Following a visit to Heath Road I wrote to Lambeth Living, who are responsible for the management of housing in Lambeth, regarding the poor state of cleaning. Below is the response and I will be returning to Heath Road to check on progress. 

Dear Councillor  Wellbelove 

CLEANING OF COMMUNAL AREAS ON HEATH ROAD ESTATE

Thank you for your enquiry received on 22^nd July 2008. 

I Have been Informed by Mr Richard Rivers-Simpson, Senior Caretaker that he and Connaught visited the estate on the morning of the 29^th July 08 to inspect all the aspects of cleaning as part of there weekly inspections. Whilst there he found the estate to be in a poor state and below contractual standard.  As a result Richard arranged with Connaught to get a team of external cleaners to attend that afternoon to get the estate back up to a satisfactory standard.

Whilst on the estate in addition to the general cleaning the entire bin chambers were found to be in a very poor state. Connaught has sent a PWC team there this morning to Jet clean and disinfect them all.

As the estate was found to be below standard Connaught have placed 2 full time permanent cleaners on Heath Road estate to ensure that the standard does not drop again.

Yours sincerely 

Peter  Mokogwu

Area Services Manager

Clapham Area Office 

Councillor Wellbelove with residents at the Heath Road surgery

Clapham Town Labour councillors have for many years held sugeries, where people can come and talk to their councillors, for many years. The surgeries are held at Clapham Leisure Centre every Saturday from 11:00 – midday (except Bank Holidays) and being in the same place every week are useful for people to know where to find their councillors on a regular basis.

However there are some people who find getting to the leisure centre difficult and to help ensure that we reach as many people as possible Clapham Town councillors have embarked on a series of localised surgeries.

This weekend we embarked on our biggest ever series of surgeries covering Heath Road, Westbury, Willard and William Bonney estates together with Heather Close Sheltered Housing.

The day was a huge success, Councillor Helen O’Malley started the day with the regular surgery at Clapham Manor Lesiure Centre and then joined Cllr Haselden and I at Westbury Estate.

Our busiest surgery of the day was at Heath Road where many residents came to discuss issues such as cleaning on the estate, repairs and parking enforcement.

We moved on to William Bonney estate where we spoke to residents about noise and anti-social behaviour issues caused by a local venue together with more discussion around parking enforcement on the estate.

All three of us are now taking the various issues back to officers at Lambeth Living. I have written directly to the housing manager regarding concerns over standards of cleaning.

Along with continuing the regular surgery at Clapham Leisure Centre we are now organising a repeat of the event for next month and looking for new venues throughout the local community.