Would you go to the papers? (LONG READ!)

[little*red]

Hey girls

Sorry this is soooooo long!
Some of you ladies may remember from before that my OH and I are having a lot of problems with our council and trying to get re-housed.
Basically we live in a sh*tty 1 bedroom flat in a Multi-storey building ( you know with about 300 other people) and we are constantly experienceing what they call 'Anti-social behaviour'. Basically we are living with people constantly blaring loud music, teenagers hanging around in our tiny hall, constant domestic arguements, people throwing dirty nappies/food/rubbish etc out their windows, i guess maybe the things you should expect when you live with the assh*les of the earth around you. My OH has been verbally abused not only by our neighbours but also by a concierge/caretaker (a council employee) who after we had our door booted in told my OH that he would ' Punch him in the f*cking face' if he continued to 'hassle' him (i.e make him do his job). This is basically just a snippet of the kind of things we have had to put up with since April 2006.

As i am pregnant we have to apply for a 2 bedroom house, but as we are classed as approriately housed we have to wait until the baby is born so we can get points for 'overcrowding', but basically got told we would have to live here until the baby is 1 year old.

So since august 2006 we have been meeting with our local Labour MP (counciller)Mrs Shimi to try and get what they call a 'management move' i.e a priority over being moved house due to this anti-social behaviour. we did get offered a house back in october but it was worse than where we are and also in an area where we said we didnt want to live (its an extremely rough part of Dundee). So basically we were told we were going to get offered somewhere 'decent' and that our case was being dealt with by the director of housing (the highest person in charge of housing). We have been promised from mrs shimi that we would get a meeting with this Director (that was two months ago) . I went to see the counciller 2 weeks ago aand she told me if we still didnt have a meeting withing 2 weeks to let her know and she will get on to it asap. So as today was the 2 weeks up we still hadnt heard anything from this director, we foned up mrs shimi to let her know and all the her PA said to my partner was "what do you want us to do about it?"! And then REFUSED to let my partner meet with the mrs shimi.

The worst thing is that when i left the house yesterday to go pick up my OH from work, i bumped into one of my neighbours and her daughter in the hall, this is basically what they said:
mum: "Yeah we've got a move"
daughter: " oh yeah we've been offered a house haven't we"
mum " yeah I cant wait to get away from here, too many grasses live here!"

The whole point in them having that conversation was to let me know they had got a new house and to try and get a dig at me from getting the police up to their door for all the noise they cause! I mean how low can you get , two grown women trying to intimidate another pregnant woman on her own. It upset me so much i was crying all night, not because the were trying to get at me, but because if feel as if we have gone through so much sh*it and no-one is helping us, whereas scum like that are being offered things on a plate!

These are our neighbours who have caused us this anti-social behaviour and they have been given a move before us, where is the justice in that? The worst bit is that we have to pay full rent and council tax to live there and they pay nothing because they are on benefits, YES we actually have to PAY to live next to them!

So my question is, as the Counciller Shimi is refusing to meet with us and are doing nothing to help us, should we go to the newspapers and tell them how we are being treated. We are the ones who suffer the anti-social behaviour and the scum who cause it are rewarded by being moved! As its coming up for election time a story like this could seriously damage the counciller Shimi's/ dundee councils reputation.
Do you think it would be a wise move to try and get some publicity on this to move this further. The council are playing hard ball with us so should we play just as hard back? or do you think it would cause us more problems than its worth?

sorry for ranting and thanks for reading , any opinions on this would be very much appreciated.

 

[Becks&Riley]

I think you should DEFINATELY go to the papers

 

[Gaby]

I think thats just aweful of them

Honestly tho, i'm not sure the papers would be interested Its not exactly big news, it prob happening to several other families in your area. And i also think that yes, it could cause more trouble than its worth for you. If your neighbours read it, they will more than likely try to make life worse for you.

 

[Gaby]

Jsut an extra thought, you could mention in passing to the council that you'll go to the papers, and if they still do nothing than go to the papers. They may be interested. Depends on how bad things are in your area

 

[little*red]

thanks for your opinions girls.
gaby i didnt really think about our neighbours reading it before i guess that could cause more problems. My OH was going to threaten them (the council) with saying we would go to the papers, so maybe we should just do that and see what there reaction is.
thanks again

 

[Alfiesmummy]

Oh red hunni you are going through it, what i would do is write a letter which you intend to send to the papers with your full story and do TWO copies, one for the papers and one for the councillor, send hers first with a cover letter stating that this is absoloutely not in any way blackmail but after all the promises you have been made and none have been kept you see no alternative route to take and you do not want this to end in the matter going to the newspapers but you have your unborn child to think about and if that is what it takes for things to move along quicker then you will be forced to act, restate that once again this is not blackmail its basically a final plea for help and you are hoping that you wont need to resort to sending the copy of the letter to the newspapers your hoping they do the right thing and cooperate fully and help, otherwise you wont hesitate to take it further as you cant live in these conditions anymore. sorry if im completely wrong on this but that is what i would do. I hope so much it gets sorted hun you do not deserve this

