Please note that names in italics are fictional for legal purposes.
I read this second letter from Mr. Jones dated April 25th 1977 again in the light of my earlier experience. It must be noted that at this time the winter had passed and that DDC had already put in writing to NHBC that No's 52, 54 & 58 had the same complaint as No. 56 Carlisle Park. The letter read as follows;
" DOWN DISTRICT COUNCIL
Environmental Health Department,
Telephone: Downpatrick 2461.
24 Strangford Road
Downpatrick
District Chief Public Health Inspector:
G. Jones M.A.P.H.I., M.R.S.H. Co. Down.BT30 6SR.
Our ref. D.D.C. 75/10 TKB/DE 25th April 1977.
Dear sir,
A copy of your letter of 22nd instant to the Clerk of Down District Council has been passed to this Department for our attention. In that connection I wish to clarify that you did in fact report your complaint to our department and that our Inspector called at Carlisle Park on the following dates, i.e. 29.11.76, 30.11.76, 2.12.76, 8.12.76 and 27.1.77, but unfortunately he was not able to see any evidence of smoke either in your house nor in the adjoining property occupied by Mr. Joyce. I am sure you will appreciate that the Council cannot take legal action in any such matters just on the hearsay of an individual so it was for this reason that in the presence of Mr. Curry, our Mr. Burns requested you to notify this Office immediately of the emission of any such smoke to enable an Officer to inspect your property when the actual nuisance was taking place. To date no such notification has been received so it was only reasonable that we were of the opinion that no further nuisance from smoke had been experienced. It would, however, now appear from your letter that the problem still exists so I would like to remind you of Mr. Burns's request and suggest that you inform this Office when the smoke is evident and I assure you that, so far as is reasonably practical, every effort will be made by this Department to verify or otherwise the complaint and all necessary action will be taken upon such verification.
Yours faithfully,
G. Jones. District Chief Public Health Inspector."
By this time I had written letters to a number of other people and Government Departments. Alfie Jameson my accountant and a councillor on DDC acknowledged one of my letters as follows;
"Dear Gerry, Copy taken. Will reply later. GA"
Alfie has never answered that letter since 1977, nor has he ever acknowledged or answered any other of my letters even when they were still respectful. My letter to Lord Melchett then Minister of state was answered by someone whose signature I could not read and who wrote on behalf of a W. Moffett. The letter dated March 23rd 1977 read;
"Dear Mr. Rice, You wrote on 28 February 1977 about the problem of smoke from your neighbour's fire which comes into your home through the dividing wall. The Department has no power to take action where it is alleged that a house has not been constructed properly. If the defect cannot be remedied under the National House Building Council's protection scheme, then the matter must be resolved between yourself and the builder, and you may wish to take legal advice as to how you should proceed. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive, at its discretion, may pay grants of up to 75% towards the cost of essential repairs to property with a Net Annual Value of £130 or less. If the NAV's of your and your neighbours' houses are within this limit, you may wish to contact the Housing Executive for further information. Yours sincerely, For W. Moffat."
Housing Executive officers did call out to my house at my request but they did not keep the second appointment they made. I wrote to the Sunday Post without success. Gemma complained yet again to DDC on May 3rd 1977 that smoke was entering our house. By this time the winter was well past, but we now had our fireplace closed up and DDC's Public Health Department was most likely by now getting a lot of flak from various quarters. At last, DDC's Public Health Inspectors were forced to admit that smoke was in fact entering our lovely home from the fireplace of No. 54 through the wall dividing the two houses. These inspectors now had the authority to cause the owner of No.54 to allow them to carry out a smoke test on the fireplace of No. 54. This was done. This test entailed closing off the top of the chimney of No.54 and closing off the fireplace opening in No. 54 while letting off a smoke bomb in the fireplace of No. 54. When this was done the gas from the smoke bomb entered our home, No. 56.
