Dudley Council response to cracks in tenants wall like ‘sending a bricklayer to do brain surgery’
Dudley Council plastered over growing cracks in a tenant’s wall despite claims the damage is ‘being caused by tree roots’.
Rita Clarke, aged 72, lives in Newark Road, Netherton, where residents claim up to 18 houses are being wrecked by roots undermining the foundations of their homes.
Mrs Clarke is facing a range of issues with her home and she says the authority is not doing enough to help.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It feels like they are passing it on, one to another. I rang, they sent one of their quick response vans – lovely lad but it was like sending a bricklayer to do brain surgery.
“He had a look at the cracks and said ‘I will plaster them’, I said ‘I don’t think so, plastering over the cracks’. The crack is in the big bedroom, there is a great gaping hole.
“When my daughter moved in just over a year ago they put plaster over a crack that was there, that’s all come out – you can put your fist in it.”
Mrs Clarke, who has mobility issues, says cracks in her walls are not the only problem she has caused by the large trees at the rear of her house.
Residents say the trees were planted by the council around 40 years ago and branches now reach across gardens.
Mrs Clarke said: “Every autumn you get seeds blowing everywhere and new shoots springing up in the guttering, they are everywhere.
“When you go outside it tends to be very slippery, we have to be very careful. My neighbour puts her washing out and the pigeons s*** all over it.”
After the garden at Mrs Clarke’s house began dropping towards her neighbour’s garden, which is around six feet lower, Dudley Council built a retaining wall.
Mrs Clarke said: “After that I had the garden slabbed – nice and level. Where the wall has been built the slabs are dropping so there is movement down there.”
Mrs Clarke has lived in her council home for 34 years and says there is clear evidence the walls are moving.
She said: “I first noticed cracks two or three years after I moved in, they were tiny. Over the years it’s as if they have spread into every room, it is getting worse.”
Councillor Ian Bevan, Dudley cabinet member for housing and homelessness, said: “Housing services do not have any recorded historical concerns about structural issues with properties on this road.
“However following recent contact from the ward councillor we are arranging a visit to the area, with appropriate specialist support, to investigate these issues further.
“Information gained from these investigations will be discussed with residents and will be used to inform any future required works.”
