I don’t often write articles about myself and my own experiences … but FM this wall to wall election BS is insufferable. Days and days of election commentators talking BS, excluding everything else …

Asbestos was widely used as a building material in the 1970s. People recognise it as being fireproof but it was also used simply as a bulking filler. Boy-abusing paedo politician Cyril Smith had close ties with Turner and Newall Ltd, a major asbestos company and promoted it despite health dangers becoming apparent.

Since asbestos was widely used as a building material, many buildings built in the 60s and 70s era still have a lot of asbestos in them. It is not particularly dangerous unless it is disturbed – particularly using power tools like drills and sanders – and fibres are released into the air. It is accepted practice to isolate and encapsulate discovered asbestos to prevent it from being disturbed.

My social housing flat – let’s call my provider BCC – was built in the 70s when asbestos use was widespread. Many of the floors were originally tiled using tiles containing asbestos on bitumen oil-based adhesive containing asbestos. The tiles were removed previous to me moving in and the bitumen adhesive was notionally isolated and encapsulated in a self-levelling ‘latex’ flooring to make it safe. Except that it wasn’t.

My social-housing provider BCC signed my flat off as fit for habitation before I moved in and actually before any work was done to make if fit for habitation. There was bare bitumen exposed where the flooring hadn’t been done. After that was resolved I tried painting the floors using a roller and the floor was so thin that it came away attached to the roller.

My social-housing provider BCC agreed to redo the floor in my lounge after this nonsense. It was done by a company – let’s call them FF. FF redid the flooring in my lounge on a Thursday but the following day it was cracked throughout. The guy redid it on the Friday but it was poorly finished because he was doing 2 floors at different locations and rushing between them and needed to finish to get home and go to the pub.

So the ‘latex’ concrete flooring isolating the oil-based bitumen adhesive containing asbestos is a rushed job so that it is uneven with high and low points and the door doesn’t open or close properly. The floor is left as bare concrete because that’s what the regulations allow. Installing vinyl tile flooring would involve a big premium because the floor is so poorly finished i.e the floor would have to be repaired or replaced.

So somehow my floor – I have no idea how – got wet. So I’ve got a cat that could have vomited on it or I had a friend who would visit who suffered from ADHD. I suppose that he could have spilled a drink and neglected cleaning it up, it’s the sort of thing he could do. So just living in my flat really. I didn’t notice because there was a sofa close to the wall hiding it.

The water gets into the bitumen and reacts violently damaging the floor. I complain to my social-housing provider BCC that my floor is not sealed adequately, that they are not managing and maintaining asbestos properly. BCC deny everything, says they and everything they do is perfect and actually tell me that this asbestos is “deemed safe”. As part of the complaints process I tell them that it is not a council surveyor’s place to “deem” asbestos to be “safe”.

So this complaint is now with the Housing Ombudsman after a year’s wait … The Housing Ombudsman notionally decides on complaints while what they really do is excuse social housing providers’ neglect. The “safe asbestos” shit will be coming from them – they serve as a ‘regulator’ providing examples to crap social-housing providers about what is acceptable. If it is excused by the Housing Ombudsman councils know the shit they can get away with.

So I have brown bitumen splashes on my wall at a height of a foot and more which have now dried exposing globs of white, fibrous material stuck to my wall. The social-housing provider BCC claims to have done nothing wrong and that the floor is perfect. The Housing Ombudsman will now decide in BCC’s favour and tell me that I’m wrong. The problem is of course, if BCC has acted so perfectly how is there asbestos stuck to my wall?