Star date: 10th June 2016

INSECTS, MOULD, BARE WALLS, HOLES AND NO FLOOD PROTECTION FROM SALIX

"It's been disgraceful living here, you can't do anything..." Margaret Connor

Margaret Connor's house on Riverside was one of the worst hit when the flood hit Lower Broughton on Boxing Day. Almost six months later, Margaret, who has a range of breathing and arthritis problems, was still living with bare walls, mould in the kitchen, holes in the wall, asbestos dripping from the ceiling and insects crawling everywhere.

The Salford Star asked Salix Homes for a quote on the state of the house...four days later the company said it wouldn't be commenting – but in the meantime workmen had scurried around to Margaret's house to try and fix the worst problems. Is this the only way things get done in Lower Broughton?

Full details here...

Last week, after a call, the Salford Star went to visit Margaret Connor, who lives in Riverside, Lower Broughton, one of the worst hit houses in the Boxing Day flood...

"We're right next to the river and the first I saw was the water coming through the garden towards me" she recalled "My sister said `Get up them stairs and don't you come down'. She's smaller than me and it was up to her thighs. The flood panels fitted to the door came off and floated away with the water. Everything got ruined.

"I've been living like this since it happened" she added, pointing to five cardboard boxes containing possessions, bare floors, a sink and cooker hanging away from the walls of her kitchen which also had visible mould - and huge spiders mincing across the freshly plastered living room.

In anyone's book, Margaret would be classed as vulnerable. She has COPD, asthma, emphysema and arthritis of the spine, legs, knees and hands. On the bare floor was her breathing machine. She told us that the downstairs shower can't be used as it's a temporary storage space, and that having a bath upstairs is a major trial as the lack of water pressure means it takes ages to pour.

"It's been really bad" she explained "My health has been worse through all this. There was a white thing wriggling up the wall the other day and the damp is attracting insects; woodlice, spiders...whole families of things have moved in."

Margaret's son has also moved in to help her and is sleeping on the floor in a downstairs room next to a hole in the wall that the workmen have left, and telephone sockets hanging loose.

While Margaret said that no-one from Salix Homes or Salford Council had visited the property, workmen from Seddon had been in over the last two weeks and sorted some of the flooring, plastering and painting...

"They said `We can't paint the kitchen ceiling because it's got asbestos in it'" she recalled "It was the first I'd ever heard of that and it has damp dripping through it because, unlike everyone else, I didn't get a new bathroom suite when they did the houses up a few years ago. I don't want to cook because of the dust, and I've virtually no pans because everything l had in the kitchen was ruined; everything was thown out..."

Margaret has got some money from the Salford Council distress fund but can't buy anything new while the house is in such a state... "It's been disgraceful living here, you can't do anything, and you're always looking through all the boxes to find anything" she explained "They should have moved quicker so we could have somewhere to live decently."

The Salford Star asked Salix Homes why a vulnerable person was still living in a mess almost six months after the flood. That was at the end of last week. A spokesperson asked us to hold the story off while they sought a comment. Four days later no quote had arrived and, finally, Salix decided that there would be no comment. In the meantime, workmen had been back to the house and fixed the ceiling and floor, painted the walls and done some more plastering.

Margaret told us this morning that they had merely painted over the kitchen mould, hadn't fixed the hole in the wall and that a back water-warped door was not being replaced.

While Salix Homes has been busy pumping out press releases full of positive news about how homes in Lower Broughton will be `as good as new again', the company obviously doesn't want the other side of the story to be aired in public. And, it seems, only those who shout loudest get sorted first.

Meanwhile, despite Salix Homes being able to claim £5,000 per house for `flood resilience' from the Government, no `flood resilience' measures have been added to Margaret's house, in common with what most other residents have told the Salford Star.

"If the flood happened again tomorrow there's nothing at all in place" said Margaret "It's just a sham..."

• Last Sunday, residents and activists met at Albert Park for a `Flood, Climate Change, Solutions' event, also attended by Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett and Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long Bailey.

Amongst future the actions discussed at the event, organised by Climate Survivors, were to increase community networks pressurising authorities to increase resilience to future climate-related floods, to campaign against the sale of green spaces by Salford Council, and to link up with other communities, like Radcliffe, which are also seeking answers to what went wrong on Boxing Day.