‘Camden Council have forgotten their purpose – to fight for the people they represent’

• I AM so tired of Camden Council, they’ve been average for years now but they seem to have sunk to new lows.

I live on a large estate which was built to replace slum houses. It was supposed to be a new, modern, way of living. It’s now, through years of apathy and neglect, slipping into slum conditions it was supposed to replace.

They sold off the flats to people who sold them on to landlords who made them into houses of multiple occupancy, HMOs. Then they say there isn’t enough social housing.

These landlords partition off existing rooms to accommodate more tenants. They advertise on Airbnb and put hot tubs on their patios.

The council is oblivious, they either don’t care to check or don’t care. If they did check, they could fine these people for money they complain they do not have.

Why can’t they compulsorily purchase these flats and give them to families that need them?

Meanwhile the maintenance of the estate deteriorates. The weeds, the rats, the unpainted railings, the refuse dumping, fly-tipping, drug dealing, shortage of caretakers.

You can’t call the council because they don’t want you to. They go out of their way to avoid speaking to anyone. Online forms have replaced people.

Any new ideas from residents are taken to a meeting and the council representatives ask the leaseholders if they want changes. The leaseholders do not want to pay, so the council say they can’t do it… they didn’t want to do it in the first place.

If the council wants to do anything they don’t ask, they just go ahead and then divide up the bill and send it to leaseholders.

We have a revolving door of estate managers. Maybe there are diligent, hardworking, people that work for the council. We wouldn’t know.

If there is any issue, do not expect the council to help without many emails to whoever you can reach on the off-chance someone will step up and say, “I’ll deal with it.”

Camden Council have forgotten their purpose – to fight for the people they represent.

K ROWLEY, NW1