News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Labour appalled at the state of the Warwick Estate communal areas

Westbourne Ward’s three Labour Councillors – David Boothroyd, Rupert D’Cruz and Papya Qureshi – have joined Karen Buck MP to complain about the state of the communal areas in Wilmcote and Princethorpe Houses on the Warwick Estate.

Following a ‘walk about’ on the estate last Saturday the Labour Councillors and Karen Buck MP say that they were utterly appalled by the state the communal areas were in.

Karen Buck MP explained:

“The stairwells in Wilmcote House are covered in graffiti; paint is peeling and flaking from the walls and ceiling and on many corridors there are stains that in some places look like blood. What is most upsetting for me is that I complained specifically about these conditions in 2006 and pointed out that nothing had been done in response to complaints from the year before. Amazingly, some of the marks and stains are still there, another year later.”

Princethorpe House was not in as bad a state as Wilmcote, but there were a number of similar problems. For example, the window outside the rubbish chute was broken when the scaffolding was up, but, despite one resident complaining for two months, the scaffolding was taken down without it being repaired. There has also obviously been no deep clean of the communal areas for years.

Westbourne Labour Councillor Papya Qureshi added:

“Although exterior works have been done to the 6 tower blocks on the Warwick Estate the interior communual areas, especially Wilmcote House, are in an awful state. No resident should have to live in such conditions when service charges are increasing. We were given reassurances last year that it would be cleaned up yet disappointingly nothing was done. CityWest really need to get on top of this instead of fobbing residents and elected representatives off.”

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