Sorry is the Hardest Word (but so easy when it’s not meant!)

1,872 DAYS – 5 YEARS + 1 MONTH + 14 DAYS
since Thistle’s mismanaged Major Works Programme started on 7th January 2016

1,543 DAYS – 50 MONTHS + 21 DAYS
since 30th November 2016 when “all of the works to all of the houses in Toryglen will be complete“. Today, 20th February 2021, still incomplete, work proven to be shoddy and more importantly, dangerous and now possibly hazardous to life and limb

Click on the graphic above or here to read the article

A continuation of yesterday’s blog, here but just in case you think this asbestos topic is recent, click here for an entry on this blog site of 29 July 2019.

Other than Toryglen residents being threatened with legal action by Sanctuary Housing for revealing even more of Thistle’s dastardly ways and drastic mistakes together with the Glasgow Evening Times being advised by Sanctuary Housing that its solicitors are ‘keeping an eye’ on events, the Times has chosen to publish more revelations of the ineptitudes of the soon to be gone Thistle Housing.

“Asbestos removal in Toryglen is safe” – so long as residents don’t breathe or take any water from the polluted tanks in the attics.

An attic tank full of water and packed full of gunge – tank not covered so what’s REALLY in it?
Tap on the image to expand

So, there you go. The asbestos which Thistle Housing’s sacked director disGrace McColgan and her henchwoman, Daniella Sprott also soon to be sacked (or rather, same as McColgan, taken a package of Toryglen residents’ cash) always claimed and even promised, in writing never existed even although they had been sanctioned by the Health and Safety Executive and challenged by so many residents who had (and have) endless numbers of photographs of the asbestos in the attics as well as mountains of building rubble and, according to Miss Sprott, several attics jam packed with “gas fires”. Really, it would make a stone weep.

Three years ago and still Thistle did nothing ….but lie
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The SORRY word is just so hard to take from Thistle. It’s the least used word in their limited vocabulary and when issued, is never made in an honest and genuine fashion, just a collection of letters which mean nothing, merely a reaction to being found out. Why can that be said? History and experience of Thistle, one of the many reasons Thistle will soon be no longer.

In the article, Thistle (or rather, Sanctuary) “strongly denied claims of wrongdoing“. Aye, right!

Thistle told residents that it was one company who was to carry out the asbestos removal, a company with no asbestos removal licence but after all the failures were discovered, Sanctuary then claimed that it was another which does have a licence. A bit of odeur here. Rather convenient until a resident spoke to Miss Sprott who confirmed it was indeed the first (unlicensed company) doing the work. So, it was either the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing (typical Thistle) or it was a downright lie (again, typical Thistle). It couldn’t have been both.

Thistle (or rather, Sanctuary) further stated:

Another attic with broken sheeting
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“The bags shown in the photograph are not red in colour and therefore did not contain any asbestos“.

The problem with their selective take is that there are many other photographs of bags in other closes. Not one illustrates any red bags or anything which would resemble sealed hazardous material filled bags.

“We can confirm these bags contained only fibreglass insulation, a material that poses no health risk“.

If it was indeed the case that there was only decades old fibre glass insulation in the bags, fibre glass poses a similar risk to health as asbestos as it sheds millions of tiny particles of glass which must not be breathed in. So here, Thistle/Sanctuary attempts to minimise a great risk down to one which is almost as risky. Some choice.

“Our licensed contractor has been instructed to accompany all bags from the building at all times in future so this doesn’t happen again.”

The “licensed contractor” Thistle refers to is seemingly neither the one advised to residents nor the one Miss Sprott confirmed in a telephone call with a resident which was working in Kerrycroy Street and Avenue. They should have “at all times” accompanied bags and not just dumped them in closes. So, again, they were wrong and none of this would have been revealed had it not for residents’ vigilance.

“A housing source said the work being carried out at Kerrycroy Avenue is a removal task where asbestos-containing materials are in decent condition and not being broken up“.

Yet another attic which Thistle thought residents would never see as they quickly bolted the hatchways closed just before Christmas 2018. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
Tap on the image to expand

The made up stories never end! It has been proven (and photographed) that asbestos containing materials were broken up in attics. Remember, dozens of workmen careered around attics in the summer of 2016 when the roofs were being stripped (and then the same workmen suspiciously vanished for five weeks when asbestos was discovered).

The attics were left strewn with piles of building rubble in amongst which were broken asbestos sheets, torn up fibre glass insulation, bricks, tiles (and as there was not a single toilet on site, where do you think they went?) therefore everything within attics could well have been contaminated (including water tanks) and consequently, everything removed should have been in “red bags”, the red bags which no one saw.

They added that bags shown in residents’ photographs contain non-hazardous fibreglass insulation and not asbestos, which would be held in red coloured bags.

How did Thistle/Sanctuary know what was in those bags? There was not a single Thistle representative on site to oversee the work. Did they test them or just take the word of the removal company? Or just lie? Remember, the contractor was reported by Sanctuary (not Thistle) to have been sacked. Why would that be?

Thistle claims that the asbestos contamination is “low risk”. This’ll be the contamination they denied for years but other than that, there should have been no risk at all to residents but, alas, due to Thistle’s endless lies, there was and has been for years.

All of these incidents and even the suspicion of asbestos contaminated material as well as a record of any and everyone who has accessed attics, should be maintained in a legally required Asbestos Register. Until recently, Thistle broke the law by not having one, as a result, Thistle was sanctioned by the Health and Safety Executive. Hey, they didn’t tell you that one! They even claimed that the hapless, part time maintenance person, the hated Larry Kilkenny, had been trained in asbestos management. Unsurprisingly he was not. Another lie. Come on, Larry couldn’t be trained to catch a ball.

Does Thistle have an Asbestos Register now? Don’t know, maybe on a crayon filled jotter or on an easily changed (or deleted) spreadsheet but they won’t reveal it to anyone, if it exists, nor will they provide the water testing certificates of the heavily polluted attic water tanks, many without covers, despite requests being made under under the Freedom of Information Act. Again, a bit stinky!

Secrecy and lies have always been the hallmark of Thistle Housing. Right to the end, they continue on that path despite being found out so many times. Do they not realise that with that and the gross mismanagement of the association over the twenty years since in conned its way into Toryglen, they have brought the residents’ association to its knees, buckled under by the heavy weight of unaccountable spending, hundreds of thousands of pounds of unexplained disappeared money at the same time as the finance manager vanished (followed by door locks changed and records shredded) and losses now racked up to the £millions.

The last paragraph in the Evening Times’ article is especially salient:

One resident, who asked not to be named, said:

“They can hardly blame us for being alarmed after everything that has happened here over the years“

“We have no faith at all in Thistle to get anything right when it comes to the safety of the residents and the upkeep of our homes“

“They will have to work hard to regain trust – though I doubt they will ever mange to win us back over“

Think Sanctuary will be any better? Hope so but with one of their first actions being legal threats, no one knows but here’s a reader’s comment on yesterday’s blog:

Here are some more pictures of attics taken in 2019 and been ignored before and since then. Click on the arrows to be horrified. Some operating systems, eg macOS and some versions of linux, allow you to double click to enlarge, if you’re brave enough:

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