Washer could have prevented housing block damage (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton housing block damage could have prevented by 50p washer

7:50am Wednesday 13th June 2012 in News By James Pepper

A 50p overflow washer could have prevented hundreds of pounds of damage to a council-run housing block.

Beauclere House, on Brighton Road, which is run by Sutton Housing Partnership (SHP) has had a leaking overflow pipe for over a year.

The leak, which has caused a large amount of moss to grow on the walls underneath the pipe, could have been avoided by a 50p washer according to an expert.

Mark Portaway, of MDP Gas Services said the damage could have been avoided with minimum effort.

He said: "Personally, I would change the ball valve altogether, but a washer, which costs about 50p, could have prevented this.It was still dripping the other day when I looked at it."

Sutton Housing Partnership has said the problem has now been repaired, but said the part of the building affected may need re pointing. Re pointing is renewing the outside part of mortar joints in buildings after water has got into them.

Tony Shields, Conservative councillor for Sutton South said: "This is truly ridiculous. Beauclere House has just had a new car park surface costing thousands, no doubt multiple inspections and site meetings took place prior to the works so why has this been allowed to become so bad."

A spokesperson for SHP said: "A surveyor from Sutton Housing Partnership has visited Beauclere House to carry out an inspection.

"We have established the problem to be a leaking overflow pipe from a leasehold property in the block."

The spokesman said the home owner had been contacted to arrange the necessary repairs.

"We have contacted the home owner and asked for them to arrange for the necessary repairs to be carried out within a specified time limit and we will monitor this closely to ensure works are completed," he said.

"We will also be jet washing and cleaning the external area affected at ground level as soon as possible after the repair has been carried out.

"We appreciate that this has caused a nuisance for some residents at Beauclere House and we would like to assure our customers that we do take prompt action to deal with minor repairs such as these."