Tag Archives: 44 Richmond Terrace

HOW HOOPER’S DUMPED OUR VULNERABLE IN THE SHIT

Leave a reply

As the council threatens to evict the occupiers of 44 Richmond Terrace – including homeless ex-serviceman Anthony Palmer and his 18 month son – perhaps now is the time to reveal the conditions Bristol City Council Housing Director, Nick “Drooper” Hooper on £90k a year expects the city’s vulnerable to live in.

The photo below shows the basement of the North Street hostel that the council is paying slum landlords Connolly & Callaghan £260 a week to house Anthony Palmer and his 18 month old son in. And yes, that’s raw sewage in the basement of the building, which is directly beneath the hostel’s main kitchen.

sewage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second photo shows a bodged attempt by cowboy builders to join two buildings together. You can actually put your hand through the wall and into the kitchen of the hostel! Health and safety? Warmth and security? Not for this city’s vulnerable, not on Hooper’s watch.

Joining two hostels together

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All this raises the question: who’s getting the backhanders to house our vulnerable and homeless in these shithouse conditions?

ANTHONY PALMER UPDATE: COUNCIL IN THE SHIT?

Leave a reply

Anthony Palmer and his 18 month old son have been dumped by Bristol City Council in a revolting, cockroach infested hostel run by a notorious local slum landlord firm, Connolly & Callaghan.

Since 20 April Anthony and his son have been supporting the occupation of 44 Richmond Terrace, Avonmouth – the former council home sold by Mayor No More to a private investor – while campaigners draw attention to his plight.

Here’s the latest communication to Bristol City Council housing boss Nick “Drooper” Hooper to update you about what’s going on (or not).

Look out for our photos of raw sewage washing around a city council funded hostel coming soon …

On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 9:50 AM, steven norman <s-norman123@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Dear Mr Hooper,

Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted. I attach for your reference the requested updated signed Form Of Authorisation.

There have been a number of developments since my last correspondence, which have left me somewhat perplexed and I feel it appropriate that I bring these to your attention in order that you can address all matters together.

At the meeting I attended with Anthony, Linda Tasker offered a hostel in Southmead – Windermere – as an alternative to the current hostel and informed Mr Palmer he could be put on the list for a place.

Not the ideal solution but a move in the right direction. I have since been informed by Mr Palmer that this offer has been withdrawn as an option because there has to be three people to reside there. f

Firstly why was this offered in the first place if that is the criteria? Surely the housing officer should know the criteria? Secondly, I have concerns as to whether or not this is the true reason. Only I have a very good friend who is a single man and was housed in Windermere prior to being housed at Antona Court. That person being a Mr Donald Baker.

Mr Palmer then received either a telephone call or visit from Lynette Benjamin where I believe he was told he was being moved to Trinity Hostel, Montpelier. A move Mr Palmer was not prepared to accept as it was a shared bathing situation and – with due respect – not much better than what he has now.

He was then informed his refusal could affect his housing application. Will you please clarify if it is now a case of bullying tactics by your department? As it seems Ms Benjamin raised some concern over the length of time Anthony had been in the hostel at Bedminster.

I assume your department was hoping it would then be able to start the length of time Anthony and his son have been in hostel afresh? Which, I believe – according to BCC Policy – is no longer than 4 Months. Mr Palmer is now entering his sixth month in hostel.

I have in my possession a number of photographs which I will shortly be releasing to the press including one that shows raw sewage spilling on to a floor of the North Street hostel just below the kitchen and living area. A further one shows an attempt to join two buildings together where you can put your hand through the wall into the kitchen of the hostel.

I can only reiterate my position. Would you be happy for your son or grandson or any other member of your family to live in such a place and why are we rewarding such hostels with substantial sums of tax payers money?

I look forward to your email addressing all things raised to date

Yours Sincerely

Mr Stephen Norman

07747490902

A LETTER TO THE HOUSING BOSS:

Leave a reply

An open invitation for Bristol City Council housing boss, Nick “DROOPER” Hooper to confirm in writing that he’s happy at the conditions Anthony Palmer and his son are currently living in.

Also an invitation to Drooper to identify the non-existent bits of housing law his department are quoting:

From: steven norman <s-norman123@hotmail.co.uk>
Sent: 30 April 2016 10:59
To: Nick Hooper
Subject: Re: POLITICAL OCCUPATION 44 RICHMOND TERRACE AVONMOUTH

Dear Mr Hooper,

 

Thank you for your email and the information you have provided. It has been noted and passed on to our legal representative. On Thursday the 28th April  I attended a meeting with Mr Palmer.

Present at that meeting were Mr Palmer’s Social Worker, Health Visitor and a lady from the housing department (Housing Support Worker), who I have to say I felt rather sorry for as she was clearly the messenger of nothing new. I assume this is the contact to which you refer in your email?

I would now like to deal with what I was able to ascertain from that meeting. The support worker mentioned a move to another hostel called Windermere in Southmead which would bring Anthony closer to his support network and also give him a front room bedroom & kitchen.

At this point it looked like there was a glimmer of hope of a move in the right direction. Only to be told in the next breath there were no current vacancies but we will put you on the list!

When challenged over the waiting period he could expect to wait, it became a case of how long is a piece of string? So nothing substantial was being offered other than ifs, buts and maybes, which seems to be how your department is run these days.

