You can access real time air quality information via this website. Just click on the link below:
Many people will have heard of the tragic death of a child in Taunton, Somerset, due to problems with the hot water system in the council house.
We understand that she died as a result of a faulty thermostat on the immersion heater causing the hot water to overheat and be discharged into the cold water storage tank in the loft. That in turn overheated and leaked hot water onto the child as she slept.
The particular set of circumstances in this case were unusual, and tenants should not panic just because they may have an immersion heater. We have a reducing number of immersion heaters in council houses anyway, as when we install new heating systems, we are fitting gas combination boilers and these do away with the need for immersion heaters and cold water storage tanks.
We take our responsibilities as landlord seriously and comply with all the necessary safety checks.
We will seek further advice from the Health and Safety Executive to see what lessons may be learnt from the Taunton case. In the meantime, tenants should let us know if they have any particular concerns over their hot water systems. In particular, they should look out for the following:
In the event of a tenant experiencing such problems, they should turn their immersion off and contact the council on 0151 356 6503.
