Another day without hot water and heating due to failure of all three boilers.
This is the 6th day without hot water and heating during the last four weeks.
Read the updates below:
UPDATES
On 04-01-2011, a resident has sent the following e-mail:
Dear Mr Stow and Mr Michael,
This morning I woke to a cold flat and no hot water to wash before I have to leave my flat to go to work. This is now the 6th day within the last four weeks that the boiler has failed.
It is evident that the hot water system in the Curnock estate is failing, and any work that you carry out is no more effective than sticking on a plaster.
Also the rattling noise that I have been complaining about since the 29th December did not bother me last night, implying that this noise is coming from the boiler room…….when the system is providing hot water. However this morning there is also now a repetitive “squeaking” noise which I thought may be an alarm coming from outside, but now think that it may also be coming from the boiler room (possibly the gas alarm?) I am wondering how safe it is to live above the boiler room?
I have already reported this to the emergency repairs team (Mr Abdul Ali) at 6 am and he told me that the problems had been reported to the Council by other tenants some hours previously.
This situation cannot continue. What are you going to do? Will residents be receiving compensation for loss in service?
On 04-01-2011 at 08:39 Mr John Stow informed us that:
Dear Resident,
My apologies for the fault with your hw and heating this morning. Engineers will be on site to repair today and I will advise you why the fault occurred.
On the matter of the 6 days the system has failed I will be looking into this, although I will ask that you take into account that the block is having major works to the heating and hw services at present and may have occurred shut downs for modification to take place. These works will make the system more reliable and efficient to you, especially on the hot water side.
I will also ask the contractor to advise me on this squeaking noise that you are hearing and if it is from the boiler hse what needs to be performed to resolve.
Regards a compensation claim, I’m can’t be certain on your total entitlement knowing that the repairs were performed in a given time period i.e. the same day.
Richard and I will be monitoring the site to give a better service and thank you for your patience whilst these works are being carried out.
Regards
John Stow
Mechanical services manager
Telephone: 020 7974 2046
On 04-01-2011 at 08:55am, a resident replied to Mr John Stow:
Dear Mr Stow,
The squeaking noise was the alarm inside the boiler room. I checked that today at 07:00am from outside the boiler room.
The 6 days are the days in which the boilers failed repeatedly and due to gas leaks and other problems due to bad or lack of maintenance. It was not due to major works.
Also please have in mind that the very loud clattering noise that we had from the 29-12-2010 was from the boilers because as soon as the boilers failed again we managed to sleep. Please look at that as well.
At the moment with all the gas leaks and other major faults, I seriously worry for my safety and well being.
Dear Councillors,
I will like to ask all the councillors to read the independent report about the boiler room health and arrange for some improvements that will provide us with the hot water and heating services as well as a quite environment.
On 04-01-2011 at 10:21am, Cllr Roger Robinson sent this e-mail:
TO: Stuart.Dilley@camden.gov.uk, Richard.Michael@camden.gov.uk, Julian.Fulbrook@camden.gov.uk, john.stow@camden.gov.uk
CC: tonybowcut@theapollogroup.co.uk, Peter.Brayshaw@camden.gov.uk, Mike.Cooke@camden.gov.uk, HousingRepairsInbox@camden.gov.uk, etsshiftleader@camden.gov.uk, Vicky.Morris@camden.gov.uk, curnocktra@yahoo.co.uk
For the attention of Cllr Fulbrook and Mike Cooke
This is getting to be a nonsensical farce- the noise is still there – the residents- my constituents- are getting absolutely fed up and frankly this has to be resolved this week without fail, please.
Can you help to get this sorted out…please? I would appreciate it.
Regards
Roger Robinson Cllr
On 04-01-2011 at 10:31am, Cllr Julian Fulbrook sent this e-mail:
Yes, both Mike and I are on to this. Urgent remedial action is underway.
Mike and I will be meeting to talk about it tomorrow morning.
Julian
Julian Fulbrook
Cabinet Member for Housing
Councillor for Holborn & Covent Garden (Labour)
Inquiries to Karen Martins, Executive Assistant, Room 122
Town Hall, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE
Tel: 020 7974 1411
e: karen.martins@camden.gov.uk
www.camden.gov.uk
On 04-01-2011 at 13:15, another resident sent us this e-mail:
Hi,
When I initially spoke with Michael and Stow this morning they categorically told me that the boilers had been working throughout the night. They were adamant about this because the graphs in the boiler room had showed them in the morning that the water had been up to temperature throughout the night.
We subsequently learned from Bowcut that all three boilers had indeed failed during the night. This suggests that either Michael and Stow were not able to read the graphs correctly, or there is a fault in the recordings of the water temperature. You may need Camden to clarify where this fault lays, since it will be more difficult to get problems resolved in the future if there is this kind of mis-information.
Diana later found out for us that the loss in hot water had first been reported to the Council at around 11pm last night (Monday evening). Apparently there were many subsequent calls throughout the night/morning. I think it would be useful to find out the reasons for all 3 boilers failing, and also to find out the actual time when an engineer was called to fix the problem since the hot water/ heating didn’t come back to the flats until after 8am today (when many residents will already have left for work/school).
Michael, Stow, Diana and Bowcut have now all heard the recordings that you have made, and seen your noise diary and agree that the noise is most disturbing and will try their best to resolve.
A faulty radiator valve is also being investigated in the next door neighbour’s flat which has also been causing a noise disturbance. Hopefully this will be replaced today.
Regards
On 05-01-2011 at 06:54am, we forwarded the above e-mail to Mr Michael, Mr Stow and Ms Morris:
Dear All,
I received the following (see above) e-mail from another resident. Please confirm.
On 05-01-2011 at 07:37am, Mr Stow replied with the following e-mail:
Thank you for your email.
Yes confirm info is correct, all but the info on the water through the night.
The reasons that we were mentioning the boilers had only failed early morning and not although the night was when taking info from the graph it showed that the boilers were holding the temp on the heating, hence the reason why the call made at 11pm was for faulty hot water and not heating.
In regards to the noise could you let me know if you had the noise issue last night?
Tony, can you please confirm that the faulty trv was replaced yesterday?
Thank you
John Stow
Mechanical services manager
Telephone: 020 7974 2046
On 05-01-2011 at 14:59, we sent the following email to Mr Stow:
Dear Mr Stow,
Is there any news concerning the reasons for the boilers failure? What about the alarm inside the boiler room (see my email below)?
On 06-01-2011 at 08:56am, Mr Stow replied to our previous e-mail:
Sorry for not coming back to earlier on this matter, however the reasons that the boilers failed was owing to a leaking gasket on the boiler 2 that made the fail safe device shut down all 3 boilers.
On another matter the noise, at my visited on Tuesday, I was shown a log of dates and times that you logged on the noise occurrence. Could I please ask that send me the dates and times over the last 10 days, as this may help Richard and me, with our investigation?
Thank you
John Stow
Mechanical services manager
Telephone: 020 7974 2046