This operation was carried out solely by Inspectors from the Public Health Department of DDC. One of these Inspectors, Mr. Burns, came into our home and explained to my wife and me that he had given my neighbour, Mr. Joyce, ten days within which to carry out the necessary repairs to his fireplace. He also told us that he, Mr. Burns, would have to be present while the repairs were being carried out. It seems to me now with hindsight that one of Mr. Burns's fellow Inspectors from Building Control should have been present. It is recorded in paragraph 7 of the subsequent Commissioner for Complaints (C for C) Report CC 19/78, printed in full later in this book, that, "... no representative of the Council was given the opportunity of inspecting the work". On the assumption that the necessary remedial work had been done to the fireplace of No. 54 Carlisle Park, Ballynahinch, it is also recorded in the same paragraph of CC 19/78 that on May 23rd 1977 two officers from DDC's Public Health Department carried out further tests. Unfortunately the Commissioner failed to report that on this second smoke test, the owner of No. 54, a full.time fireman, was given the responsibility of sealing off his own chimney! The District Chief Public Health Inspector wrote the following letter to my wife dated June 15th 1977;
"Dear Mrs. Rice, In confirmation of your telephone call to this office on 14 June 1977 re the reoccurrence of the smoke nuisance at your property, I regret that the problem has not been solved to your satisfaction. I felt sure that the nuisance had been resolved when, even under test and in your presence, no smoke had made its way into your house. It is for this reason that I must insist that your present allegation is treated as a new complaint and I must therefore request that you call out our inspectors when the smoke is actually being emitted in your house so that the existence of a nuisance can be confirmed. Only when this takes place can any further action be embarked upon by this Department. Yours faithfully, G. Jones. District Chief Public Health Inspector."
Firstly, I had not reached the stage of complaining about smoke being emitted in my house, ie, the smoke which had been sent out from my fireplace into No. 58 Carlisle Park. Secondly, Paragraph 3 of CC 19/78 states that the nuisance "manifestly existed". DDC's professional Public Health inspectors refused to acknowledge its existence during the coldest time of the year when fires were used most even though that same Council, presumably through the Clerk of DDC, were able to and did inform the NHBC in writing around the same time that this block of four houses had the same complaint. Thirdly, the test referred to which, (1) Mr. Jones felt proved that the nuisance had been resolved, and (2) my neighbour had assisted in carrying out, and (3) was used by Mr. Jones to try to cause us to start all over again from scratch was, later that year, to be totally discredited by Mr. Jones himself.
On Thursday June 23rd 1977 the Down Recorder published its second article on the case with this opening sentence in heavy type;
"A Ballynahinch man has accused health and building authorities of operating a 'cover.up' to disguise a building defect in his home which he says they will not recognise in spite of contrary evidence."
I knew that the journalist, Pamela Gardner, had put the matter in a perfect nutshell. This article recorded the fact that I had just installed a smoke detector, that I believed that the problem was caused by the lack of flue liners in the chimney but that the authorities would not attribute the problem to the lack of flue liners,that the architect had specified flue liners to be built into the chimney of each house in the block but that in 1971 flue liners were not a legal requirement. This article also recorded the fact that an Environmental Department spokesman stated, "Certainly it is our duty to see that nuisances are abated, but first we have to establish that a nuisance exists". The article also recorded the fact that I planned to install oil.fired central heating at a cost of £1100.00, and that I believed that I had only the months of July and August to get rid of the smoke problem before the onset of colder weather caused people to light their fires more often and cause more pollution. It also recorded the fact that I was preparing a file for the BBC programme ‘That's Life'.
Four months previously I had contacted the Nationwide Building Society about the problem and received the following letter from the assistant branch manager Mr. R.M. Napier dated February 23rd 1977;
"Dear Mr. Rice, Further to your telephone conversation with me earlier this week I have referred the matter to the Society's surveyor who might wish to call to see the problem for himself. I confirm that this construction fault will not affect the property insurance."
The Building Society's surveyor called on the same day that this letter arrived. In June 1977 I received the Nationwide property insurance renewal notice in which the sum the Nationwide decided that No. 56 had to be insured for was £13,200.00, and the premium was to be£17.05. The monthly mortgage payment then was £73 95. In July 1977 I received the cheque from the Nationwide Building Society to cover the cost of installing the central heating. Of course it would not have been necessary to install central heating but for the smoke problem so the Nationwide were actually making a sale as it were out of my dilemma and they weren't complaining, not yet. A local firm of plumbing contractors, Gibney Bros., had the system installed very quickly along with roof space insulation and an indirect hot water supply cistern with an immersion heater. We still kept our fireplace closed up to protect the new owners of No. 58, a very nice quiet elderly couple and their son. We still had to find some way to get our non co.operative neighbours in No. 54 to give us similar protection.
Danny Sloan had only recently become a councillor and was a relative newcomer to our area. We contacted Councillor Sloan and he brought Public Health Inspector Nicholson whom I recognised from a previous meeting which I have already mentioned, and Building Control Officer Milligan to meet my wife and me in No. 56 on August 11th 1977. It is recorded in paragraph 9 of CC 19/78,
"In the note of that meeting made on the following day by one of the Public Health representatives (most probably Nicholson) it is recorded that the earlier sequence of events involving the Council had been discussed, that it was pointed out that the Public Health Department while willing to carry out tests on the flues of all four houses in the row could only do so - in the absence of evidence of a public nuisance - with the consent of the occupiers, and it was agreed that the Council be notified if any further smoke nuisance arose at No. 56."
