Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Curo Housing seriously damages tenants health

Bleak Times | 17.12.2012 19:30 | Social Struggles | South Coast | World

Bath tenants 'stress over shoddy work caused stroke'

Bath's biggest landlord has apologised after one of its tenants suffered a stroke which he blames on a catalogue of errors plaguing work on his kitchen.

Retired caretaker Tony Gifford became distressed and angry after work carried out to his kitchen and bathroom on behalf of Curo went from bad to worse.

He ended up being admitted to the Royal United Hospital after collapsing at home, and has been left with a permanent stutter.

The 74-year-old said: "There is no doubt in my mind that my stroke was bought on by the stress caused.

"I live on my own, and was feeling so stressed and upset and didn't know what to do."

Work on his flat at Combe Down started in March, and what was supposed to be two-week project lasted more than five months.

The wrong-sized sink was installed twice, sewage leaked into the bathroom, and an electrician drilled through the electrics and knocking out power to the whole building.

Mr Gifford was also left with no washing or toilet facilities for 11 days, and when he tried to complain, he says, he was pushed from one person to another.

The final straw came when a hanging light in his living room fell down after being secured to the ceiling with furniture screws, narrowly missing him.

Following this incident Mr Gifford passed out on the sofa, and came round a while later feeling weak and disorientated.

He was taken to the RUH, where he spent two hours in surgery

Mr Gifford said: "The work that was done on my flat has been shoddy.

"The stress caused me to have a stroke, which has left me suffering with a stutter and nose bleeds.

"It is not the severity of the mistakes, it is the quantity.

"I felt no one was listening to me when I rang to complain – the customer service is appalling."

Curo director of transformation and business improvement Donna Baddeley admitted the organisation – previously known as Somer – had lessons to learn.

She said: "We are very disappointed that we have not met the high standards that Mr Gifford, and all our customers, should expect from Curo and our contractors.

"We have looked into what went wrong and met Mr Gifford recently to discuss how we can restore his trust in Curo.

"We have apologised to Mr Gifford and offered to carry out all the works needed to bring his home up to a standard he is happy with.

Bleak Times

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. terrible, but why on indymedia? — Fox lover
  2. Politics in it? — Customer Counselling Collective
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech