COUNCIL tenants are being forced to endure lengthy delays for repairs to their homes.

Dave Blackwell, leader of the Canvey Independent Party, raised the issue at a meeting of senior Castle Point Council members.

He complained an elderly man, who has a council flat in the borough, was left without water for a weekend because no one was available to fix a broken pipe.

Mr Blackwell, who did not identify the tenant, claimed contractors Axis Europe initially only sent an electrician, who could do nothing but turn off the water supply.

The pipe was finally repaired and water supply restored by a plumber late on Monday.

He said: “It’s a shambles. In all the years I’ve been on council I’ve never known it to be so bad.

“There’s been no end of problems with housing over the last month.

“We want repairs done efficiently and quite quickly.”

Mr Blackwell, who is leader of the opposition, claimed another council tenant had been left with a hole in her wall for a month, after contractors failed to finish a job.

He said: “Castle Point has lost control of housing maintenance. Someone is not doing their job.”

Mr Blackwell called on the council to periodically contact residents to check how satisfied they were with work that had been done.

He said: “Now and again we need to contact them and ask if they are happy with how it all went.

“That would be better than surveys where they just tick the box and say nice things, because they don’t want to upset anybody.”

At the meeting, ruling Tory councillors agreed for South Essex Homes to take over management of council housing maintenence contracts. The group is owned and controlled by Southend Council and is responsible for Southend’s housing service.

The new arrangement means South Essex Homes will oversee maintenence work done by sub-contractors such as Access European, instead of the council.

However, overall responsibility for housing stock will remain with the local authority.

Beverley Egan, cabinet member responsible for housing services, said she was confident South Essex Homes would improve maintenence standards.

Council leader Pam Challis added: “It’s only for a year. If they do not meet those standards we will terminate the agreement”.

Axis Europe was unavailable for comment.