 

[whyslifesobig]

if you are really desperate to move what you have to do is find a fault with your property and "get injured" a quick visit to the A&E and then the council will be so quick to move you that your feet won't touch the ground. Fear of being sued is the only thing to get anything from the council I know

 

[little*red]

thanks Steph
thats a really good idea, and i think it would get the point across to her without her trying to fob us off with more promises. at least that way it might get her ass in to gear to try and stop us smearing her precious reputation.
the problem is she is actually a really nice woman, but there is only so many excuses you can be given before your getting fobbed off so we're prepared to let her know that we arent willing to play nice anymore, we have a baby to think of now.

 

[Alfiesmummy]

your welcome hun I know what you mean shes a nice lady but at the end of the day shes not moving on this and your baby is your priority so screw being nice ma dear be ruthless let them hormones take over (just dont kill the woman red)

 

[tracyM]

If you do go to the papers, be prepared for the council to help you even less. A counciller couldn't be seen to help one individual family more than others, they're there to offer help and advise and change the way things work, not work around how things work (not publicly anyway )

If you're in a 1st floor or above, have no outside drying facilities etc, you'll get extra points for having a baby (overcrowding doesn't count until they are 1). Have they given you a points list? They should give you one and you need to work the system to get a many as possible. Once you've had the baby, your health visitor is a good place for 'social' and 'health' points. Once you've had the baby, is there somebody in another part of town that you'll need to rely on for support - that could give you points for a move to a different area. A lot of the points you can get in this way are at the discretion of the council, so it's a bad idea to get their backs up.

 

[little*red]

tracy we have no points at all just now, and when the baby comes the max we can get is about 40!
however the whole point of this 'managment move' is so we can get moved even without any points as the anti-social behaviour is so severe. the point you made about getting the councils backs up is the only thing holding me back from going to the papers, i don't want to jeapordise any progress we have already made by going and annoying them, it feels as though we would be 'biting the hand that feeds us' but we have been made so many promises and they have always been broken, an we are no further along than when we first tried to get moved, they won't even meet with us to discuss our case!

 

[gingerpig]

I have absolutely NO ideas about this sort of thing, but just wanted to say I hope you find a way to get it resolved in your favour really soon

 

[Minime]

Is Mrs Shimi aware you tried to contact her again? I'd try again first and say you have requested to speak to her and as a voter have that right to speak directly to your representative then when you do get through tell her what was said by her assistant.

I work for councils and believe me hun they MOVE when a local councillor or MP is involved. Also go and see your doctor for support as you can get points for stress/depression etc. Bursting into tears is STRESS and obviously not very good in your condition.

IF Mrs Shimi herself refuses to get involved THEN go to the papers but be aware that you are likely to get worse backlash than what you are getting now from your neighbours so think very very carefully before doing this.


Also what action are the council taking over the abuse from their member of staff? All council employees are under a code of conduct, you can get sacked for behaviour OUT of work if it brings the council into disrepute.

Good Luck hun and as I said try to speak to Mrs Shimi again first.

 

[tuck]

I agree with Minime, if you are getting no joy from your councillor try contacting her again and then if nothing go to your MP, next step up in chain. I used to work for a government office and rightly or wrongly a MP letter was dealt with immediately.

Good luck with everything, ps have you got your doctor involved? stress, depression etc, everything helps.

 

[little*red]

thanks minime & tuck,
we couldnt get hold of mrs shimi today as she was at a funeral, but her PA usually passes on the message that we have been in contact.
We've already tried going to the doctors but we were told that we wouldnt get any points for stress .
We don't know what happened to the council worker yet, we have to go for another interview about the incident tomorrow, all we know is that we havent seen the guy work in our building since . thats what bug me even more, the fact that they have managed to arrage for two interviews involving that incident in the last month but havent giving us one interview to discuss the housing situation in 3 months .
we understand that we cant be seen as getting preferential treatment but we are getting a lot of bother living here.
Dont think we will go to the paper as it may be more hassle than its worth , but we are going to see counciller shimi again at her public surgery next monday maybe mention in passing that we could go to the papers with our story, hopefully we should know more by then.

I just like to thank everyone for your comments, hopefully we get it sorted soon and i wont need to bored you all with my rants!

 

[cassi]

im really sorry about this hun, cant offer any advice as the girls have said everything I would have but good luck!