“It is time that full Public Inquiry was held…”
The headline could not be read by machine (it read “Lurgan Gas otill Stinks”); the title shown is the article’s opening words. Read the scan for the printed headline.
Free Citizen1971Housing, rents and local campaignsLoyalism and unionismHousing, rents and local campaignsLoyalism and unionism
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It is time that a full Public Inquiry was held into the financial affairs of Lurgan Borough Council. For the disgraceful saga of this allUnionist council's attempts to welch on legally binding tenancy agreements made with the tenants of the big working class Drumnamoe Estate gets more peculiar and smells more rotten week by week.
It is well known that in 1968 the Council agreed to accept an extra 25/- per week to cover the entire cost of gas central heating, but that two whole years later it began sending out backdated gas bills of up to £145 for this same central heating over and above the mutually agreed orginal 25/- per week. Currently monthly gas bills keep arriving at each Drumnamoe house with some October bills as high as £27! Old age pensioners are receiving montlr ly bills for as much as £7 on top of the contractual 25/- per week!
The first of the newest nasty smells came on Thursday 26th November when a mysterious fire at Lurgan Town Hall failed to destroy the upper-storey where the Council offices are and where the Council records are kept. "But for the fact that a door above the stage on the ground floor was shut the entire building would have been destroyed", said the local Fire Brigade. Shortly afterwards local Unionist M.P. Bertie Mitchell remarked enigmatically that "any delay in the Council taking action over the gas bills affair was due to the fire at the Town Hall". Clearly the fire hadn't done its work well enough and those embarrassing original tenancy agreements are still intact.
### Bare-faced
Then the tenants referred the matter of the bare-faced swindle to Complaints Commissioner Benn only to be smartly told that this tepid Unionist appointee could deal only with complaints from individuels.
When huge bills of up to £27 began to arrive for October's gas, the tenants at once Suspected that the meters installed by the Council were inaccurately set. "One arm bandits" became the local description of them. Now the tenants want these meters removed. Finally the Council has just threatened to impound the hundreds of tenancy depesits (£10 per household) and use this money to pay off what they claim are arrears owing on gas bills. Such bloody impudence!
The whole affair stinks. It stinks of dishonesty and swindling trickery. The Free Citizen joins with the Drumnamoe Tenants Association in calling for a government inquiry. It's high time the swindlers of Lurgan Borough Council were exposed for the corrupt yang they are.