DUNFERMLINE South councillor Billy Pollock is writing to Scotland’s housing minister after receiving numerous complaints about contracted insulation work in Dunfermline.

Last month the Press reported a Meldrum Court family’s trouble with the “dangerous” mess left by workers insulating their neighbour’s home but contractor VolkerLaser said that it was an “isolated incident”.

But following our story, many readers, including Councillor Pollock, got in touch to complain about work by VolkerLaser’s sub-contractors – claiming that the Meldrum Court family’s case was not isolated.

One homeowner directly affected is Emily Bruce (27), of Norton Place. Mrs Bruce has been having work done to her house since May.

She told the Press, “I would be here all day going over everything. They have still not finished and work started in May.

“I have a four-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter who haven’t been able to play in the garden all summer because it has been a mess – there has even been saws and knives left in the garden. Everything has just been a complete disaster. If the work had been over a short period it would have been OK to put up with but it has taken too long.

“We have had new windows fitted and they are putting harling up without protection – there is just little care taken and they have also left the decking covered in cement for days.” Complaints Councillor Billy Pollock said, “VolkerLaser are not proactive, they are very reactive. They do fix complaints but it would be better if they didn’t happen in the first place but they just wait for something to happen before it is fixed.

“The story of the family who were in last month’s Press is not an isolated incident because I have received complaints.

“I am writing to the housing minister about the whole situation.” A spokesperson for VolkerLaser said, “VolkerLaser have been working in and around the Dunfermline area for over two years and specifically on this significant external wall insulation scheme for some six months and are now nearing completion of over 540 properties.

“As with all live construction projects, there may be isolated issues which we need to investigate and then make ongoing improvements for our customers.

“Further training has been carried out with our skilled workforce and supply chain of sub-contractors to reinforce the importance of site tidiness and site health and safety.

“We have brought in additional cleaning staff to work both at individual properties and on the estates in general and it is worthy of note that many of these are local people from the estate where the work is taking place.

“We pay particular attention to comments made by residents and have responded to these on an individual basis as appropriate.

“The vast majority of the residents are very happy with the outcome of the work and will subsequently reap the excellent energy savings they will make, together with the general improvements to their properties and the aesthetic benefit of living in a more pleasant environment.

“Where there have been delays to the work, which does happen in such a busy programme of works, we have communicated these to residents and, importantly, our resident liaison team continue to be actively engaging with the community to keep them up to date on progress and proactively address issues.”