Alarm at ‘danger’ court judgement
JON MACPHERSON ‘It might encourage rogue landlords not to carry out safety checks’
ACOURT ruling that certain basic safety requirements cannot be built into a housing landlord licensing scheme has been labelled ‘ridiculous’ and ‘dangerous’ by Hyndburn council chiefs.
Landlords have called for the controversial selective licensing scheme to be suspended following a Court of Appeal ruling stopping the council from using the scheme to force them to install carbon monoxide detectors and carry out electrical safety checks.
Council bosses say they are ‘extremely disappointed’ by the landmark judgement and fear it will increase safety risks to tenants such as carbon monoxide poisoning by encouraging some landlords to avoid ‘basic preventative’ measures.
Coun Clare Cleary, cabinet member for housing, said they are now ‘taking legal advice as to how best to proceed’ but the local authority has rejected demands by landlord representative Paul Brown to immediately put the whole scheme on ice pending full investigation.
Coun Cleary said: “Tenant safety is paramount and I think it’s a dangerous judgement in that it might encourage some of the potentially rogue landlords in the area into believing that it’s not necessary to carry out proper electrical safety checks on their properties and exposing tenants to unnecessary risks.
“It’s also ridiculous that some landlords may now avoid fitting carbon monoxide alarms, which cost as little as £15 in properties with gas supplies, thus exposing their tenants to the very real and preventable risk of CO poisoning.”
Coun Cleary also called on the government to introduce new legislation giving local authorities more power so ‘minimum safety standards are complied with’. The £1.1 million licensing scheme was first introduced in December 2012 as part of wider measures to deal with low housing demand, improve lives of tenants and landlord standards, but it has a chequered history.
It is the second time the council has lost a legal challenge by landlords.
In 2011 it was hit with a £100,000 legal bill after a High Court judge quashed a previous attempt to introduce the selective licensing scheme, which now covers around 4,850 properties in Accrington and Church, ruling there had been a lack of proper consultation.
The financial implications of the latest court defeat to the council are not yet known. TRIBUTES have been paid to a ‘truly wonderful’ great, great-grandmother who has died in her sleep aged 103.
Belinda Brennand, who was known as Linda, passed away peacefully at Wellfield and Henley House care home on Wednesday, February 21.
She was taken to hospital after a fall in December 2017 and never fully recovered.
Linda, who was born in Huncoat on Valentine’s Day in 1915, led an active and independent life after her husband Wilson, who worked at the brickworks in Enfield, suddenly passed away after a stroke in 1984.
She worked as a weaver at the Perseverance Mill in Accrington before leaving to raise her children.
A member of the Huncoat Ladies Club for more than 20 years, she also loved sequence dancing and frequently went to dance events on Eagle Street, Accrington.
Linda’s daughter Jean Cavannagh, 76, said her mother was known for her kindness.
She said: “She used to help out with whatever she could do.
“She used to go to people’s houses and put their dinner or heating on before they got home because she didn’t work. She used to take in sewing and do people’s hems. She was truly wonderful, all her life. She was a very likeable person.”
Jean said her mother enjoyed her holidays to Blackpool and Benidorm, even asking to visit the Spanish resort for her 90th birthday, instead of a birthday party.
She said: “She was sociable and outgoing - she loved all the family and loved to have them around her.”
Wife to the late Wilson, Belinda leaves sons Alan and George and daughter Jean; two grandsons, greatgrandchildren and great, greatgrandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at Accrington Crematorium at 3pm on Thursday, March 8.
SEE obituary on p12