00:01Hello and welcome to The Maltings. Yes, I'm back again with another video, which documents yet
00:09more poor, or frankly non-existent, maintenance standards by Red Row's chosen contractor,
00:15First Port. In this first clip I'm going to show you one of the block paving strips that are
00:21randomly dotted around the street, with this particular one now falling apart for the third
00:26time in as many years. So, when this block paving strip first fell apart, it took First Port roughly
00:37four and a half months to identify and fix the problem, all while a massive hole and dangerous
00:43hazard was left in the middle of the road. As you can see from the video, several blocks are missing.
00:50When I first reported this problem to Red Row, roughly two to three weeks ago, only two
00:55or three blocks had come loose. Now six have come loose, and they are often left either on the road
01:01or on the pavement, creating a hazard for both motorists and pedestrians. And the worst part is
01:08that First Port's chosen third-party contractor, Community Property Care, has been on site at least
01:14twice since I reported this problem. And not once have they come down to remove the loose blocks
01:21from the road or pavement, nor have they made any attempt to fix the issue. They've simply left them
01:26either scattered across the road or dumped on the edge of the pavement, and it has been left to myself
01:31and other residents to move them to a safe location.
01:42This second clip was originally recorded on 21 July 2026. It shows that First Port had allowed an entire
01:50pavement to become engulfed by vegetation, including dangerous brambles that could easily have caused a
01:56serious eye injury.
02:48As you can see, on 21 July the lower part of this pavement was completely obstructed by overgrown trees
02:54and brambles.
02:58This next clip was recorded on 24 August 2026, and after reporting the problem directly to Red Row,
03:05it appears that the message was, at the very least, passed on to First Port.
03:12But, as you'll see, First Port didn't do a particularly good job of trimming back the overgrown vegetation.
03:19They literally trimmed only the tree that had been completely blocking the pavement,
03:23while all the other vegetation, including dangerous brambles,
03:27remains in place more than a month after the problem was reported.
03:31And the most frustrating part is that there has been very little to do on the estate recently,
03:36because of the dry and hot weather. There has been no need to cut the grass,
03:40as it is literally dried out and shriveled, so there are no excuses for First Port's contractors
03:45not to have turned their attention to things like this overgrown hedgerow over the last couple of months.
04:19THIRD
04:46To be continued...
04:51And it's actually probably worse than before. You now have sharp branches that could easily
04:56cause an eye injury, especially if a child walked into them.
05:35In this third clip, a young child was actually injured in the park recently. I believe it
05:40may have been last month, or the beginning of this month. An exposed screw poking out
05:45from the wooden boards punctured the child's foot next to one of the benches.
05:56Here are some still images that were posted on the Malting's Facebook page.
06:23So, what happened here was that one of the original wooden stakes used to hold the gravel
06:28boards in place had rotted away, exposing a rusty screw. And yes, it is not easy to identify
06:35such risks, but as I have repeatedly demonstrated over the last several months, the standard
06:41of work carried out by First Port and their chosen contractors is absolutely appalling,
06:46despite the high maintenance fees of nearly £400 per year that every household on the
06:52street has to pay. So it is no surprise that a rusty screw was left exposed in the park area,
06:58which unfortunately ended up injuring a child.
07:02That pretty much wraps everything up for this video. Until the next time, thanks for watching
07:07and goodbye, for now.
