Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/06/2009 - 19:45.
Within Clerkenwell, another residents group, called "The Peabody estate tenants’ association" headed by chair Eileen O’Flaherty, kicked a tenant off the committee for daring speak out against misuse of funds. Tenants finances, more than £16000, was used to pay for repairs to potholes on the estate that the landlord should and would eventually had done. The Residents funds were spent without consultation, which may have legal implications in itself.
After Leo Chapman spoke out against the misuse of tenants’ funds, Eileen O’Flaherty's clique went round and put up 33 letters accusing activist and committee member Leo Chapman of undermining attempts by the association to get funding to improve the estate. Mr Chapman was trying to get others to realise that it was the landlords legal responsibility to fix the potholes, and the estate improvement funds were a totally separate issue, which has been confirmed by the landlord itself. Clearly for such a large sum of cash to be spent by a small few, the rest of the tenants should have had been able to vote on the issue, but were not given the opportunity.
Mr Chapman has since suffered verbal abuse and is fearful of certain members of the committee. Reports from non-committee member’s shows support for Mr Chapman’s right to speak out, and people are generally horrified that their tenants association would single out Mr Chapman and post poison-pen letters on notice boards. The letters were later taken down by the landlord.
Other tenants not involved offered their services to help sort out the mess with funding, including a qualified chartered accountant, but his and other offers of help were ignored by the committee.
Storm over the 33 letters on Peabody noticeboards
Within Clerkenwell, another residents group, called "The Peabody estate tenants’ association" headed by chair Eileen O’Flaherty, kicked a tenant off the committee for daring speak out against misuse of funds. Tenants finances, more than £16000, was used to pay for repairs to potholes on the estate that the landlord should and would eventually had done. The Residents funds were spent without consultation, which may have legal implications in itself.
After Leo Chapman spoke out against the misuse of tenants’ funds, Eileen O’Flaherty's clique went round and put up 33 letters accusing activist and committee member Leo Chapman of undermining attempts by the association to get funding to improve the estate. Mr Chapman was trying to get others to realise that it was the landlords legal responsibility to fix the potholes, and the estate improvement funds were a totally separate issue, which has been confirmed by the landlord itself. Clearly for such a large sum of cash to be spent by a small few, the rest of the tenants should have had been able to vote on the issue, but were not given the opportunity.
Mr Chapman has since suffered verbal abuse and is fearful of certain members of the committee. Reports from non-committee member’s shows support for Mr Chapman’s right to speak out, and people are generally horrified that their tenants association would single out Mr Chapman and post poison-pen letters on notice boards. The letters were later taken down by the landlord.
Other tenants not involved offered their services to help sort out the mess with funding, including a qualified chartered accountant, but his and other offers of help were ignored by the committee.
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