been secured by Councillor Tom Renhard as part of the council’s Housing Investment Plan agreed in February. This programme will include a co-design approach where planners will work with residents of Corbett House and other housing blocks to ensure designs meet the needs of almost 5,000 households who will benefit from this investment.
"We expect the contract for Corbett House to be in place this autumn with the first bathrooms being installed in the first few months of 2023. In the meantime, any repairs required to bathrooms will be carried out by our Response Repairs service and tenants are urged to contact the team if needed.”
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