1,432 DAYS – THREE YEARS + 11 MONTHS + 2 DAYS
since Thistle’s mismanaged Major Works Programme started on 7th January 2016
1,104 DAYS – THREE YEARS + 9 DAYS
since 30th November 2016 when “all of the works to all of the houses in Toryglen will be complete“. Today, 9th December 2019, still incomplete, work proven to be shoddy and more importantly, dangerous and now possibly hazardous to life and limb
Read today’s full article here
or see the graphic at the end of this piece
Thistle Housing’s incapable and failed management sure hate all and any form of 
dissension whether that be from within their own ranks or by residents, especially residents who seem to have their measure and have constantly combated the endless streams of excuses and lies from Thistle’s management, a management whose drastic performance would, in any other situation and place, have resulted in them being booted.
The sad sorry truth of the matter of Thistle’s failings is that they are many and have existed for years, well before the Major Works Fiasco. The torrent of Toryglen residents’ fears and complaints simply resulted in the proverbial ‘can of worms’ being prised open displaying an endless list of “serious failings and financial mismanagement” embroidered by lies stretching back over many years, for all to see.
Why have Thistle’s management got away with it, so far? Why are they still benefiting from the fruits of their failures? Why are they still there allowing them to shred and manipulate the evidence? Those are questions which remain strangely unanswered.
In Thistle, however, it’s all allowed. Untrained and uneducated so-called management are permitted to throw around millions of pounds and see it all pour down the drain.
Thistle Housing Association, according to Scottish Housing Regulator statistics, is the worst performing housing association in Scotland, having failed on each and every requirement of a housing association, as can be seen by Thistle’s letter of failure to the Regulator of 30 November 2019 here.
Thistle’s continued refusal to answer questions, some of which they have had, in writing for more than three years, is an indication of their culpability as they attempt to hide from the truth of their puerile actions. It was promised that the results of all of the investigations would be “shared” with residents, at the very latest, by the end of October 2019. Now, mid way through December, as Thistle heads for its long festive season close down, no sharing, no information, nothing. Secrecy and silence. The Thistle way.
These people, who have plundered Toryglen of millions of pounds for their over inflated
and totally undeserved salary packages over the years, backed by a compliant ‘all pals’ Management Committee, have ruined the association. It is they who have brought Thistle into disrepute but they continue to shy away from any responsibility, lashing out at others who have the sheer cheek to question them.
Thistle Housing, the pariah of housing associations, with its latest desperate act of banning residents from all forms of contact, is merely the actions of the guilty. Their cage has been well rattled, a sign of Thistle’s inept management lashing out as they now have nowhere to turn. The unfortunate result of their drastic failures and the poisoning of the name, ‘Thistle Housing’, may well result in the loss of staff jobs.
Their staff may well wish to reflect on the indisputable fact that Thistle’s back stabbing management have always put themselves first before the wellbeing of staff and certainly before the most important group, the residents of Toryglen. Any actions which are a result of this, lie at the doorstep of Grace McColgan, the now expelled Director, Jim Naismith, the bookkeeper who plummeted Thistle into financial ruin, Daniella Sprott, the “ah’m no technical” Operations Manager bully and the real instigator of the amateurish mess, in cahoots with their pals in the never changing (previous) Management Committee who had no ability, meekly did the bidding of McColgan and Sprott in exchange for all expenses paid weekends away in top notch country spa hotels with a few pounds slapped into their grasping mitts for drinkies and free iPads (which Thistle’s ignorant and “non technical” management claimed had been hacked).
Meantime…
- The Scottish Housing Regulator’s Statutory Manager continues to dig into the fetid sewer that is Thistle Housing. See here for more details.
- The ever growing and very expensive list of building faults increases as does the cost of rectification work.
- The fabric of buildings continues to degrade, including yet another recent incident of a roof shedding tiles when there was no wind or rain. If anyone is unfortunate enough to suffer injury or worse, it will be clear where the blame lies.
- Fourteen closes (within the same type of tenement property) are riddled with asbestos even more dangerous than previously thought. Fourteen closes, eight homes per close, say an average of three people per home. That’s 336 people whose lives may have been affected by asbestos, asbestos which Thistle’s management knew about since June 2016 (and should have done beforehand) but conspired to hide by a stream of deliberate lies.
Thistle’s staff attempted to minimise the asbestos scare by claiming that it was entirely unfounded only because the HSE deemed that Thistle had complied with an improvement notice (due to residents’ actions) but they have now been instructed by Thistle’s interim Director that the allegations were well founded and that the staff’s opinion (or was that more correctly, the management’s opinion?) that it didn’t or hardly existed was factually wrong.
Added to this is the FACT that Thistle’s actions could have been (or is?) a criminal act as it was in contravention of Regulation 4 (3 to 10) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 whereby the responsible person (Grace McColgan as Director) on summary conviction could be liable to imprisonment for up to twelve months or a fine or both. If it was indeed judged as a criminal act, the term of imprisonment could be increased to twenty four months or a fine or both.
The reality is that there is more asbestos present and of a higher risk category than previously stated by Thistle Housing who had constantly denied its existence then blamed it on “gas fires” then offhandedly blamed it on a few asbestos cement boards in their increasingly desperate attempts to hide the truth and their contravention of law.
Thus far, not a single resident has been advised of the full details of the asbestos in their buildings nor equally so, have the remainder of residents in tenement properties been advised that there is no risk.As a consequence, added to the other major, serious and dangerous faults, the asbestos situation in Toryglen is hardly small beer. Thistle Housing, a corrupt mafia like gang which manipulates and lies easily with impunity. How could they ever be trusted?
The Article
SERIOUS FAILINGS AND FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT
THE FOURTH CHRISTMAS OF THISTLE’S FAILED MAJOR WORKS FIASCO
A spokesman for Thistle Housing said, “We have tried to maintain an open line of communication with Toryglen residents…..“. No, they have indulged in a process of refusal to respond, deflection and fibs. The Thistle way, their “communication strategy“. Made up lies and fabrications.
“Addressing all areas highlighted in the Scottish Housing Regulator’s report will take time…“? Time? What, three years and more after a programme supposed to take no more than fourteen weeks per home failed on 30 November 2016? How much time do these people in Thistle think is sufficient now that Toryglen residents are almost into the fifth year of this disaster with many more months of scaffolding, filth and inconvenience to come? Even more banal and desperate tripe from a mob which is too concerned with its own self interests.
“We aim to keep residents updated throughout the process” – that would be a first but as residents are well aware, Thistle tell what they want to or have been forced to tell but never the whole truth, if any at all!
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