Crawley Borough Council responds to complaints about lack of action taken over fence repairs for tenants

Storm Eunice damaged many properties throughout Crawley on February 18, with many fences being felled as a result of the 122mph winds that the storm brought with it.

Many council tenants have been left with garden fences that require repairs and have raised their safety concerns with the council.

Council tenants feel ignored and have resorted to finding temporary fixes to their damaged fences.

Danielle Thompson from Facebook said: “I have only two and half fence panels standing left out of the original 10 on one side (my council side) and the complete back of four wider panels have uprooted from the ground at the concrete posts. I actually reported straight after the storms and was told I have to wait till July to even have a response.”

A spokesman from the council, said: “There are currently 414 fencing jobs outstanding; this is due to the sheer volume of requests we’ve received. This will take a number of months to clear; however, where the site is deemed unsafe we have taken down the defective parts and made them safe.

“Since 2018 we have completed 3,928 fencing jobs. The total cost of these works is £1.31m; this money comes from tenants’ rent, which is paid into the Housing Revenue Account to cover repairs such as these.”

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See more: Storm Eunice: Recap all the updates as storm caused chaos, destruction and disruption across Horsham and Crawley with fallen trees and road closures, Storm Eunice power cuts in Crawley, Crawley councillor ‘extremely concerned’ over dangerous state of Dorsten Square bus stop