Few turn up to discuss housing office closure

About five residents met with housing officers last week to hear details of the Bradford Council's plans.

Letters about the meeting had been sent to a majority of the 550 council tenants on the estate a week previously.

The office, in Central Avenue, will close on August 20, not this month as mistakenly stated in last Friday's Keighley News.

The two housing officers will be based in the Town Hall so the task of serving council tenants across the whole of Keighley can be evenly distributed among all staff.

The council believes this will free-up housing staff to spend more time visiting individual council house tenants in their own homes.

It will also be able to set up a repairs helpdesk in the near future as part of the council's attempt to improve its repair service.

Following the closure, housing officers will attend the Sue Belcher Centre, in Bracken Bank Avenue, three times a week to meet tenants.

The sessions are planned for Mondays and Fridays, 9.30-11.30am, and Wednesdays, 2-4pm, and may also be attended by councillors and other agencies.

Residents with housing problems will also be able to approach the Bracken Bank neighbourhood warden, or wardens of pensioners' sheltered housing.

Harry Whittle, the Keighley area housing manager, said he was confident there would be a "very satisfactory alternative service" to the existing Bracken Bank office.

He said the surgeries would be linked to the council's computer system and provide the same level and quality of information as at present.

The public meeting was this week criticised by one of those who attended, David Weston, the former chairman of Bracken Bank Community Association.

He said council officers were not interested in residents' suggestions for changes to the plans, such as having surgeries at several community centres in the area.

Mr Weston added: "The meeting was a waste of time.

"They weren't prepared to listen. They kept saying 'suck it and see'."