A mum living in a housing block by Shepherd’s Bush Westfield has spoken of her terror after a lift she was in fell two floors and the doors initially refused to open.
Eve, who did not want to give her surname, said she thought she was ‘going to die’ when the lift dropped, and that it has left her feeling fearful of using it in the future.
“I fear for myself and I fear for my kids, and my other family members when they visit me and they have to enter those lifts,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). David Lewis, Executive Group Director, Property Services at L&Q, which manages the building, said they will continue to monitor the situation ‘to ensure that the lift operates correctly’.
Newall Court was built as part of the Westfield development project. The LDRS first visited in February, where we were introduced to a range of issues residents reported facing.
These included flooding, antisocial behaviour and malfunctioning lifts, despite the block only being around six years old. “People defecating in the hallway, in the staircase, people having sex in the staircase, people taking drugs,” Eve said at the time. “We’ve had homeless people squatting in the building.”
Mr Lewis told the LDRS that L&Q was working with lift contractors to fix the communal lifts, and that an engineer had been on-site to progress repairs. Eve has since said that while the broken lift was repaired, it began malfunctioning again fairly promptly.
She added that, in the second week of March, she was taking the lift when it suddenly dropped two floors. The doors then refused to open before the lift began working again and took her to her floor. “I was terrified, I thought I was going to die,” she said.
Eve, who has lived in Newall Court since 2019, said this was the first time one of the lifts had fallen while she was in it though that the experience has left her shaken. Eve added: “My daughter has asthma. It’s a lot of stress for her going up stairs when the lifts are broken down but she’s forced to do it because she’s terrified of going in those lifts and something happens.
“So I live in constant fear. I fear for myself and I fear for my kids, and my other family members when they visit me and they have to enter those lifts. This building is really unsafe, and I truly think that L&Q aren’t going to take proper action until something really really bad happens to someone or more than one person.”
Expanding on her lack of confidence in L&Q, Eve said: “I don’t have any faith in them. I don’t believe they are going to do anything that is of substance. I think what they’ll do, what they’ll continue to do, is little cover-up jobs and just hope that it goes away.”
Another Newall Court resident the LDRS met in February, Mandy Goggin, 34, said she is also awaiting works by L&Q. An improvement notice issued to the block’s landlord, White City Investments, by the local council, Hammersmith and Fulham, seen by the LDRS, had instructed repairs to begin on her home by April 1 fixing damage caused by a burst sprinkler.
However, this has yet to happen, with Ms Goggin and her four children continuing to live in a home suffering from mould and water damage. The notice stipulated the works must be complete by April 15.
Ms Goggin said: “I’m the one living here with my kids who, it’s impacting their health, it’s impacting my health. It’s just too much now.” She added she has yet to hear anything from L&Q nor has she been offered alternative housing or what she believes to be sufficient support given the worsening condition of her home.
“I’ve not been offered nothing,” Ms Goggin said. “I’ve just been left here for nine months now. I could have grown an entire child in the time it’s taken them to do anything.”
In response to the concerns raised by Eve and Ms Goggin, Mr Lewis said: “We are sorry for the reliability issues residents are experiencing with the lift at Newall Court, and for any inconvenience caused. Residents’ safety and well-being is our top priority, and I want to reassure those living at Newall Court that the lift has two fail-safe devices to prevent it from falling. The lift is also serviced and maintained on a monthly basis, and has a full annual safety inspection, the most recent of which was carried out at the end of last month. We will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure that the lift operates correctly.
“We are also sorry for the unacceptable delay to repairs at Ms Goggin’s home. A programme of the work required has now been agreed, and Ms Goggin will be contacted in the next few days to discuss a start date for the repairs to be carried out so we can put things right as soon as possible.”