There are three factors that concern me a great deal. Firstly, the child has a serious health problem with eczema that requires him to be bathed in emollients. Something that Mr Palmer is unable to do. He is currently sitting him in the shower tray, having to hold the shower head as one minute it goes from warm to a temperature that could scold the child. Secondly, the development of the child is being held back as stated by both the social worker and health visitor.

Thirdly, the preferences for ex-servicemen that automatically takes Mr Palmer up a band from band 2 to band 1: I noted with interest the comments made by the housing support officer where she stated that this did not apply because Mr Palmer had left the Army some 7 yrs ago and that Bristol City Council had set the criteria for this at 5 yrs.

I challenged this and I was informed this was set down in the Housing Acts (1996) and the (2012) amendments by government allowing local authorities to set there own criteria and length of time between discharge.

To this end I have been unable to locate such a clause within the Acts. Can you please advise as to what section of the Acts covers this statement for my reference?

Unfortunately I have come across statements like this in the past within Bristol City Council only to find it is a bit of a Peter Pan world or wishful thinking on the part of Bristol City Council. I usually find a quick Legal Action remedies such statements before we even get to issuing court proceedings.

A synopsis of where Mr Palmer currently stands is as follows:

1) If, but and maybe in terms of another hostel.

2) Bristol City Council feel they have no Statutory or Legal Duty in terms of his son’s health problems and how they are exasperated by his current  housing condition

3) Bristol City Council feels it is okay to ignore the advice of another organisation involved with his and his child’s welfare

4) A possible Peter Pan World in terms of him being put in the correct banding

Now without wishing to sound facetious, I think it only needs me to ask when you will be placing a member of yours or Mr Ferguson’s family in to such conditions?

Certain people within society of certain political persuasions would like to push the great unwashed back in to the squalor of the 1800s living with rats and cockroaches while they get rich off the selling of council houses.

Will you and your department please confirm in writing that you are happy at the conditions Mr Palmer and his son are currently living in?

I look forward to your immediate reply

Yours Sincerely

Mr Stephen Norman

Local Independent Candidate Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston Ward

44 RICHMOND TERRACE, AVONMOUTH – YOUR MOVE MARV

Leave a reply

Richmond Terrace-largeIt’s becoming increasingly apparent that Steve Norman, John Langley and all the other political occupants of 44 Richmond Terrace, Avonmouth – the family council home sold last week for £140k to a private bidder – will not be evicted from this house prior to the mayoral election on May 5.

This means the problem will fall firmly in the lap of the new mayor, likely to be Labour’s Marvin Rees. What will he do?

Having condemned the sale of these perfectly adequate homes to private interests, will Marvin execute a typical politician’s u-turn and rubberstamp, regardless, the eviction of a homeless former-serviceman and his 18 month old son badly let down by the council’s homeless service, housing service and social services?

And let’s be clear here. Any eviction will involve the highly visible use of force and thuggery to remove this vulnerable homeless ex-serviceman and his child from the empty home.

Will Marvin resort to force to return Anthony Palmer and his son Kai to a revolting Southville doss house favoured by Nick “Drooper” Hooper’s housing department at a cost to us of £300 a week? Or will Marvin do the decent thing and sort this mess out properly?

This will be a very early test for Marvin. He can rest assured the city will be watching and first impressions are everything aren’t they?

SELL-OFF!

3 Replies

SELL OFF webThe only people who don’t seem to have noticed there’s a MAJOR HOUSING CRISIS in Bristol are the bosses at the council’s wretched Housing Department and our city councillors.

44 RICHMOND TERRACE in Avonmouth has been a council house for years. Or at least it was until about six months ago when the family occupying this tidy little terraced home were MOVED OUT by the council and builders sent in to renovate it.

The work on the house – at council taxpayers expense – is now complete and so a family in need of council house can move back in, right?

Wrong! The council has now put the property ON THE MARKET for sale by auction because they’ve decided – in the middle of a council housing shortage – it’s SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS!

44 Richmond Terrace is just one of 15 COUNCIL HOMES we know about that’s recently been renovated at OUR EXPENSE and which will be sold on to property developers or someone wealthy at an auction later this month.

Because it’s unlikely anyone other than property developers or investors will get a look-in as properties sold at auction require FULL PAYMENT within a month, a process that massively favours cash buyers.

This all raises two questions. First, why are the council selling homes they could use to house local families in DESPERATE NEED? Second, if they intend to sell the houses, why have they FORKED OUT OUR MONEY to renovate them first? Couldn’t they just flog them as is?

Why the hell are large numbers of Bristol City Council properties that could have housed the poor and the vulnerable being sold off to the wealthy? Who agreed to this?

 

HOW HOYTY GOT A HOME

Cuddly GusYou may recall the council ran a similar house selling scam at COBOURG ROAD in Montpelier in 2013 when the local Green Councillor, SIR GUS HOYTY TOYTY, bagged himself a cheap council home, conveniently situated next door to where he was already living!

On that occasion the Housing Department contacted the local councillor, Sir Gus, to inform him of the sale, which he could have OPPOSED. However, he allegedly FAILED TO READ the email telling him about the sell-off and went on to claim he had been unaware the house was a former council property until he had put in a successful bid for it!

Do the local councillors know about this latest round of council house sell-offs and have they done nothing? And who’ll be the lucky recipients of the cheap housing this time around?