The Post has a report on a chap who had an accident in one of the lifts at a Nottingham City Homes owned block of flats, resulting in 'leg injuries'. I'm hearing that it was actually Victoria Centre flats and that the particular leg injury concerned was 'loss of...' which sounds pretty nasty.
NCH have acted in the only way they know how i.e. they have appointed a consultant.
There is an interesting comment at the bottom of the article and I've got a bit more info on that.
Phrases like 'only a matter of time have been' have been heard to be muttered by people who know about these things. It seems that, prior to the 'workforce reductions' decided last year in order to cut costs (as opposed to those announced THIS year), Nottm City Council employed a Lifts Service. It was these guys' job to look after and inspect the lifts across NCC and NCH (about 1400 in total I'm told) and to commission any repairs needed. However they were deemed surplus to requirements and made redundant. Apparently NCH took on one of the team members who has since been forced to do a convincing impression of the proverbial blue arsed fly with a rocket up its arse.
The workforce reductions were supposed to have been risk assessed for health and safety issues but unfortunately all that, along with any details of the jobs that were lost, was kept confidential so I can't find out any more about it.
The savings achieved were around £80,000. I wonder if the poor chap in hospital thinks it was worth it.
Friday, 14 May 2010
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5 comments:
The Kings Cross Fire was the result of maintenance on a breakdown basis. Result - loss of life. I know that 2 men require 2 hours to fully maintain a 15 floor lift. Vic. Centre, 1 man was given 40 minutes to service a 27 floor lift. A physical impossibility to carry out a comprenhensive service.We don't have our Car brakes checked"after"an Accident, we have them serviced regularly, in order to prevent accidents.
I hope the guys solicitors find this info out, I bet there are some Heads of Service quaking now. So much for savings and redundant front line services, which if I remember, Graham Chapman said he had read every job description of the proposed redundancies at the time and there were no front line services to be made redundant. Good old Graham.
I doubt that lift maintenance would be classed as 'front line' but there's the rub.
It's very easy to say "no front line cuts" but it isn't necessarily true that only 'front line' equals 'vital'.
I disagree, lift maintenance might not be a front line service but surely the Lift Services Section within the Authority was. They were not only responsible for the safety and initiating statutory testing of 1400 lifts but they were the first contact point for 800 disabled tenants who had stairlifts installed in their council houses. These tenants need immediate action and I would have thought that the Lift Services Section in being the only point of call would be therefore classed as a frontline service.
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