Page Moss By-election Result

We set a target of 5% for this election before we knew there would be an independent candidate and while we would have liked to have beaten the Lib Dems, that was probably expecting too much on a first contest in this ward.

Dave Tully The Labour Party Candidate 541 82%
Matt Hughes Liberal Democrats 57 9%
Shaun Watson Independent 22 3%
Marie Rea Green Party 21 3%
Robert Avery The Conservative Party Candidate 15 2%

More to follow soon. A meeting to establish Knowsley Greens and to contest a number of local election seats next May.

Response from United Utilities

After speaking with residents yesterday, we raised the concerns that people had raised with us (see yesterday's blog post). We've had a response from United Utilities today, and I am summarising the main points below.

 

Several telephone numbers were issued in Huyton for different support services (for example, for loss adjustors, clean-up teams), and with hindsight, this may have caused some confusion. In response, we have now set-up a dedicated lo-call (7p per minute) number for people who were affected by the incident.

This telephone number is 0845 026 5148.

This will be manned 8am-8pm Monday to Friday, and 8am-4pm Saturday. Outside of these hours, the calls will go to our main customer centre.

People affected by the flood should have received letters from GAB Robins, our loss adjusters, stating individual telephone numbers for them to call regarding their claims.

We would strongly recommend that customers call these individual GAB Robins numbers if they are inquiring about claims, rather than use the 0845 number above. This will help their query to be dealt with quicker.

We will also be attending the community meeting next Thursday, where we will address any further issues from residents.

The flooding was obviously an awful experience for many people in Huyton and United Utilities has rightly worked hard to help the customers affected.

As you may know, we had a team on site for a week and a half after the flood and all the people we know were affected had visits from our loss adjusters and customer staff. We also held claims clinics at the Gate, where we spoke to 50 people.

We moved swiftly to help people in Huyton by making quick payments of goodwill, separate from any legal compensation, which included £200 for internal flooding and £100 for external flooding.

People who suffered internal flooding have also received cheques for £500 for the inconvenience and a cheque for £200 to pay for electricity. A total of 27 customers have received a further £100 for electricity and we will review these payments again next week, when we hope to remove most of the dehumidifiers. Also, a further review of inconvenience payments will be made next week.

I’m sorry if people have experienced difficulties contacting us, but hopefully this new telephone number will resolve the issue. Also, we will be happy to help people with any further queries at next Thursday’s meeting. 

So we would strongly recommend that if you are a resident reading this and the information provided is not consistent with your experience to use the number above. The good news is that there will be a further review of the inconvenience payments. The more people attending the Thursday meeting, the better.

Email to United Utilities

After speaking with residents again today on Lincombe Road, I've sent the following message to United Utilities by email:

I am a political campaigner currently supporting a byelection campaign in the Page Moss area of Huyton, I've been looking for a contact to email at United Utilities. I am not a resident in the area, but we are campaigning there, knocking on doors and speaking with residents. As there is no relevant contact email address (the contact form doesn't seem appropriate) I've sent this to you to pass on the to the appropriate person.

I think there is a huge amount of frustration amongst residents who are trying to contact United Utilities by phone at the moment. The issues reported to us today were:

• No cheque received from United Utilities to compensate
• No confirmation that United Utilities will pay for the electricity used by the drying machines
• That the people who have been specified as the contact person are on annual leave

In summary, the overwhelming message coming through is that people don't feel they can communicate with you and that there remain many unresolved issues for individuals who were affected.

I would be grateful if you could advise how you are maintaining contact with residents who have been affected or whether the onus is now on them to get in contact with you. If it the latter, could you specifically address the second point about the amount of electricity that people will have used running the drying machines and how that issue could be addressed.

It isn't ideal that there is no actual email address attached to individuals on the United Utilities site, but given the problems people are having getting in contact, we are going to push hard to get hold of the right people so that you can too.

Outraged Huyton Grandmother Challenges Knowsley Politicians Over Floods

PRESS RELEASE 25th July 2011: Immediate

An outraged Huyton grandmother, Marie Rea, has said that the anger felt over the successive floods in Huyton will be reflected in a high turnout in the Page Moss council by-election on the 18^th August.

Marie is standing for the Greens “to make this a real election”, otherwise the Labour Party candidate Dave Tully will be expected to win at a stroll based on the 93% of the vote Labour gained just two months ago. She said:

“Quite rightly, this by-election will be all about the flooding, United Utilities and the responsibilities of the council. People in the Page Moss ward have seen their lives destroyed by floods on successive occasions.”

“Huyton has been badly let down by our politicians. Thatcher privatised the water companies but Labour did nothing about that in 13 years in power. Instead, United Utilities made more than £5.5 billion in profit. We’ve seen our bills go up and we’ve also paid for privatisation in a succession of floods.”

“I’ll be standing for the Greens who are the only party in Parliament committed to taking water companies back into public ownership and we’ll be putting our case strongly against the Labour Party here, and asking some serious questions about United Utilities record in our area.”

There are three other candidates contesting the election. Matt Hughes will be standing for the Liberal Democrats, Robert Avery for the Conservatives and Sean Watson as an independent.

Flood Damage

I spoke at length to residents around the flood affected street in Huyton after work yesterday. The key issues seem to be lack of communication, consistency and information about what is happening. Many residents were on the streets, unable to go anywhere else while they waited for promised cheques for "inconvenience" from United Utilities.

Most people I spoke to know that the likely rise in home and car insurance premiums on their streets would more than wipe out the £100 or £200 being offered.

Afterwards I met up with the Knowsley Greens and our candidate in the forthcoming Page Moss byelection. We discussed what we could do to help, not necessarily immediately, but through the election campaign and beyond.

A quick numbers comparison to finish off with:

£7 million - the amount United Utilities spent fixing problems in an area that had previously had three flood events

£5.5+ billion - the total amount of profit made for investment funds and shareholders that a privatised water firm made between 1998 and 2010, when a more radical Labour government would have renationalised in the public interest.

Welcome

This is the new blog of Knowsley Green Party.

We will be contesting the Page Moss council byelection to be held on the 18th August.

More details to follow.