Leeds protest

The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 334, 22 February 1964 · scan page 4

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Leeds Sunday, March 22, 6.30 Speakers:

Banda-Newsletter Editor ANGRY TENANTS of the 84 Leeds Corporation flats at St. Barnabas Garth, Holbeck, packed into a protest meeting held in their local pub, to express their disgust at the Yorkshire Electricity Board.

Many of them have been faced with bills of up to f43 for 13 weeks' supply.

Last July workmen moved into the homes and took out all coal burning fireplaces as part of a "modernisation plan, replacing them with electric fires.

A number of tenants expressed the wish for gas heaters but they were refused.

Mrs. Irene Whiteley, a member of the St. Barnabas Garth Tenants' Association, told The Newsletter: 'We are paying more than the average domestic tarriff for Leeds.' Dampness In addition to having huge bills many of the tenants claim that since going all-electric they have suffered from extreme dampness in the flats.

"The flats are a disgrace, green mildew and dampness everywhere with paper peeling off as soon as it is put on,' one man told the meeting:

'It is worse than living in caves. Some families when flushing the toilet, flush the sewage into the toilet of the flat below?

The Corporation has advised people to open their windows to eliminate serious condensation. "Then we can't close them again because the window frames are warped,' explained a tenant.

Representing the council at the meeting Councillor Bernard Atha could only offer a feeble excuse: "These conditions are not the fault of the Corporation, but of a firm of private contractors from London who walked out on us,' he said.

A visitor from another tenants' association urged the meeting to take positive action and demand alternative heating. A resolution to this effect was carried.

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Subscription Department, The Newsletter, 186a Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4. 7s. for 12 issues, or £l 8s. per year Name Address KAZAKARI MEETINGS Liverpool Sunday, March 1, 7.30 p.m. Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street Speakers:

Mike Banda-Newsletter Editor ealy-National Secretary, Socialist Labour