Mum injured after council home ceiling collapse moved three hours away from daughter’s school

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

A mum has been forced to commute three hours every day, after her council placed her in a temporary flat more than an hour away from her daughter’s school.

Fatmata Kalokoh-Larkoh was moved to a flat in Crystal Palace with her daughter last August.

Since moving to the area, Ms Kalokoh-Larkoh said her nine-year-old daughter has never been on time for school in Plumstead, Greenwich.

She said: “We wake up at 5am for her. It takes one hour for her to actually start waking up because she’s tired and still wants to sleep. Where we used to live, she woke up at 8am because it wasn’t far from the school.”

The mother said that the lack of sleep from commuting so far is impacting her daughter’s education.

She said: “When she goes to school, she’s still sleeping. She sleeps in the classroom.”

The mother said she had also suffered from pain after the ceiling in her first property in Plumstead fell down on her, allegedly after Greenwich council installed a new sink in the flat above.

She said: “The wall just fell on my back. I was sitting down to use the bathroom. [My daughter] just finished in the bathroom and I went in. And when she left within one minute, that’s when it happened.”

Since the ceiling fell down, Ms Kalokoh-Larkoh said she had been unable to work and found it tough to walk.

She said: “Sometimes I feel numb. Right now, I feel nothing in my leg. Sometimes I feel numb in my hands. I’m not feeling anything, I think it’s because of the thing that happened.”

The mother said she was evicted from her council flat in Plumstead last July after not being able to keep up with payments.

She said the council moved her to temporary accomodation in three other areas over the summer, before being placed in Crystal Palace. 

A Greenwich council spokeswoman said that Ms Kalokoh-Larkoh was in temporary accommodation after making herself “intentionally homeless” and that she refused attempts to help her.

They added that there were currently 1,700 households in temporary accommodation, and over 26,000 households on the council’s waiting list for housing.

The spokeswoman said: “After decades of disastrous housing policies by successive governments there is simply not enough suitable accommodation in our borough, and this means sometimes we are forced to house residents further away than they would like.  

“Every child matters to us, no matter the attitude of the parent, and we have arranged transport to school for Ms Kalokoh-Larkoh’s daughter so she can remain at her existing school.”

Pictured top: Fatmata Kalokoh-Larkoh (Picture: Joe Coughlan)