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Telephone call received from Mr Cordell 22.11.16

I received a call from Simon Cordell of 109 Burncroft Avenue at approx. 1.20pm. The call was
transferred by the customer services team informing me that Mr Cordell wished to discuss his
housing options/how to move. I took the call - he sounded agitated and said that he had a few
things that he wished to discuss with me. He said he was calling in response to a letter that I
had sent him requesting the removal of a CCTV camera that he had installed on the inner
communal/fire door on the ground floor of the block. He informed me that he would not be
removing the camera as he believed he was legally allowed to have the camera as the
communal area was his. I explained that he was in breach of his tenancy conditions as
permission had not been sought or granted for the installation and he could not install anything
in the communal area as this belonged to the Council. He maintained that his neighbour in
another block had a camera and had taken the Council to court about it and won the case. I
responded that I could not comment about other cases but my position remains as per the
letter I sent: That the camera was in breach of tenancy conditions, was invasive to the privacy
of other residents in the block as it points at the outer communal door and should be removed
by Friday 25 November or the Council will remove it and charge him for the cost of doing so.
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He then said that the camera was fake so it didn’t need to be removed. I responded that it did
still need to be removed. His voice was raised throughout the exchange and I had to ask him
to calm down and lower his voice more than once. He then said that he wanted to move on to
finding out about moving to another address. He proceeded to give me a full history of his
experiences with the police and previous housing management and alleged that ‘Jackie’, who
had previously lived above him and ‘Stan’, his immediate neighbour on the ground floor, had
victimised him over a long period of time and that he had done nothing wrong. This history was
very full and it was difficult to get a word in because he was so worked up so I let him relay the
information to me as it seemed like he wanted to get it off of his chest. He was very derogatory
about the police and previous housing staff who had signed a request for an asbo application
against him. I told him that I could not comment about previous action taken. He then came on
to more recent events and stated that there had been an incident between him and another
resident where she had shouted at him out of her window because of him starting up a
scrambler bike in his garden. He maintained that he was courteous during the exchange but
the police came and arrested him because she told them that he had threatened to kill her and
that he had been put in the mental hospital, had won his case in court and was able to go
home as of today. He said that he wanted me to give him ‘points’ so that he could move. I
explained that his best means of moving would be through a mutual exchange but he was
adamant that he did not want to do this and wanted to be moved in the same way that he
moved into this property 11yrs ago by being given points. I explained that a transfer was
unlikely based on what he had told me so far but that I could look into the position for him. He
said a lot about his perceived victimisation by his neighbours and expressed that he felt that I
should I have a duty to protect him. I explained that I had a responsibility to all residents living
at Burncroft Avenue and took the opportunity to mention that I had received some reports
about antisocial behaviour by him that I would need to discuss with him but suggested that we
leave that for today. He then put his mother on the line (she had been trying to interject
throughout the conversation) who said she wanted to know why I had not responded to her
messages to call her. I apologised for this and explained that I have been very busy but that I
needed to know whether we had written permission from Mr Cordell for us to speak to her -
she said that there was a written note recorded on our files in 2015. Mr Cordell asked her what
I was asking her and when she replied that I was querying permission I clearly heard Mr
Cordell say angrily and aggressively “I’m gonna do her over” and then “I’m gonna take her job
just for fun”. I informed Mrs Cordell that I had overheard these remarks and that I was ending
the call. She said that her son had now left the room and she was talking to me. I repeated that
I would be ending the call and that she should put what she wanted to say in writing to me.

Sarah Fletcher Neighbourhood Officer

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