Dozens of Thurrock Council homes miss out on vital safety checks

DOZENS of homes in Thurrock were left without vital safety checks because of blunders by Thurrock Council staff – but the buck has now stopped with a top official who is pledging a new regime.

The Thurrock Gazette has discovered that over a number years, in the most extreme instance going back eight years on one property, gas safety checks were not carried out on homes owned by the Council.

The Council has conceded that lives were possibly endangered by its lack of efficiency in monitoring the tests which are a legal requirement on all rented homes supplied with a gas heating system.

However, Corporate Director for Community Well Being Lorna Payne, says that the Council has acted to get its house in order and the authority now has one of the best safety systems in the country.

In addition, a deep-rooted inquiry has been launched into how the failures occurred and systems have been put in place to ensure the problem is never repeated.

The Gazette believes disciplinary action could follow, including dismissal of staff, but Ms Payne was unable to comment on this issue because of internal procedures.

Thurrock Council has 9,186 residential properties with gas installations and Ms Payne confirmed that over several years many of them were not checked.

Figures show that at any given time as many as 124 homes were left unchecked, though she conceded that inadequate administrative procedures meant the figure could have been higher.

“There were not proper measures in place.

"Administrative procedures which should have been simple were not followed and if you had asked me the question about numbers a year ago, I would not have been able to tell you,” she said.

“But we have got on top of this now. There has been major overhaul of our systems and we are aware of precisely what the situation is - that is that 99 per cent of our properties have a valid certificate.

“In addition, we have instituted a new system whereby we begin the administrative work on any given check on a property two months before the certificate runs out, ensuring we have enough time to comply with the law in all reasonable circumstances.”

Thurrock’s lead councillor for housing, £15,822.14 a year Tunde Ojetola,who happens to own several properties in Thurrock, said: “Usually such a thorough overhaul of the system is only carried out following an incident, or God forbid, a tragedy. Thankfully that is not the case here.

“It came to light earlier this year that the Council needed a more rigorous approach to carrying out gas safety servicing and this is now in place.

“Tenants should be aware that we need to access their property in order to carry out this inspection – it needs the support and co-operation of them.”

Labour group leader and £15,822.14 a year councillor John Kent said: “Thurrock Council has responsibilities as a landlord. The most important of those responsibilities is to ensure the safety of its tenants.

“It is now clear that safety has been ignored. I am relieved that the situation does now appear to have been resolved, but that does not lessen the horror of what might have happened - nor does it absolve those responsible of any blame.

“There are also a number of questions still to be answered. Just how was this allowed to happen?

“Exactly how many properties were involved and what were Housing portfolio holders doing during all this?”