Electricity North West and QuartzElec Harassment

You do not have to allow them access but beware - they will try to illegally disconnect your power supply.. Here's how to deal with the cowboys..

on 24 February 2022, Quartelec abused a vulnerable resident in Lancaster Court whilst a member of Electricity North West staff looked on. Having previously opened the door, he didn't feel comfortable letting them in when they came back.

Quartzelec (of Castle Mound Way, Central Park, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV23 0WB and 1 Central Park, Ohio Avenue, Manchester, M50 2GT (so as not to confuse decent companies trading under a similar name) made derogatory comments about the vulnerable resident's autism diagnosis, intimidated him and then cut his electricity off when he was advised not to allow them to demand access by intimidating him...

Although they noticed that they were being monitored, the 'bright sparkies' didn't count on the whole saga being recorded...

"We'll just switch the power off, that always gets them out." and "They'll come home for tea and find the electric's been disconnected." were amongst comments made by one particular dimwit (or should we say dimwatt?) whilst the others laughed on, including a young upstart from ENW.

We're bringing the footage to you, the people's Court of Croydon Drive in the coming days alongside their mugshots and plastering it all over social media. Since the Founder's family come from Rugby, we might even hire a TV Van to broadcast it for the day outside their headquarters.

If anybody can help match the names to the faces, please let us know in confidence.

Quartzelec also disconnected the electricity supply to the flat next door because the residents refused ENW and Quartzelec access given their unreasonably demanding behaviour including letters telling resident's when they were attending (and not seeking to negotiate and threatening in each letter that the electricity supply would otherwise be disconnected.

Both residents were on the Priority Services Register.

Due to the fact that there are no dangers posed by the existing electricity supply in people's homes on the Croydon Drive Estate and, given that their only other legal entitlement to disconnect an electricity supply would be as the result of non payment (and then it would more likely be your own electricity company and not ENW), they acted unlawfully.

Has this happened to you?

If you have had your power disconnected, please contact us urgently, either by Email, telephone or using webchat as we have Solicitors on standby.

The official position of CDIRF in advising tenants is as follows:

1. Do not allow Quartzelec or Electricity North West (105) into your home and prevent them, wherever possible, accessing the Croydon Drive Estate. DO stick up for your neighbours.

2. Do not hesitate to use reasonable force to remove QuartzElec and ENW from your corridors or from outside of your flats. You must tell them to leave before you can use reasonable force, give them a reasonable time to leave by and you must ensure that the force that you then use is indeed reasonable. Thankfully, the benchmark is not particularly high as they turn up in a group like flies. You are entitled to protect your home. If you can handle chavs in Newton Heath, you can handle these mugs.

Also be sure to protect the corridor cupboards (both the new one that has been built inside your corridor and also the one just outside of the stairs door as this is where they are switching off your electricity supply so, if you do eject them, that you eject them off the floor (we regret that we have to add, safely).

3. If there are a large number of them, and one of you, then the level of reasonable force will likely include dehabilitation. This article is not intended to amount to legal advice so please do check your position with a lawyer before acting (or if you do, don't blame us) but we simply must stand up for our community and vulnerable neighbours and demonstrate to both Electricity North West and Quartelec that their behaviour on our estate will not be tolerated.

4. Please be aware, where they are cutting your power off, they are switching off the power in one of two new communal cupboards that they have installed (one on your corridor, the other immediately outside your corridor stairs door) - it's only fair that you know where to go to switch it back on since they are illegally switching it off in the first place!

We are considering the possibility of ensuring that these become inaccessible to stop them abusing this. it seems that the whole project was in fact to make it easier to disconnect residents. we mean, if it was associated with Grenfell then surely they would have got on and sorted out the electrics at least three years ago...

As always, Croydon Drive Independent Resident's Forum is here for you and free to join for residents of Croydon Drive. We are contactable by phone (0161 660 6260), by Emailing using our contact form or on online chat. If you are not yet a member, let us know and we'll send you a code.

Further Information..

The estate comprises of four tower blocks and two rows of houses split into two flats (there are no cows but most of these flats do smell of cheese due to the damp in them). Some of the flats across the estate contain 1 and, shockingly, 2 and 3 bedrooms.

Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation purport to manage the estate on behalf of Manchester City Council, in association with Northwards housing (Northwards' Housing will, however, deny all knowledge of this). The estate is most definitely not run for the benefit of the local community with some residents describing the estate as an "open prison".

To find out more...please read our article "more about the estate" below.

Who We Are..

This website and its online community was set up by a resident on the Croydon Drive Estate who may or may not be closely related to C.G.B. Spender (the truth is not out there). It is entirely free to use and to become a member and it always will be. Personally identifiable information is not collected or stored protecting the anonymity of members. We only publish the tower block of the residents (so the person writing will be 1/72 or 71 people - dependent on the specific tower block).

