Questions Remain Over Council's "Highly Unusual" Home Comments

ANN says there are questions to be answered about how Tory-run Honslow Council came to speak to the local and national press regarding its "concerns" about her Brentford home - days before she received an official letter.

In a highly unusual move, the council's empty homes officer Keith Dickens was quoted extensively in several newspapers after becoming aware of problems with builders working on a renovation project.

Normal procedure for local authorities dealing with the media is for press releases and comments to come from either a politically-neutral press officer or individual councillors. Council officers, who manage the day-to-day running of the authority, are usually disuaded from talking directly to journalists.

Speaking in response to media enquiries about her home of 22 years, Ann said: "Like many others who have had alterations and builders in their home, we too have experienced the nightmare side of it. We had no choice but to halt work on our home because we became very concerned about the quality and standard. We had an independent assessment, which took some time, and we were informed very recently that the company we had been working with had gone into liquidation.

 “Following this news, we have now been able to appoint a new company and we expect to commence the completion of our home in the next couple of weeks. Many people have expressed their surprise and concern that we were only made aware that this was creating a problem for the London Borough of Hounslow by letter received on June 22. However, many people became aware of it before we were officially told when they read the local newspaper.

 “As you would expect, we have asked the council’s chief executive officer Mark Gilks to fully investigate how this could have happened – especially as the letter states that if I am currently renovating the property, the council has ‘access to a substantial amount of advice and information to help me’.”

She added: “Many people will be wondering like we are whether it is normal procedure for the council to inform residents of this facility through the national and local media.”

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