Our Ayr council house is a death trap

Sep 18 2009 by Stuart Wilson

TERRIFIED parents claim their council house is a death trap.

Craig Neil and Kirsty Scott say their four kids are living with gaping cracks in the floor and killer asbestos.

And they reckon South Ayrshire Council is refusing to do a proper repair job – for fear of what they might find.

Furious dad Craig claims he’s waged a three-month battle to get his property patched up.

And he insists an independent analyst, who studied the Ayr flat, told him it was unsafe to live in.

Craig, who runs his own garage business, revealed: “We were told when we moved in that the flat contained asbestos.

“But they said it was low risk and wouldn’t be a problem unless it was disturbed.

“However, massive cracks started appearing in the floors and I’ve got four kids crawling around, so it’s clearly dangerous.

“We asked an independent company to come in and test for asbestos and they wanted £500 just to cross the door.”

The family, who live in Nelson Place, are treading on floors held together by a weak mix of concrete.

And Craig, 29, says the final straw came last week when he almost put his foot through the floor of his little boy’s bedroom.

He admitted: “That was it for me, I wasn’t prepared to put up with this anymore.

“When the council workers come here, they don’t want to do a proper repair job and I’ve had enough of it.

“Are they scared of what they might find if they actually tried to sort the problem once and for all?”

But when the Ayrshire Post stepped in, council chiefs were quickly forced into an embarassing climbdown.

A full-scale repair job has now been promised to the couple, who will be moved to temporary accomodation while the work takes place.

Executive director Harry Garland revealed: “We are aware of Mr Neil’s concerns about surface cracking on the concrete floor within the property.

“An initial inspection was completed and it was agreed that the work required to fully repair the floor surface would be included as part of planned modernisation work in the property.

“The modernisation work is now complete, subject to final checks.

“Officers have visited the property again in response to Mr Neil’s ongoing concerns regarding the floors, and arrangements have been made for an engineer to conduct an inspection.

“Following this inspection, arrangements will be made to have any necessary further repairs done with the minimum of inconvenience to Mr Neil and his family.

“We regret that the family has been inconvenienced and apologise for this situation.”