Concerns over lift maintenance prompt scrutiny of ‘inefficient’ council communication

Councillors are to scrutinise how the Town Hall maintains its lifts and makes repairs in its residential housing stock, following concerns raised around the borough’s response to vulnerable residents when a lift has broken down.

The Citizen reported in February on the continuing “deep concerns” of residents at the 355 Queensbridge Road tower block, where the Town Hall launched an investigation last October into the death of a resident following a challenge over the unreliability of the lifts.

A report to be considered next week by councillors admits that the current emphasis on letters to inform people on updates on lift breakdowns is “inefficient”. The council is now considering the use of mass texts and emails in such situations.

The report reads: “Lift availability usually runs at about 97-98 per cent though this has dipped somewhat in recent months to about 95-96 per cent. This dip is related to the reduction in the servicing regime due to Covid restrictions earlier in the year.

“This was manageable for a time, but as months wore on there was an apparent accumulation of issues due to the reduced servicing which is now showing as reduced lift availability.

“Nonetheless the overall availability is high, but obviously lifts being such a critical service to many residents, there is very little margin for tolerance of this anything but the highest standards of performance.”

Residents at 355 Queensbridge, which has its own sprinkler system due to the high number of elderly occupants, have been calling for an action plan to address lift issues in their block.

These include residents getting trapped inside, workmen congregating near the system, elevating the risk of Covid-19 and making it more difficult for healthcare professionals to access the block.

Some of the people living there claim to have waited four years for a history log of lift breakdowns.

The council admits in its report that a “challenge” in relying on letters is getting up-to-date and accurate information to residents, with the onus currently on the lift company to carry out the lion’s share of communications.

The report adds: “In future, it would probably be better for the council to take full ownership of communicating to residents, but officers will need accurate information to do so. Officers are therefore working across the relevant teams to put in a robust, sustainable system so that information flows freely and to the right person in a timely manner.”

Following the investigation into the death of the 355 Queensbridge resident, the Town Hall said that legal requirements relating to lift management and disrepair reporting had been followed, but conceded it had been “unacceptable” for both lifts to be out of service at the same time.

According to the report, the Town Hall is now in the process of developing a “complete understanding” of which buildings have multiple lifts and the permutations in which they are available, in order to understand better the impact of a specific lift outage.