The Taplow tower on the Chalcots Estate

T is the stuff of claustro­phobic nightmares.

Imagine being trapped in a broken tower block lift 200 feet above ground for almost an hour – and then it starts to “jump and bounce”?

The stranded estate tenant, a vulnerable man, captured a terrifying moment on a smartphone that shows the Taplow lift begin to judder before a loud bang.

The lift’s emergency button did not work and a neighbour had to contact the fire brigade which came to free him.

Residents say the harrowing ordeal is the latest in a long line of “regular breakdowns” stretching back more than two years – many choosing to make epic journeys up and down the stairs instead of risking getting trapped.

The man, who has lived in Taplow for more a decade, said: “The past few weeks I’ve been caught in this lift, but on Sunday I was trapped between the 18th and 19th floor for 56 minutes.

“The entire time I was pressing the alarm button only to be ignored by the people on the emergency line. Thankfully a young girl and her mum discovered me and contacted the fire brigade who got me out.

“Being stuck in a lift is stressful enough, but this was no ordinary lift trap, instead of being stuck in one place the elevator constantly jumped and bounced.

“I have a dog which means I now have to walk up and down 18 floors, at least three times a day, because of this issue.”

He added: “For months now one of our two elevators have been acting up in a highly stressful way.

“Numerous attempts from many residents have been made to fix this just to be met with typical Camden responses and actions.”

Angie Price, also a tenant on the estate, said: “He rang me as soon as he got out and sent me the videos. He could barely breathe.

“I get a text from the council each time the lift goes down. I have got loads of them. It always seems to be about ordering spare parts. But we think it is connected to the works going on here, the contractors using the lifts with heavy machinery.”

Ms Price sent a series of the council’s texts showing the lift had gone down three times since May 22.

The Chalcots estate – five tower blocks in Fellows Road and Adelaide Road – has been a building site for eight years since hundreds of residents were evacuated following fire safety concerns after Grenfell.

Last year a special meeting of Camden’s District Management Committees discussed the mounting problem of lift repairs across the borough.

The tenant reps meeting heard that 66 lifts in Camden council-owned housing blocks have been installed under contracts with “multi-national lift companies” based outside of the UK, meaning spare parts have to be ordered “from Europe or further abroad”.

It has been claimed that changes to the market after Brexit has caused further delays in getting these spare parts when ordered – with the council at times having “to wait as long as a month for replacement parts to arrive”.

Last year the New Journal reported on an elderly man racked with arthritis and other serious health conditions was forced to live in a wooden shack because Camden Council failed to fix the lifts in his flats.

The case was detailed in a report from the Housing Ombudsman that said the lift had been broken for 686 days out of the 1,051 he had been a tenant there.

It was impossible for him to stay in his flat so he moved into a wooden shed on the estate with no heating or water.

In March, the New Journal reported on an investigation launched after a woman was injured by a lift that fell on top of her.

Tenants routinely speak about how delays in fixing lifts are blamed on the need to source spare parts from abroad, as some manufacturers are based in Europe.

A report from Camden Council earlier this year suggested that Brexit had increased the delays.

The London Fire Brigade said they were called at 9.37pm, leaving just after 10pm after successfully releasing the person.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “The safety and comfort of all our residents is our priority and we would like to apologise for this distressing experience.

“The faulty assistance button and lift have now been repaired, and we will continue to closely monitor these in the coming weeks.

“We ask the resident to contact us as soon as possible so that we can discuss their experience further.”