COUNCIL chiefs are celebrating after being told they are rated among the best in the country on gas safety.
Cheshire West and Chester Council’s(CWaC) housing repairs team hit an ambitious target of ensuring that 100 per cent of all council homes have a valid gas safety certificate.
The success comes as a result of a major campaign launched four months ago with its gas servicing partner Ashley McDonough Contractors.
CWaC executive member for prosperity, Cllr Herbert Manley, said: “It is obviously crucial for our tenants’ safety that all of our homes have a valid gas safety certificate so we have made hitting this target a real priority. Most of our tenants are very co-operative when it comes to arranging for the servicing to take place and we have worked hard to offer them more flexible appointment times including Saturday mornings. But in the small minority of cases where tenants are not co-operative, we will not hesitate to take action.”
The campaign involved offering tenants more flexibility over appointment times so ensuring engineers could get into their homes to service their gas equipment.
The council has also taken a tougher approach to tenants who consistently ignore requests to set up an appointment and will now apply for a warrant to gain entry when necessary.
Before the campaign 97 per cent of council homes in Ellesmere Port and Neston had a valid certificate. Nationally, anything over 99.95 per cent is considered to be a ‘top quartile’ performer - or one of the best 25 per cent of social landlords.