NHS worker Ellen Nkomo, who dramatically chained herself to the council’s headquarters – telling staff she had been fobbed off for years over housing repairs

• I ADMIRE Ellen Nkomo’s bravery for her protest at the council HQ, (Nurse chains herself to council’s HQ over housing repair wait, January 20).

I feel deep regret that severe pain from my bone and joint disease prevents me from being able to follow her example.

I have been begging the council to repair a leak in my flat since September 2021. So far the only progress has been one plumber who tried to fix it and failed in December and another plumber who came, refused to fix it, and left again, the day after Ms Nkomo’s direct action.

The leak is not only affecting me but also my neighbours owing to it leaking through the floor into the communal basement. I feel like a terrible neighbour impacting them like this, but I’ve tried my best to get the council to fix it.

Almost all the recent emails in my “sent items” folder are to one of my councillors, and Sir Keir Starmer, about this, but nothing gets done. I’m tired of living like this.

I understand that housing repairs are busy with a pandemic backlog, but people are living in truly horrendous conditions affecting our physical and mental health.

I thank Ellen Nkomo for shining a light on what we’re going through. I hope her repairs are carried out swiftly because she deserves it for her brave one-woman protest. It takes courage to go protesting under a government threatening to criminalise peaceful protest.

But I can also understand feeling so desperate due to housing disrepair that the threat of arrest and possible criminalisation for taking direct action feels like the less scary option compared with carrying on living in homes in this state.

I’m truly grateful that Camden Council gave me a home when I needed one. I’ve always tried my best to keep the flat being leased to me in good order because I don’t own it.

The property is on loan to me and I respect my landlord enough to keep their property in the best condition I can keep it. That’s why I reported all the above faults. But Camden Council isn’t showing us the same respect in return by carrying out repairs when they are needed.

Thanks, Ellen, for making sure everyone in the borough knows what so many of us are going through. Solidarity.

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