Estate Matters

This page is for posting matters have been brought to our attention by residents dropping a line to crosswhatfields@googlemail.com about any problems they may be having, e.g. noise, anti-social behaviour, security, lights not working, pest control etc, that either fall outside the remit of the Repairs Team or have failed to be dealt with adequately if already reported.

This may help to highlight persistent unsolved issues. Ideally, of course, we should have an Estate Manager to deal with all this!

In the first instance,  call Lewisham Homes on 0800 028 2028 (or 020 8613 4000 if calling from a mobile) or call the relevant numbers for Repairs and ASB that you can find on the Information Page of this website. Also, use the Complaints Procedure if things just aren't being dealt with.

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Dangerous Dogs 3

29 May 2010: Update 

A court order went through on 18 May to evict the unauthorised occupier in Wilshaw House whose dog killed a neighbour's cat. He left the dog behind and it was taken to Battersea Dogs Home. (See Dangerous Dogs 2 below).

 

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Antisocial Behaviour Team fail to act in favour of residents

28 April 2010

Some residents are absolutely flabberghasted by the recent decision to let off a tenant who has been terrorising his neighbours.

See home page post on this here. See also Wall of Shame.

The ASB Team said:

"I have now completed my investigation...I interviewed GJ, other witnesses...I was also able to obtain information from the police in support of the allegations and from Environmental Enforcement Team.
Lewisham Homes is committed to investigating complaints of antisocial behaviour and taking the appropriate action where necessary. However, unless we have sound evidence we are unable to take any effective action. As far as legal action is concerned, we must be able to prove the nuisance in court...
"Having assessed the evidence we have received...we have concluded that the allegations made against GJ is partially founded."

This letter is 4 pages long. It shows that the ASB service is useless in acting on behalf of residents adversely affected by a single individual's behaviour.

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Dangerous Dogs 2 

20 April 2010: Update on 31 March story below 

The Leasehold Team said they would write to the Leaseholder about their naughty tenant. However, we obtained an email address for the leaseholder and wrote to them ourselves. The flat owner told us they have been trying to evict the dog owner for ILLEGAL OCCUPATION of their flat since November 2009, which Leasehold Services are well informed of. Yet ASB and the Leasehold Team have appeared 'unaware' of this when the neighbours tried to get something done about him. 

20 April 2010: Another dangerous owner of a dog 

Another dog owner who lets his dog off the leash (a Staf) personally threatened two female residents today when they asked him to keep a lead on his dog which had been running round for ten minutes before the owner appeared. He was so threatening that the dog was frightened by him and stayed with the two women while he shouted and swore and the dog did not follow him when he left (saying "Keep the fucking dog"). The dog was friendly and harmless, but his owner's reaction was disproportionate, and the women found it difficult to talk to him about their reasons for asking him to comply with the law. "Why should I do it when that other bloke doesn't – nothing happened to him, he gets away with it, but you two are on my fucking case, well, fucking keep the dog, I don't care! What you smiling for, eh? What you smiling at, you fucking bitch?" One of the women was smiling because his dog was sitting on her feet, where it felt safe. 

This event was witnessed by three others, including a local councillor who was leafleting the adjacent block at the time.

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Dangerous Dogs

On 30 March 2010, a resident wrote to say...

I want to raise the issue of irresponsible dog owners on the estate, particularly X in Wilshaw with the mastif who killed Clio (a cat from Holden House). He persists to exercise the dog off the lead on the grass at the back of Holden, I last saw this at 10pm last Saturday night, the gate to the area was wide open and he was sat on the bench while the dog ran loose.

It looks as though no action has been taken by Lewisham Homes over this issue, and with summer approaching there will be a lot of children playing outside. (The dog who mauled the two year old in Eltham, 200 stitches to her face, was a French Mastif, the photo shown on the news of the offending dog bore a striking resemblance to the dog at 29 Wilshaw.)

I have decided to contact Ann Fitzgerald at Leaseholders now, and pass it on to her, I honestly don't feel that Lew Homes are gonna get their act together and do anything about this, or anything else of importance for that matter!

Meanwhile, the number of residents keeping fighting-type dogs is increasing...

This issue has been raised many times at TRA meetings. Notes about this particular dog owner were taken by a Lewisham Homes representative and the ASB team at the November 2009 TRA meeting. A cat had been mauled to death two weeks previously, just a week before Lewisham Council brought into force new rules about dog ownership, that would have seen this dog owner fined up to £1000. Cllr Padmore was also present at that meeting and was distressed to find this leglislation which he had helped bring about was too late in this case. However, the ASB Team have failed to do anything about it, and the Leasehold Team now claim they had not been informed that the dog owner was a tenant of a leaseholder.

As a result of the above resident's subsequent call to Leasehold Services, a letter has now been sent by them to the leaseholder of the tenant, requesting they tell the tenant to ensure the dog is kept on its leash, since the leaseholder will be in breach of their lease if their tenant's dog continues to be a nuisance on the estate.

This is also yet more evidence that the Antisocial Behaviour Team are next to useless (and leaseholders should not be paying for this service), and also indicates that offences under the new Dog Control Order (that can result in an on-the-spot £75 fine and fines of up to £1000) are not easily implemented.

The Dangeous Dog Act 1991 makes it an offence for any dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place. However, dogs now being bred for fighting are cross-breeds that escape identification in the list of dog breeds named in the Act.

More details about the responsibilties of dog ownership can be found on the Lewisham Council website under Your Dog and the law.

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Estate Security Safety Issues

On 27 March 2010, Anonymous said...

I don't feel safe. I'm female and of small build and am often returning home from work late at night from the station to Frankham. We quite often have people hanging around on our stairs taking drugs, smoking, spitting and being generally menacing. I tend to take the staircase which they aren't on, but it's not nice and I do feel vulnerable. I've never seen police around here. I would never walk down the side of Frankham from Reginald Road at night - someone got badly mugged there last year and the lights are often out.

March 27, 2010 9:40 AM