Residents living on the Pleydell estate in Old Street say lift failures are forcing them to walk up to 192 steps to get to their homes

• I WANT to express my solidarity with the residents of our neighbouring estate Pleydell in Radnor Street EC1 whose lifts have been breaking down and not due for renewal until 2025, (Misery of living with ‘worst lifts in the borough’, October 20).

I live round the corner in Godfrey House on the St Luke’s Estate. As in Pleydell there are elderly people up here, one confined to a wheelchair, as well as mums with infants and pushchairs.

I live on the 19th top floor and several times in the last three weeks had to walk up, including my 80-year-old husband who is in chronic back pain with arthritis. I think it was only his fury that managed to propel him slowly upwards.

We have had virtually only one lift functioning for the past year. As soon as one starts working the other goes out. And, before that, months and months of breakdowns as the lifts have little by little reached the end of their life. There are no new component parts apparently.

Our lifts were last renewed in 1994, two lifts for 120 dwellings. Whose policy was it to not renew before and to wait for them to start breaking down so we are in crisis management and facing health and safety issues? It’s disgraceful!

And how are the repairs being managed? How about proactive checks instead of waiting for the emergency calls from the concierge or the resident?

The apology from Islington’s executive member for homes & communities Cllr Una O’Halloran to Pleydell residents was too little too late. I wouldn’t mind one for the residents of St Luke’s Estate.

I am glad the psychological aspect was mentioned in the Tribune article. The sounds our lift makes when it is working are extraordinary and very scary. One time it sounded like the whole thing was scraping its way up and down.

Last week it was a continuous high-pitched squeak. And what about the fear and trepidation when you go out hoping the lift is working: the relief when it does arrive after waiting for what seems an eternity; followed by dismay when half-an-hour later you come back laden with shopping to discover it’s broken down again so you can’t get back up? It is torturous.

Notices are put up on the ‘Harry Potter’ lifts doors to let you know they are not working

The council have made no special arrangements for people waiting for the lifts to be fixed. And it is only recently, by request, that notices are put up on the lift doors in reception to let you know they are not working (above).

The number of times I have stood there hoping it was going to come down from floor 3 before I realised it wasn’t budging. Again it’s disgraceful! If you are not fit enough to make the journey by stairs, you are effectively imprisoned.

A typical scenario this week… Monday morning the lift wouldn’t stop at 19th floor, it went up and immediately started coming down. As it began its return journey, managed to stop it at 17th and walk up from there.

Oh, and the lift indicators are not always accurate, so you have to guess where you are. I call them Harry Potter lifts. You never know quite where you’ll end up. In my dreams they now go sideways.

I have enormous sympathy with Playdell residents. I am pleased to say, cross fingers, touch wood, etc, that our lifts are due to be replaced from January. (Presumably a different scheme from the one which puts Playdell first in 2025 that Cllr O’Halloran mentioned).

It will take four months to install one new lift, so by August of next year Godfrey House may have a pair of working lifts all the way up to 19th floor.

I also want to mention Bath, Newland and Paterson Court on our estate which are having the same problems. They may be low-rise, but if you are disabled you are still a prisoner if the lift won’t come up to 8th floor. And my heartfelt concern to all the other LBI residents in such a situation.

And the irony is we here are being gentrified in the old borough of Finsbury, bordering on the City, and are surrounded by higher and higher luxury private developments all dependent on lifts, taking the sky away from us. Will they have the same problem with their elevators in 30 years time? I think not.

PENNY O’CONNOR, EC1