THE ISSUE OF council housing waiting lists gained national prominence at the weekend with the BBC Sunday politics highlighting that there are over 50,000 people in Essex on the social housing waiting list.
The programme featured prospective parliamentary candidate for Thurrock, Polly Billington (Lab) who urged a much bigger social housing building plan.
But Polly also praised the work of the Labour-led Thurrock Council who have committed to a plan to build hundreds of homes.
A number of the homes in Corringham were opened last year. Indeed, the tone of the programme was that Thurrock were the leaders in the region.
The BBC did submit an FOI to all councils in the region in relation to waiting lists.
They discovered that one person in Thurrock has been on the list for 57 years!.
A council spokesperson said: “The applicant is an 81-year-old single lady living in East Tilbury in private rented accommodation – a semi detached home. She is in a good home with full central heating and has lived there since 1948.
“Her application date is 26 May 1955 (57 years ago), but she has never placed a bid on a home but regularly re-registers her application each year.
“She never contacts the housing team although has responded to a medical survey the council carried out and has indicated she is completely able and has no medical needs to take into account.”
It would appear that Polly forgot to mention that it is a Tory policy that will allow Thurrock Council to build new affordable housing. But then Polly’s memory isn’t that good is it. She completely forgot about the last 13 years of Labour government when Thurrock Council managed to build, oh yes zero affordable homes. Another Labour achievemnet forgotten about by Polly.
Hmmm, Maybe Polly needs to check herself into the nearest rest home, she seems to have lost all her memories prior to the last 12 months……..
She has more spin than a roundabout.