I told these three Council officials that their Council was already well aware that the four houses had the same complaint and had put this in writing, therefore there was a public health nuisance.
I said a lot more but it was now obvious that DDC officers and Inspectors and others were going out of their way to find reasons for not doing anything instead of acting on evidence they already had and I told these people so. I pointed out that this complaint had been identified and verified in a smoke test carried out exclusively by Council Officials. I pointed out that the subsequent smoke test, not carried out exclusively by Council Officials, was null and void and should not be recognised. I insisted that since a nuisance had been proven and the Council had admitted in writing that the four houses had the same complaint, a public nuisance did in fact and in practice exist.
In such a situation it was not necessary to have the consent of the other householders to have smoke tests done on all four houses. The meeting broke up in deadlock. What were these people afraid of? Within weeks I was to find out!
On the morning of August 24th 1977 I rang Councillor Sloan to get something done to have our home made safe from what I now believed to be health damaging and toxic fumes coming from next door. Councillor Sloan, the District Chief Public Health Inspector and two other Council officials called at No. 56. At no time did any of these Council officials bring any scientific monitoring equipment with them. While they were in No. 56 one of these officials said to the rest as they huddled by the opening under the staircase that the smell reminded him of his wartime experiences. The smoke and the smell were so obvious yet in paragraph 10 of CC 19/78, Mr. Jones is reported as having only detected a "minute trace of smoke which he did not regard as a public health nuisance". It must be borne in mind that my fireplace was still closed up. My neighbour in No. 54 refused to allow the District Chief Public Health Inspector to carry out another smoke test in No. 54. There the matter had to rest. It seemed to me that this state of affairs was being very cleverly managed by Mr. Jones and his friends, and as it turned out, for a very good reason.
Our concern for the health and safety of our children grew as the days for the second year grew colder and the fumes and smoke got more persistent. We continued to contact DDC. I was especially concerned for Gemma and the baby she was expecting at the end of the year. On September 22nd 1977 the Down Recorder published a report of DDC's first public discussion on the case under the large heading,
"ANOTHER BLOW FOR GERRY RICE" . Down Recorder.
Down District Councillors voted to accept the report of the District Chief Public Health Inspector that smoke in my home which came from the house next door did not constitute a public nuisance. I was quite shocked at this because Councillor Sloan had told me before he left No. 56 that he intended getting the authorities to do something before one of the children was found dead upstairs, yet at the Council meeting he said that he supported Mr. Jones but was confused about what I could do in my situation. I was quoted in the Down Recorder report as saying that I was shocked at Councillor Sloan's complete turnaround but that even though I was surrounded by liars I would not be put off. The minutes of that Council meeting held in the boardroom of the Council Offices at 24 Strangford Road, Downpatrick on Monday 19th September 1977record that those in attendance were;
" Lt. Col. D.A.Rowan.Hamilton, M.V.O., Chairman; Councillors Bicker, Brown, Carey, Curran, Finlay, Flinn, Blane, Jameson, Laverty, McVeigh, Maxwell, O'Donoghue, Baxter, Osbourne, Quinn, Ritchie, Sloan, Smyth E.M., Smyth P.J."
Also in attendance were;
" Messrs. Allen, Clerk to the Council; Campbell, Administrative/Finance Officer; Jones, District Chief Public Health Inspector; Flower and Stone, Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, Egan, Down Development officer."
Cllrs. Rowan.Hamilton who lived in an old castle in Killyleagh, Flinn who was a well.known hospital administrator and Blane who lived in the large Xxxxxx demense, all belonged to the Alliance party. Cllr. Flinn's son, a solicitor, was later to refuse to take up my case because of his father's involvement with the Council. Cllr's Bicker, Brown, Finlay, McVeigh, Maxwell, Osbourne and Smyth E.M. all belonged to the Unionist Party. Cllrs. Cary, Curran, Jameson, Laverty, O'Donoghue, Baxter, Quinn, Ritchie, Sloan and Smyth P.J. all belonged to the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Of the twenty councillors, three belonged to the Alliance Party, seven belonged to the Unionist Party and ten belonged to the SDLP. Since the SDLP has been set up several years previously I had supported it with an occasional small donation and my vote. The minutes of the meeting record at the ninth item on the agenda, quote;
"ALLEGED PPUBLIC HEALTH NUISANCE - 56 CARLISLE PARK, BALLYNAHINCH (HW/1476). The District Chief Public Health Inspector reported on alleged Public Health Nuisance at 56 Carlisle Park, Ballynahinch and tests carried out by his department. He recommended that no further action be taken at this time. ACTION; Unanimously agreed on the proposal of Councillor Maxwell seconded by Councillor Bicker to accept the recommendation of the District Chief Public Health Inspector."
