In response to an enquiry from the media we issued the following response about ongoing issue with the boilers at Clay Farm Centre.
A spokesperson for Cambridge City Council said: “This issue is being treated as an emergency and the council apologises to all bpha tenants for the inconveniences this has caused to them and is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
“The boiler is property of the council and distributes heating and hot water to the Clay Farm Centre and the rest of the building. Bpha is the social housing association responsible for the tenants in the apartments affected.
“The bpha has been taking steps to support tenants such as offering electric heating to their tenants.
“The council has also been working to offer support to these residents and has arranged for residents to access the shower facilities at Trumpington Sports Centre until the issue is resolved. They can access these facilities Monday to Friday from 6pm to 9pm, Saturday from 8:45am to 5pm and Sunday 8:45am to 1pm.
“The boiler first broke down in June, but specialist engineers had managed to get the boilers up and running again. Unfortunately, this repair was not permanent, and the boilers presented further issues that only recently became recurrent on a regular basis.
“The manufacturers were at Clay Farm yesterday and have issued a report detailing the steps needed to remedy the ongoing faults. These will be actioned as quickly as possible. In the meantime, an engineer will be attending the site daily until the issue is resolved, to check the boilers are working and get them up and running if it fails overnight.
“We ask that any issues relating to the breakdown of the boilers at Clay Farm Centre be reported directly to the bpha who will be on hand to support and will contact our repair team. Residents can do this by emailing info@bpha.org.uk, by telephone on 0330 1000272, using the LiveChat facility at www.bpha.org.uk, or by Whatsapp to 01234 923233. bpha have an out of hours service who can log emergency repairs outside of normal working hours, any non-urgent repairs should be reported during opening hours.
“A joint letter from Cambridge City Council and bpha is in the process of being sent to bpha tenants to confirm all the latest updates and advice.
“Our teams do their best to answer all calls and support residents, especially during peak times when they receive larger call volumes. We are sorry if there have been times that residents have experience longer wait times to get through to us due to high call volumes.”
The executive councillor leading on this matter is Cllr Mike Davey (Labour), Executive Councillor for Finance, Resources and Transformation. Spokespersons for the other political groups on this issue are Cllr Tim Bick (Liberal Democrat) and Cllr Naomi Bennett (Green/Independent Group).
