Council tower residents in Motherwell left without working lift for over a year

The completion of works to upgrade the lift for residents at the odd numbered properties within Barons Tower in Muirhouse has been delayed by more than a year.

The lift was removed from service on October 19 2021 and was first scheduled to return to operation by the middle of February 2022. However, the initial target timetable was missed and subsequent anticipated completion dates throughout the last year were also not met.

The failure to return the lift to service in a timely manner means the earliest it will now be operational is January 18 2023 - a total of fifteen months since the replacement work started and nearly four times their initial four month time-frame - if the lift truly is fixed by January 18 this year. While the lift taking residents to even floors remains functional in Baron’s Tower - it presents a major issue for residents living with mobility issues in any of the 105 dwellings in the tower.

Local Councillor Nathan Wilson has described the length of time it is taking to return a functioning lift to service at Barons Tower as “unacceptable” and “shocking”. The local elected member has raised the issue with the council’s management team for the project on multiple occasions and said the odd lift replacement works must be completed in the near future.

The principal reasons offered for the delay is continuing problems with finding enough workers for the job and needing to start again with works found to be faulty. In a more positive development, the odd lift at Lodge Tower was made available to local residents again on December 2 after it was also closed for repairs on October 19 2021.

Scottish Conservative Councillor for Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, Nathan Wilson said:

“For nearly two years, lift replacement works have been taking place at various towers in Muirhouse but this has been accompanied by lengthy delays to the completion timetable in each case.

“Local residents who live at one of the odd numbered properties at Barons Tower have now been without their main lift for leaving and returning to the building for two Christmas and New Year periods in a row.

“Quite clearly, this is completely unacceptable and there has been a shocking failure to get the odd lift at Barons Tower back into service within a reasonable timetable.

“There must now be a sharp focus on ending the frustrating delays for residents and making sure that the odd lift is returned to service in January.

“It is welcome that the odd lift at Lodge Tower was brought back into operation in early December and following a period of more than a year where it had been out of service.”