I WOULD like to respond to the Review (08.4.11) letter written by Mrs Gomery of Coleford last week criticising my stance against Two?Rivers Housing for their failure to comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines when exposing my wife and myself to dangerous substances in 2009.

I have no problem with Mrs Gomery drifting through life wearing rose tinted glasses occasionally looking up admiringly at a photo of her hero Mr Garry King on the wall of her recent refurbished room. I do however take umbrage when she writes about issues concerning others that I would argue she has very little knowledge of and no idea whatsoever of the serious consequences resulting from such issues.

It is obvious by Mrs Gomery's remarks on the subject that she hasn't the slightest clue about the dangers involved in breathing in even the most slightest amounts of asbestos dust.

To highlight this point I would like to give the example of the case involving a school teacher who developed the deadly disease by simply daily removing a pin which secured paperwork on a board that no one realised contained asbestos.

Mrs Gomery goes on to state that all the problems have been eradicated and everything is now dinky dory concerning my wife and I so why did we involve the press? God give me strength my wife and I breathed this lethal stuff in by the lungfuls and to anyone with an ounce of sense it would mean that things aren't looking very bright for me and the missus.

We have been told by medical experts that the nature of the disease is that you have no idea if or when the disease will develop, it may be in a few years or 25 years. The legal advice was given to us by one of the leading asbestos claim lawyers who stated that we cannot sue because neither my wife or myself have yet developed symptoms of the disease if ever.

Mr Montgomery went on to also say that if either my wife or myself in the future showed symptoms of asbestosis he would take my case on a no win no fee basis. This was a kind offer but unfortunately did not instil us with much confidence for the future.

With regards to Mrs Gomery's question regarding involving the press. Yes very much so and we feel it was our duty to do so, other tenants have the right to know what's going on and if it has happened to us it could happen to any tenant. There could be hundreds of dwellings under TRH built around the same period and even later than ours which have the same profile asbestos soffits etc.

Garry King recently wrote in the Review that the incident of asbestos release involving my wife and I was a one off. I am not convinced. Mr King did not know until after the event that my wife and I had been exposed to asbestos dust in 2009, how would he have known that a similar incident had not happened if no one had realise or a tenant was unaware and did not complain.

In Mrs Gomery's letter she showers praise on TRH and especially Garry King, stating that TRH have gone from strength to strength whilst under his charge. Seeing that Mr King was the first and only chief executive in the history of TRH I find it hard for her to make a comparison with anyone else.

Mrs Gomery has the right to express her opinions regarding TRH and Mr King, just as I have the same right of opinion to disagree. TRH have suffered many complaints over the years and too many have been reported in the media in my opinion to warrant any part of praise.

There must be hundreds of tenants and ex-tenants who I think would totally disagree with Mrs Gomery's letter especially after the grass cutting

fiasco which I think was another catastrophic piece of misjudgement made by TRH.

My wife and I tried our best to resolve this problem with TRH and went through all the correct channels ending with a final stage three meeting which was attended by Garry King and members of the board. We considered TRH intransigent and did not want to know. My opinion is that TRH like to hide behind their multi-million pound insurance lawyers knowing full well that the average tenant cannot afford litigation and so hope their case will collapse.

My wife and I refused to take the litigation path and instead proceeded with the determination by the Government Housing Ombudsman. a full investigation commenced and concluded with TRH getting criticised. I would like to end this letter with an extract from the report published by the Government Housing Ombudsman.

"Despite the association acknowledging it's failings to the HSE it has failed to acknowledge or apologise to Mr Jackson that procedures were not followed and has failed to apologise for the miscommunication that followed the incident. It is of concern that the association did not issue any response to Mr Jackson regarding the nature of what happened in relation to the asbestos, nor deem it necessary to offer an apology."

To this day I have never had an apology from Mr Garry King or any member of the board.

– Brian Jackson, Coleford.