So, even though DDC already knew that the four houses in the block of houses, 52,54,56 & 58 Carlisle Park, Ballynahinch had the same complaint . see NHBC letter to me dated February 14th 1977. Down District Councillors accepted without question, Mr. Jones's recommendation. This must be borne in mind and compared later with Cllr. Alfie Jameson's submission to the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints. Alfie Jameson was at this meeting and accepted without question, Mr. Jones's report and recommendation. Compare the above inaction with the action taken by the same Mr. Jones and the same Councillors at the same meeting in regard to Item 13 on the same agenda. The minutes read, quote;
"ALLEGED PUBLIC HEALTH NUISANCE - LISBANE ROAD, SAINTFIELD. The Clerk submitted for consideration petition from residents of Lisbane Road, Saintfield received from Cllr Finlay, complaining about the operation of a dumping ground at Lisbane Road. He further reported that he had referred the petition to the District Chief Public Health Inspector and to the Planning Service. ACTION: Having heard the Report of the District Chief Public Health Inspector it was agreed on his recommendation to issue a Statutory Notice and that the Planning Department be instructed to enforce conditions imposed under the Planning Order."
I also noted that all the recommendations of Mr. Jones were unanimously accepted on items 8, 10, 11 & 12. I found item 7 on the same agenda most interesting when I read these minutes many years later and with the benefit of much hard earned knowledge. SDLP Cllr. Quinn's amended Notice was unanimously carried as follows, quote;
"That this Council request the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to sell off existing houses to tenants, subject to suitable safeguards or categories found to be appropriate, and that this Council seek the support of all other Councils in the Province and the Association of Local Authorities for this Motion".
I will never know how much my campaign was responsible for Cllr. Quinn's Notice of Motion. Given the magnitude of the housing fraud which was to emerge both in the private sector which included the Carlisle Park development and in the public sector housing which was for the most part controlled by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, and the response or rather lack of response of Council officials to my requests for statutory protection, I have to say that I think my campaign was responsible for that Notice of Motion.
We knew from a nurse who had worked alongside the previous owners of No. 56 Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, that they were "...tortured with smoke".
I can assume, with some certainty, that they too had approached DDC for help and like us did not get it. So, like the other owners of these defective houses they too sold up.
The Council were very well aware of the problem and as has been mentioned made this clear in writing to the NHBC. The Councillors must have questioned their professional officers as to the cause of the problem. This would not have been done in open Council meetings in the presence of the press. Their professional officers, both Building Control and Public Health, who were previously employed by the former East Down Rural District Council and now employed by DDC must have known the cause.
It was now almost a year since I had started shouting and given the press coverage and now a debate of some kind in a full Council meeting, they had had enough time to come to some conclusion. DDC's Building Control Department was responsible for ensuring that the structures of all houses, both public and private sectors, were built to the high standards contained in statutory law. The Chief Building Control Officer at DDC Headquarters was Mr. Samuel Conners and not only was he the Chief Building Control Officer for the District of Down, but he was also the Chief Building Control Officer over the five District Councils in the South Eastern Group of District Councils which includes Down District.
It was Mr. Conners who, in the company of the site foreman employed by the building contractor Graham of Carryduff, personally asked me to allow the building contractor of the NIHE estate across the road from No. 11 to dump clay from the excavations of the site on my boggy land several years previously.
It is important to note that Mr. Conners was personally involved in the inspection of this building site which comprises Mullamore Drive, Cushowen Place and Shanvalley Way. All the load.bearing structures of the houses in these three estates are built with terralux blocks!
I knew by now that there was something very wrong at DDC Headquarters. I was learning how local government was meant to work and learning very quickly the hard way what the consequences were when it was prevented from working. Alfie Jameson, my accountant and SDLP councillor was unable to answer my earlier letter as he had promised. He has also been unable to provide me with council services as quickly as he had helped to provide me with a mortgage for No. 56.
As SDLP Chief Whip, Alfie was the strong man of his party and was in a position to influence, at least, the other nine SDLP councillors including Cllr. Sloan. I was getting angry at what was happening. I told the press of my intention to protest at the total neglect of duty of the political parties as represented on Down District Council. My protest was to take place at the following General Election. I was to be a candidate in the Parliamentary Constituency of South Down. Quite simply Enoch Powell MP had let me down and Alfie Jameson had let me down. I was not going to let them forget about it.