Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper criticises council after ceiling collapses on young mum

MP Rosie says that after previously calling on WLBC to address the consistent issues with their housing improvement programme, she has been contacted by her constituent Kirstan Jackson, whose plastered ceiling collapsed on her head hours after being supposedly ‘completed’.

Ms Jackson, from Carfield in Skelmersdale, was stood at her kitchen sink after putting her young daughter in bed to nap when her recently plastered ceiling began to crack and fell on her head.

The council tenant also told MP Rosie that this isn’t even the first time the ceiling had collapsed, as weeks earlier the same thing had happened.

After the incident was reported to Rosie, the MP says she has urgently called on the WLBC to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of Ms Jackson and her family in the home and to address the poor quality of the Council’s home improvement programme.

Rosie Cooper MP said: “It is unbelievable that the awful work completed by the Council’s contractors has resulted in my constituent’s ceiling collapsing, twice! It is really lucky that her one-year-old daughter was not in the kitchen, or she could have been injured.

“My constituent, who had simply asked for the council to carry out maintenance to her kitchen that she had been promised, now tells me she feels unsafe in her own home.

“The Council must take urgent steps to ensure this work is completed properly and safely, and that there is a drastic improvement to the work that their contractors are doing.

“Sadly, incidents like this appear to be becoming more and more frequent. Every week I receive more calls about poorly completed ‘home improvements’ to council houses.

“I have raised my serious concerns about these matters with the Council’s Chief Executive and expect to see a serious increase in quality of work. Residents deserve much better than this”.

In response, West Lancashire Borough Council told the Post: “The Council is currently undertaking a full investigation of the ceiling and we are liaising with Ms Jackson to put a resolution in place as quickly as possible