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National
Herbert Soden

'The house is just falling apart,' North Tyneside man speaks out on council house he claims is no longer safe to live in

A furious Forest Hall man has hit out at the state of his council house claiming it is no longer safe to live in.

Aaron Bayley said that large cracks started appearing in the walls of his Fairfield Avenue home around four years ago.

The 44-year-old claimed the cracks have surfaced in all of the exterior walls as well as the walls inside his property.

He said the door frames are coming away from the walls with cracks appearing where the ceiling joins the wall.

But North Tyneside Council said it has been monitoring Mr Bayley's house for movement and so far it poses no danger.

"The cracks in the wall are so big you can fit a pound coin in them, " Mr Bayley said.

"I wondered whether it was subsidence and they came out last May to put grids on the walls to see if there is any movement.

"They're meant to come out every fortnight to measure for movement, but they didn't come out at fortnightly intervals like they're meant to and came out after three months."

The music teacher, who lives in the property with his wife and three children, said the wall ties in his property need replacing.

Mr Bayley added: "We've been on the program to get wall ties done for eight years and they still haven't done it, the house is just falling apart.

"It is very dangerous and they [the council] seem reluctant to do something about it but they're happy to pay millions to do their offices up.

"If it was a private landlord they wouldn't be able to get away with this so I don't see why they should let local authorities get away with it."

Mr Bayley claimed that properties on his street are neglected because they aren't visible from the main bus route.

He said: "Just last year the council used the field adjacent to our home as a base for their workmen whilst re-pointing and wall tie repairs were done on the houses along the main bus route, but then work stopped as soon as those houses were finished even though houses in our street including ours suffer from the exact same defects.

"In fact one of the senior building inspectors said to me last year that he suspects that this is the exact same issue with our home, however, the council still don’t seem to want to do anything about it.

"I pay full rent, which I don't begrudge, but I do expect repairs to be done. "

The council said that monitoring has shown that the property is not moving and there is "no structural threat" to the property.

Phil Scott, head of environment, housing and leisure, said: “We take reports of this nature very seriously and we are aware of this resident’s concerns.

“Our officers have been monitoring this property over the past few months and have made visits to fit devices which measure the cracks and monitor movement. This activity has shown there has been no movement to date and there is no structural threat to the home.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation and will carry out any repairs if needed.”

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