Residents have told Hackney Council “enough is enough” after more lift failures left people trapped inside.
On Tuesday (17 June), a leaseholder living at Rozel Court on the De Beauvoir estate told the Town Hall that residents were finding themselves stuck in the council block’s lifts on a daily basis.
This followed earlier incidents in which people had been trapped inside and the fire brigade called in to free them.
“People are now terrified of getting in the lift during the five minutes a day it actually works,” said leaseholder Kadir Karababa.
The council’s lift manager responded to say an entrapment order was raised with the provider, Apex Lifts,”to attend and release the passenger”.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) last week revealed that the council had been warned repeatedly of “dangerous” lift failures in the block.
Mr Karababa told the LDRS many social tenants were scared to speak up about the issues out of fear of losing their tenancy.
On Friday 6 June, Hackney Council had told the LDRS: “We are committed to addressing faults with lifts as quickly as possible and expect to have the current issues resolved by the end of the week”.
The Town Hall added that it was spending £24m to replace lifts across its housing stock, including the two in question at Rozel Court.
Mr Karababa said the council was in “complete breach of its contractual and legal obligations” and that residents were now seeking legal advice.
“Enough is enough. They need to find a permanent solution,” he wrote.
In an email sent on Saturday 14 June and seen by the LDRS, a council employee told residents that teams were “currently unable to perform full repairs on either lift due to falcons nesting on the roof of Rozel Court”.
“These birds are protected and cannot be disturbed,” they said.
Yesterday, a council spokesperson told the LDRS one of the block’s lifts was currently out of service, and that the Town Hall was waiting for confirmation from a specialist about the motor’s condition and whether it could be overhauled.
The block’s second lift was experiencing increased strain due to these circumstances, they said.
The spokesperson added that the council was exploring long-term solutions to fix the issues, but in the meantime was continuing to work with lift service providers to ensure any immediate problems were resolved as soon as possible.
