Summer Adjournment

James Cartlidge Excerpts

Thursday 20th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge (South Suffolk) (Con)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes), not only for that moving speech, but for showing a lot of fight on behalf of the victims in those terrible cases. I pay tribute to her campaign for justice, which I hope she continues with; we will all support her in that endeavour.

I wish to raise the case of a constituent, Mr Chris Francis of Constable Road in Sudbury. He contacted me almost a year ago today to express his concerns about a large metal barrier that had been erected across the garden gate at the rear of his property. When I first heard about it, I thought it was perhaps just another constituency case, but he explained that he is blind and used the gate to safely and easily access his property with his guide dog, Nimbus. Central to his concern about the barrier was the fact that he would no longer be able to use his back door as an exit in an emergency—I emphasise that we are talking about an emergency. Mr Francis was not notified or consulted by Calibre Homes, the company that erected the barrier.

I went out to Constable Road to see the houses, all ex-council houses that back on to an estate called Suffolk Court. The company that manages the estate had erected the barriers outside rear gates that had been used for many years. Suddenly, the residents of these houses woke up to find that they could not open or close them. The barriers were covered in anti-burglar paint, they were ugly and, in my view, the way they had been built was aggressive.

In November, I went back to see Mr Francis to update him on the progress of his case, or lack of it. I had been telling Babergh District Council that I thought the residents had a right of way, and asked the council to help me to prove that; the council was going through the inevitably slow legal process of doing so. When I went to see Mr Francis in November, I was shocked to discover that he had suffered a severe stroke—a right-sided total anterior circulation infarct. Mr Francis is 62 and, as I said, blind. He is a Royal Air Force veteran: he was a parachuting instructor in the RAF for 10 years. He then set up his own parachute school. He was a very active man and has lived a brilliant life.

When I saw him that day, he was in a most distressing state. His sister, Anne, who has been a stalwart by his side, explained to me the circumstances of his stroke. She came to Mr Francis’s property to find that he had collapsed at the front door. She could not go through the front door because his key was in it, so immediately called the ambulance service, which tried to access the house from the rear.

The report states that

“the delay in getting into the property was due to a tall metal fence, which obstructed their ability to get through to the back of the property. It was in fact so high it was unsafe for them to climb over to gain entry. Therefore, they requested the attendance of the Police to gain access.”

The police report states:

“There was no safe entry point to the front of the property as the male had collapsed by the front door. Efforts to get to the rear of the property to assess an entry point were severely hampered by the large fencing. I was eventually able to scale it after using a wheelie bin to get some extra height. Not all officers would have been able to do this…In relation to delay, I would say the fencing added about 10 minutes to police gaining entry…This would have removed a delay of medical attention by about 30 minutes as Ambulance on arrival would have been able to go straight into the property.”

In other words, if the barrier had not been there, there would have been an extra 30 minutes for an ambulance to attend to this man suffering a stroke. Everyone in the Chamber will know that the NHS has an acronym for treating stroke, and that is FAST, because the speed of treatment is critical. My constituent suffers from significantly reduced mobility, speech and wellbeing. He relies on considerable assistance from his sister and family and requires a wheelchair.

My main reason for raising this case is that I believe that Calibre Homes—I have corresponded with the company and it has shown no willingness to remove the barriers, has been unable to justify them and, in my view, has been most aggressive—has in effect contributed to the severity of the stroke suffered by my constituent, a blind veteran. That is absolutely shocking. In fact, it has continued with that rather belligerent attitude. Anne Francis, the sister of my constituent, has been in communication with Calibre Homes, pleading for the removal of the fence to help him have a better quality of life. Indeed, the Suffolk County Council occupational therapist has reported on access possibilities, stating that

“the front wheelchair access is not practical in part due to the shared porch and part the gradient required…I would think they have a strong case if disability is the issue, and the rear is the only wheelchair access” .

Mr Francis requires an electric wheelchair that needs to be housed outside but requires rear access. We have asked Calibre Homes, which has refused to grant this permission or remove the fence.

I ask Members to bear in mind that, in my view, that barrier is unjustified because those residents have a right of way. They had been walking out of the back of their homes for donkey’s years and suddenly they woke up to find these things straight out of an American penitentiary centre stuck in the concrete at the back of their houses, covered in burglar paint. It is absolutely reprehensible.

I want to finish with a point about Calibre Homes. I have been in correspondence with the company. It is aggressive in the way that it writes, it could not care less about my constituent and it has shown not a shred of humanity or compassion for someone who is suffering severely and has served this country. I wish Mr Francis well in his recovery, I will work with Babergh District Council to try to prove the right of way for those residents and I will fight his corner. He is vulnerable and needs me to do that. I will fight for him and my constituents against this company, which has no scruples.