Газетное исследование

Residents have been ordered to remove washing lines from balconies – to prevent “heavy and wet” clothing from falling onto people below. Croydon Council managers wrote to thousands of tenants telling them that washing lines and three-pronged rotary clothes lines must be removed for health and safety reasons. The fear is that residents will overload their washing lines and their clothes will be blown off in high winds – causing injury to anyone walking underneath. An original letter saying that washing lines were an “eyesore” and should be removed was ignored by most tenants, forcing the council to threaten legal action. The new letters, sent out this week, inform council tenants that if they do not remove the washing lines from their balconies they face losing their homes. But angry residents say that even if they did have gardens to hang up their washing, it would get taken by thieves.