It is not a breach of a resident's tenancy agreement to join Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum. The right to set up tenant groups is in fact specifically protected within resident's tenancy agreements.

The starting point for the forum was to create an online presence. The forum itself has the ability for members to send private messages (not read by the forum admin) and Members are encouraged to use their common sense in remaining anonymous and protecting themselves online. There is a reporting feature above all posts should anybody be concerned about the content - particularly where it is discriminatory or hateful - humour is of course allowed within reason.

Members are encouraged to have their say and provide feedback on the existing forum sections (including the popular "The Vent" and various general interests categories) and to request new ones. This also extends now to website content. We strongly urge residents to register using the unique registration code letters, most recently posted through doors in August 2019 by one of our kind elves.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is, unfortunately, not open to Contractors, Employees or Volunteers (including members) of Avro Hollows' Tenant Management Organisation, Northwards' Housing or Manchester City Council to protect the integrity of the forum and the anonymity of members and access is not permitted from locations run by them to protect the security of login details.

To ensure that our security policies are upheld vigorously for the benefit of members, we regularly lookup IP addresses that are logged when members log in. Our independence policy was ratified by members in 2018.

The Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum is set up by residents to further the interests of residents. It's that simple. A large part of that is to take the current Directorship (Avro Hollows' TMO) to task where they fail residents through causing as much embarrassment as possible.

If any residents struggle to register (you need to sign up using the register option), please do use the contact form link above (or the contact link on the forum itself).

If you are a resident who has not yet registered - what are you waiting for? A very warm welcome awaits!

About Our Estate..

The estate has security gates at every entrance where many tenants cannot get in and out of all of the gates without pressing the buzzer (although thieves can) and it has so many cameras that it puts Big Brother to shame. All tenants have their mugshots taken to aid with tracking them from the moment they leave their flat until they leave the estate (perhaps further?) and there is a 24 hour live feed available to lucky viewers on Channel Commsec.

Cameras are monitored by Commsec Security (when it suits them - incidents that tenants report are rarely ever captured) who, until at least very recently, controlled the access controls in Greater Manchester Police buildings - what do you know! Until recently, it was commonplace for gate intercom calls to go unanswered (including in 2020 to 7 fire engines attending a small kitchen fire in Lancaster Court), particularly in the winter, leaving tenants to get soaked. Commsec Security are, however, excellent at bellowing over the multiple speaker tannoy system from their offices about 1.5 miles away and regularly using foul language at the weekend when the Estate Manager isn't working..

There are entrance intercoms on each tower block. On two of them, tenants do not ever get to speak to their visitors as the dial pad has been removed and replaced with a camera, and, on the other two, Commsec Security like to randomly divert intercom calls to them when they get bored. On all four tower blocks, Commsec Security like to have a conversation with your guests instead, particularly when your food (and takeaway driver) is getting cold.

The MGMT..

We do have a highly motivated* Estate Manager (*highly motivated in going out of her way to cause trouble even though she has not been here very long) and, along with the Directors, the team ensure that the majority view of residents is never put forward and they won't think twice about harassing residents if they don't like you.

Employees are not disclosure and barring board checked and at least one has a serious criminal record, even though their employment at Avro Hollows' (which is paid for by Manchester City Council) could lead to them entering your home. "What happened to safeguarding" you might ask...

We take this moment to pay homage to the old Estate Manager who was a complete legend. More news on her leaving is due to hit you soon but it will make for very grim reading when we get her permission to publish it and we suspect the press will be very interested in Avro Hollows' TMO's behaviour too.

Our residents have had issue after issue with getting repairs carried out and with the way in which Manchester City Council and Northwards' Housing have managed new kitchen and bathroom provision on the estate. It is touch and go whether anybody answers the lift breakdown alarms and the quality of connection is so poor that they can't hear you when they do answer.

Contractors work without consulting residents and are as disruptive as possible. Complaints go nowhere when forwarded to Northwards' Housing. To this end, and more widely, Avro Hollows' TMO could not give a toss about what the resident majority want despite receiving around £250k a year of Manchester City Council funding. It's high time they went.

The Board..

The TMO board are extremely selective about who they invite to their meetings (you'd have more chance of being invited to bank with Coutts) and the majority of tenants do not get a look in or a say on anything at TMO board meetings where they are no longer announced for fear of tenants protesting.

Avro Hollows' TMO are certainly not there to make the experience of living on the Croydon Drive estate a "really happy one" unless you are one of a select few on the board with access to around £250k a year grant funding (from Manchester City Council).

Welcome to the Croydon Drive Independent Residents' Forum where we do things differently and respect each other.