'Angry', 'stressed' and 'stuck' residents demand council house provider fixes major problem at Northampton flat block

Residents in a busy block of flats in Northampton say they are ‘angry’, ‘stressed’ and ‘stuck’ after the council’s housing provider has failed to fix their lifts.

Semilong residents living in Alliston Gardens are demanding that West Northants Council’s (WNC) housing provider, Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH), fix the broken lifts in their flat block.

The two lifts – which help single mothers, sick pensioners and large families with young children across 41 flats get in and out of their homes – have been intermittently broken for years.

At the time of writing (Tuesday, March 21), the lifts have been out of order for three months, say residents.

Chron and Echo went down to speak to residents on Tuesday (March 21) – here’s what they said.

Mother Shauna Craven has been living in the flats for four years, she was forced to use the stairs when she was going into labour with her new born daughter three months ago.

The 21-year-old said: “At 4am that morning I made my way to the hospital in which I had to go down the stairs during my contractions, it took me 45 minutes to get in the car to go to the hospital. Coming back up it took me about an hour. I ended up having an emergency C-section and when I came home the next day I had to come up five flights of stairs carrying my daughter.

“I’ve had to cancel doctor and hospital appointments because I can’t physically get to them without help getting up and down the stairs carrying all of her bits.

"Shopping has been difficult – it’s been months since we’ve done a proper shop.

"I’ve had enough. It’s bloody awful. It’s been the same the last four years – the lifts break and nobody cares.

"NPH needs to put completely new lifts in or rehouse everybody, because it’s not on. They don’t care about the vulnerable people who can’t get out, about me and my new born baby’s appointments.

"It really is so draining just to live here.”

Jo Fox, who has lung disease, lives on the fourth floor with her 72-year-old husband, Seamus, who doctors believe may have onset dementia.

The 63-year-old said: “We have to have lifts here. There are four or five people in this building who can’t actually walk, so they can’t get out.

“No supermarkets will bring food up to the fifth floors because of health and safety. It’s a bloody nightmare. If you want to get out you can’t.

"Doctors think my husband has onset dementia but we can’t book an appointment because we can’t get him down the stairs. It’s been like this for months.

“NPH keep saying they’re going to fix them but we’ve been waiting nearly 14 weeks. I’ve had enough. In two years these lifts have been more out of order than in order.

"I’m a tough girl but I do get stressed. As I’m getting older I’m getting more upset. I’m angry. I need to go shopping. I can get down the stairs but I have trouble getting up. It feels like we’re in lockdown.”

Naima Osman, who has been living in a two-bedroom flat with her husband and five young children for 11 years, says she feels like NPH ‘does not care’.

The 37-year-old said: “I live on the fifth floor. I have five children, two of them have asthma. I have to carry them all the way down, with the pushchair and the shopping. Everything is very difficult for us.

"We call the council and they don’t care for us. It’s so stressful. Every morning my youngster cries before nursery, he says ‘Mummy, my feet are hurting, I can’t do this’. They ask when they come home from school, ‘mummy is the lift fixed?’ because they are tired.

"The lift is the worst thing that has happened to us in the last three months. When we have a lift we are fine because we can get up and down but without it, we are stuck.”

NPH response

Gary Duckmanton, NPH’s Director of Property Maintenance and Compliance, said: “The welfare of our residents is extremely important to us and we apologise for the delay in getting lifts at Alliston Gardens back into service.

“As soon as we were made aware of the issues, engineers carried out their inspections and ordered the required parts. However, due to a global delay with these specialist components beyond our control, the parts were not immediately available and had to be manufactured specifically. It has meant the repairs have taken longer than usual.

“In addition, engineers have today identified that the lift brought back into service last week now needs another part, so it’s temporarily out-of-order - this is set to be fixed by the middle of next week. The second lift should also be back in operation at the same time.

“In the meantime, our housing officers will remain in close contact with residents and will continue to offer support wherever it’s needed.”