A few days ago, we put up this piece about a report into the situation with Thurrock Council’s housing repairs: Thurrock Council trying to squirm out of their responsibility for dire housing conditions. The housing overview and scrutiny committee met on Tuesday 22 June to discuss the report. This is how the meeting was covered by Thurrock Nub News: “We ought to be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves as landlords” – damning indictment of Thurrock Council over damp and mould from councillors at housing meeting.

There are plenty of comments in the Thurrock Nub News piece from Cllr. Joy Redsell (Con), the ward councillor for Little Thurrock Blackshots, which were based on her own experience in assisting residents in the tower blocks at Blackshots. Let’s just say she’s pretty scathing about the report!

These are just a couple of the comments she made:

“We have got a woman in there who has lost a baby and there is another young baby in there with water actually running down the wall.

“I have been in there, we have people in there where these is water running down the walls and nobody is doing anything about it.”

And this is what she thinks should eventually happen to the blocks at Blackshots:

“The three blocks in Blackshots just need to come down.

“I’m sorry. We say we are going to do work outside but that’s a waste of money. We need to take those blocks down.”

“We have the land, we have the place to make it better for people. We shouldn’t really have high rise any more. We shouldn’t be putting people in high rise any more, it’s just something that shouldn’t happen.”

Blimey!! That’s refreshingly honest from any councillor, particularly from a Tory ruling group councillor. Whatever, we may think about the Tory party, it’s always welcome when a Tory councillor puts the interests of the residents they represent above any pressure for the council to present a unified front on a contentious issue. Maybe, just maybe this heralds a move towards ruling group councillors seriously holding council officers to account. We’ll be watching this one with interest…