Pembrokeshire County Council is offering it's tenants the chance to renew faulty taps, tattered skirting boards, and more as they bring back non-emergency responsive repairs.

The news comes as easing of Covid restrictions continue, and its building maintenance teams have enough leeway to enter homes and carry out further repairs.

Previously only emergency responsive repairs were allowed to take place within the Covid guidelines, which included things like burst water pipes, total electrical failure, gas faults, and severe roof leaks.

A spokesman for the county council said: "The Contact Centre receives around 38,000 building maintenance related service requests each year and even throughout lockdown Building Maintenance have proudly maintained a 99.2% success rate in responding to emergency repairs within 24hours since restrictions came into force."

The period of time someone will be waiting for all kinds of repairs from now on are expected to be as follows, according to the councils website:

  • 24 hours for an emergency repair
  • nine days for a urgent repair which includes; faulty water, electrical faults, storm damage, and leaking pipes
  • 35 days for routine repairs listed above

The council said backlog is likely to take several months and is dependent on a number of factors including the numbers of repair requests received, availability of materials and contractors.

One of the ways the council will be combating the back log will be by implementing 'Repair Finder'; a tool in its final stages of completion. The Repair Finder will enable Contact Centre staff to carry out services quicker and let normal operations function better.

The online tool will be available later on in the year, and will let tenants go online to report service repairs at the 'Housing Online' portal. The hope for the tool is to reduce the length of calls to the Contact Centre and subsequently reduce call-waiting times.

When residents report a problem within their home via the Call Centre or ‘Repair Finder’, they will receive text message alerts informing them of the timescales within which they can expect the repair to be made.

Cabinet member for Housing, Cllr Michelle Bateman said: “We’re under no illusion that lockdown measures have caused a major disruption to the building maintenance service.

“We’re receiving new requests now on top of those that have been on standby during the Covid restrictions. Pembrokeshire residents have shown tremendous patience and understanding of services that have been stretched throughout the crisis so we’re counting on their ongoing support and we hope they appreciate that it will take a period of time to get back to where we were.

If you wish to report a repair to your home you can call the Contact Centre on 01437 764551