East London News A Force for the community…
A TODDLER has died after falling from a window in his flat on the ninth floor of a high rise block in Haberdasher Street, Shoreditch. The accident occurred at around 4pm yesterday, Friday, 14th August.
The toddler fell from a window in Charles Gardner Court, which is owned and managed by Hackney Council. The emergency services attended, but paramedics had to pronounce the child dead at the scene of the accident.
Neighbours spoke of their shock at the incident and described the child as a bright two year old whose name was Treasure. Neighbours said he had lived in the flats for just over a year and was well known to their community. Some came to leave flowers at the site of the tragedy.
There were immediate calls for the Council to improve the security of window in the block. Residents reported that when the windows are opened, the bottom edge of the window moves outwards, leaving a gap very low down – whereas a safer option is to have windows which open by having the top edge move into the flat, not creating a significant gap at a lower level.
Sometimes social landlords believe they have made windows secure by installing locks, so that the windows cannot be opened by young children. However, during spells of very hot weather, windows have to be opened if residents are indoors – so safe opening methods have to be considered as well.
In the 1980s, when social housing in East London was owned by the Greater London Council and by local Councils, most of which were dubbed the “loony left”, the landlords would not put children in flats above the fourth floor. This was for safety reasons, but also because expecting children to grow up with such restricted access to the outdoors was seen as detrimental for the children.
Pressure from the Tory Governments of the 1980s and 1990s restricted the supply of social housing in order to increase home ownership – by owner occupiers and small scale private and buy-to-let landlords. Their policies were continued by the Labour Governments from 1997 to 2010, and Councils had to place families ever higher as their housing stocks shrank.
Ironically, vast swathes of land in East London have been surrendered by public bodies and used to build private, often luxury, housing – exacerbating the problem. If Councils had been allowed to build social homes on these sites over the last 40 years, there would be no social housing waiting lists in East London.
The accident at Charles Gardner Court is believed to be the seventh time a toddler has fallen out of a high rise window in England this year – and the third such incident in London. On 27th July, a toddler fell from a block of flats in Chrisp Street, Poplar. That child is believed to be in a stable condition and making a recovery.
It is now up to social landlords to take action to ensure that no more such accidents take place – action which would be much easier if the current government changed its pro-landlord policies in favour of providing social housing at truly affordable rents.
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