Residents at Barkerend Flats left without heating since Christmas

There have been a number of residents in Bradford who have been left without central heating since Christmas Day, however have been assured that the heating fault will be fixed today. Tenants of Newcastle House said that their heating stopped working on Christmas day and due to the festive break, there was little success in trying to find out what the problem was and how to restore it.

Since then most of the landlords, Incommunities, had supplied their residents with electric heaters, however one elderly resident stated that for her and some of her neighbours that they where facing anxiety as they were uncertain if they would be able to claim back the electricity costs for running the heaters.

Incommunities has vowed to start the repairs today and apologise for the delay. The blame for the delay has been due to Incommunities workers being unable to gain access to a flat in which the fault is meant to have occurred. One elderly person, who wished not to be named, said “It has been very cold. I haven’t had use of my central heating since the evening of Christmas Day meaning I’ve had to use the heaters quite a lot and I don’t know how much it is going to cost on my electricity. I’ve rang Incommunities a few times but their offices are closed until after New Year. I’ve had a real difficulty getting through. The one person I did get through to could not give me any time of when it will get fixed.”

A spokesman for Incommunities last night stated, “We can confirm that due to a pipe work fault customers at Newcastle House have been left without gas heating over the past five days. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience in which this has caused our customers but unfortunately we faced difficulties in gaining access to the flat where the fault has occurred.”

 “We have now managed to arrange access to carry out the repair and contractors will be on site tomorrow morning,” he further added. Residents of neighbouring Fairfax House had also complained of no heating between Friday and yesterday but Incommunities said it was not aware of any problem with heating in that block of flats.