Fife Council slams couple who painted front door Ukrainian yellow
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Pamela and Alan MacKinnon, who live in Overton Mains, sought Mr Torrance’s help after receiving a series of threatening letters and phone calls from the local authority demanding that they change the colour of the door back to its original white.
Mr Torrance, SNP MSP, slammed housing officers for being “pedantic” and “nit-picking” after receiving the call for assistance from the couple who painted their door in an effort to brighten up the front of their council house which they have stayed in for over 28 years.
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Hide AdHe said: “There is a whole host of issues regarding housing in Kirkcaldy at the moment and for housing officers to pursue an elderly couple over the colour of their front door is quite frankly preposterous and pedantic.
“Surely housing officers should be focusing their time and efforts tackling anti-social behaviour from nuisance tenants as well as unsightly, overgrown gardens filled with rubbish that plagues Kirkcaldy, and not bothering pensioners who meticulously look after their property.”
Mr Torrance went on to say that Mr and Mrs MacKinnon have been exemplary tenants in the years that they stayed in Overton Mains and that the officers are merely “nit-picking”.
“For long-term council tenants to be harassed like this, for what I deem is merely nit-picking is not on, and I feel that Fife Council’s time could be better spent dealing with issues that actually matter.”
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Hide AdMr MacKinnon said: “After painting the door and panel we went on holiday and when we came back the following week we had multiple missed calls from a housing officer who demanded that we change the colour back to white.
“In all the years we have been council tenants we have never been instructed that we weren’t allowed to paint our door and to be pursued so determinedly has made us feel harassed.
“I’ve never had so many calls from the council in my whole life and it really makes you wonder where their priorities lie.
“I would’ve thought that the council has more pressing issues to attend to than try to bully two pensioners into restoring a door back to its former colour.
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Hide Ad“They’re so smart on acting to this issue but it took them eight months to replace our garden fence that blew over in the wind even after repeatedly requesting for it to be fixed.”
Mr Torrance added: “This is once again an example of the council using a sledgehammer to crack a nut with their heavy-handed approach.
“Fife Council has appeared to have well and truly lost the plot!”
Amanda Cathrew, lead officer with Fife Council’s Kirkcaldy Area Housing Management team, said: “We have asked the tenant to re-instate the exterior PVC fitting to the original state.
“As per our agreement with the tenant, we are responsible for decorating the outside of the property where necessary. This includes windows and doors.”