broken heating leaves camberwell e state residents shivering as teMPeRatuRes dROP tO -1

By Herbie Russell herbie@southwarknews.co.uk

rEsidEnts on a Camberwell estate often go several days without heating or hot water and are forced to waste money on expensive portable radiators.

Tenants and leaseholders on the Sceaux Gardens Estate were left shivering for a week earlier this month, as temperatures plummeted to -1, after their temperamental heating system broke again.

The News understands that Southwark Council has since brought in portable heating units while they fix the broken communal boiler.

Lakanal House tenant and mum-ofone Natisha Husbands says the heating has regularly broken ever since she moved into the block in 2017. She said: “It’s been terrible. It’s so freezing I basically have to wrap up my child, who is ill because of the situation and other children in the building are sick as well.

“And they [the council] just don’t care. We did ask for vouchers because our own heaters are taking up a lot of money.”

The post-war estate, comprising six blocks with 370 apartments, grabbed national attention in 2009 when the Lakanal House fire killed six people.

As well as prompting a groundbreaking enquiry into fire safety regulations, Lakanal House was refurbished and residents began moving back in 2016.

While internal pipework was replaced during the block’s refurbishment, it is unclear whether any improvements to the boiler system were required.

Sceaux Gardens’ Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Chair Mike

By Herbie Russell herbie@southwarknews.co.uk

PoliCE havE made no arrests one month after a brutal attack on a woman, possibly involving a hammer, outside Harris Academy School in Bermondsey, on Valentine’s day morning.

Concerned residents attending a London Bridge and West Bermondsey police meeting on Thursday, March 2, were stunned to discover the attending

Edge said: “We’ve got problems with the centralised boiler house. One of the boilers is completely kaput and the other one has intermittent problems.” Natisha said she won a legal case against the council over heating failures last August and was awarded £1,400. But she says little has changed since then.

Southwark Council is supposed to refund households £3 for each day the heating breaks but Natisha doesn’t think she’s ever received that compensation. Southwark Council has been approached for comment.