Have you noticed that Disabled people are always the ones getting kicked in the teeth? Whether we’re being ignored, failed or attacked, we’re so often in the line of fire.
Take the report in the Ham and High on 24th April 2024 entitled: “Shoddy bathrooms force six households from Haverstock flats.”
The six families, all with disabled members, were forced to abandon their brand new and accessible ground floor flats in Anthony Grey Court in Maitland Park in September after severe mould and leakage problems were found in their bathrooms.
One tenant reported that five days after she had moved in, her toilet collapsed and the floor tiles in the bathroom cracked. She also spotted black mould travelling up the walls.
It is surprising that officers failed to notice the damp before they signed off on the block, built for the Council by construction company Bouygues.
Bouygues will have to pay for the repairs, but the six temporarily evicted disabled people and their relatives will get nothing more than an apology for their pains.
At least they got rehoused on a temporary basis, unlike those whose tents and possessions were thrown into a dust cart by the Council, or so far as I can find out.
Meanwhile, the Tory government has just announced that they are going to review Personal Independence Payments, in other words cut them.
Contrast this with Sunak’s commitment to maintain pension levels even though a proportion of pensioners are well off, though of course some are not and some are Disabled and nearly all will become Disabled at some point.
As I have pointed out in other think-pieces on this site, Disabled people need to be more assertive to uphold our legal rights.
Back in February, a group of Camden Disability Action members visited the newly refurbished Town Hall, along with council staff and coucillors from the Disability Oversight Panel. Afterwards we produced a report on the access issues which cause problems for people with disabilities.
Yet so far as I am aware, nothing has been done. It is the common practice of most officers and many councillors not to reply to our reports and emails.
We can then either give up and stop raising our valid concerns or, we can fight on and publicise stories about what is tantamount to institutionalised disability discrimination.
Examples of what we can do are: letters to the local press, comments in social media and deputations to Council meetings. CDA has a vital role to play here and could begin by forming a financed campaign Group.
