Monday, 12 July 2004
Brian Miles
Local Government Ombudsman
Dear Brian . . . . . re case no 04B05100/BAM/vcj
Please thank Jerry White Ombudsman for appointing you to investigate this for me.
So . . . . I’m at a dinner party a few weeks ago. Telling them all about the saga of the flat and the shop below. I tell them about these balmy planners and health officers who obviously don’t know one end of a building from the other. And Phillip Goodwin’s statement, “. Even if ignored the more likely result would be that the ceiling would fall down. Long before dry rot would infect any timbers supporting the upper floors . . “ to gales of laughter.
When a good friend pipes up “I’ll have a look at it if you like Colin. That’s what I do. I’m a Planning officer for ******** Council next door.
But things dragged on a bit. And there is no particular urgency about the floors. It make take a year or two before they start to rot. And this is part of the problem. Croydon have calculated that until they do rot I won’t be able to sue them. Except that I don’t want to wait until that happens. And so I have kept banging on at Croydon about the risks to my building as you know. But last week my friend found the time and came round to see the floors. And we walked around as you do and I showed him the layout. And he looked out the kitchen window.
And I quote, here “WHAT THE FUKC IS THAT THING?”
“It’s the ducting for the extractor from the shop.”
“They can’t put that there. It’s right next to your window. There are gas exhaust in those fumes.”
And he went on to explain that the usual requirement is 1 meter above the roof line. And all about the cladding it should have. And even a lightening conductor.
The problem is . . . I have been banging on at Croydon Council about my floors because that is what I know about. I went to the Brixton School of Building as a young lad and have been around the industry all my life. And I know for a fact “You can’t build an airtight box full of fibre-glass under a bathroom/kitchen and expect to get away with it." Without taking some special precautions.
I don’t know anything about ducting. I’ve always left that to the experts. But from the information my friend gave me, and from the inter-net, I wrote those notes to David Wechsler CEO as you know. But since then I have learned more especially over the weekend. From restaurant owners I hear the ducting is not 2 meters as I had thought my friend meant. i.e. to the roof line above my 1st floor kitchen. It is about 6 – 8 meters short, in other words less than half as long as it should be. It is supposed to go above the second floor roof of the main building.
My plumber friends who are CORGI registered tell me that if that flue is illegal, and it certainly looks as if it may be. Because of the fact that I have informed David Wechsler, it will be a CRIMINAL OFFENCE for him to ignore it. Or anyone else in a responsible position who reads that warning. And apart from that. if it is the case, I am furious with them for doing this. It is bad enough that they have endangered my property. But to endanger our health too is outrageous.
Everything about this planning application and acceptance stinks.
AND CROYDON COUNCIL HAVE KNOWN THAT ALL ALONG,
Colin’s NEW sites
Barnett Ross the no forms required to bid Auctioneers.
Contact Andrew
Mahon NI plaintiff 1’s chief fixer for details.
He knows Steven Grossman so doesn’t
have to fill out all those nasty Money Laundering forms.
Or ANY forms come to that.
www.barnett-ross.co.uk
www.barnettross.org.uk
(Andrew Mahon
3 Pettigo Rd, Kesh,
Co
Fermanagh, NI.
02868 632102
0775 665878)