Last night's Roehampton report-back

Over 80 Roehampton residents braved the rain to attend the report-back meeting last night. The big issues, as you might expect, were Roehampton redevelopment, the Council/TfL no right turns from Roehampton Lane and the state of the Alton estate.

I myself have been increasingly concerned about the cleanliness of the estate: I've written to the Director of Housing twice about this in recent weeks. Part of the reason for the mess is that the contract doesn't seem to be being honoured - I heard from someone in Farlington Place only today that her block has been cleaned just three times since August.

But there's another reason. The Council set out in its cleaning contract that every block on the Alton has to be cleaned once a week. Not unreasonable on the face of it, is it? But consider this. Arnewood Close has six flats in each block. Each of the five Highcliffe Drive blocks has 75 maisonettes in it - probably easily over 100 residents in each. They're both supposed to be cleaned the same.

Isn't it self-evident that a big block which has hundreds of comings-and-goings every day needs more cleaning than a small block? And it's such a waste, because the Highcliffe Drive blocks have just been redecorated: the council's spent tens of thousands repainting and smartening them up, but because its cleaning contract is insufficient, these blocks are already looking grubby.

The Conservative councillors for Roehampton told residents that they hold regular walkabouts on the Alton. I leave you with the response of one of the residents from the estate: "Are you doing your surveys with your eyes closed and your noses pinched?"

They must be.