Residents of Malus Court on Belvedere Road in Salford are up in arms after being left without lift access over the past five days.
Many residents are elderly pensioners who rely on the lift system and who have have been left stranded and unable to leave their flats.
The lifts went out of action on Friday 4 March and as of today, Wednesday 9 March, are still not in operation.
A concerned son of one of the residents, Dave Sharp, contacted us to say: “My father is 82 and there is no way he can walk down from his flat on the seventh floor and back up again.
“I think that it is intolerable for them to expect elderly people to walk up and down so many flights of stairs.”
Dave’s father has had to move in to his home on Littleton Road until the repairs are completed.
“My concern is the other residents who are still virtually prisoners in their own homes,” he said.
“The main issue here is not the broken lift but the way they have treated.
“Today I returned to the flats and the lifts are still out of action. It’s unbelievable.
“I spoke to a workman on site who told me that he had no idea when the lifts would be in operation.
“Can you imagine if there is a medical emergency and the ambulance service have to take a stretcher, to, say, the seventh floor and carry it back down with a elderly person on it?”
Renovations at Malus Court are being run by Pendleton Together, part of the Together Housing Group, along with their contractors Keepmoat.
Dave said: “Somebody from Pendleton Together has called at my father’s flat today and left a card asking if he needed any help with his shopping.
“It’s a bit late after he been staying with me for the past four days.
“We have tried contacting Keepmoat but we were fobbed off with the explanation that they were waiting for other contractors to come out and fix the lifts.”
Other block residents have come forward with the same complaint but did not want to be named for fear they may be victimised.
SalfordOnline.com also tried numerous times to contact Keepmoat for comment.
Staff on the phone, as we were passed from department to department, refused to take responsibility and seemed unconcerned with the complaint.
A spokesperson for Keepmoat eventually told us that they were aware of the ongoing situation and were doing everything in their power to resolve the situation.
“We have contacted each householder in Malus Court and have offered to help them with their shopping, and any problems that they may have,” said the unnamed spokesperson.
Keepmoat told us that the lifts are still out of operation but hope that they will be back in working order by Thursday afternoon at the latest and that the delay is that they are waiting for “a new part” for the lift to be delivered.
A spokesperson for Pendleton Together spoke to Salfordonline.com today and told us: “We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to our residents at Malus Court following the vandalism to the lift in the block.
“We have been working very hard since the incident occurred on 4 March.
“A new door has been ordered for the lift and we anticipate this will be fitted very soon by our contractors.
“Our first duty of care is to our residents and since last Friday we have been making regular visits to our tenants to offer support including doing shopping for them.
“We will continue to support our residents until the problem is resolved”.
Main image: Malus Court under renovation in 2015
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