Is this Calderdale's Tradesman from Hell?

Every so often we all hear shadowy tales of cowboy plumbers and rogue builders. These workmen take thousands of pounds of hard-earned money from their customers and either fail to do the work or do a job so badly that it has to be done again at great expense. Its a sad fact that we usually hear these stories too late to avoid falling victim to them ourselves.

For that reason we are highlighting the work of a local plumber and builder, Stephen Midgley, that was brought to our attention and leave you to decide whether or not you think this person qualifies for the title of Calderdale's Tradesman from Hell?

Earlier this year a local community centre in Calderdale successfully obtained some grant money to pay for installing a disabled toilet and ramp as well as some additional plumbing works to be fitted to their building. Originally Stephen Midgley was to only carry out the plumbing and another contractor was going to provide the building and electrical works but had to pull out at the last minute due to ill health. Stephen Midgley then offered to take on the whole job including the building, joinery and electrical installation supposedly sub-contracting the work to qualified workmen.

What follows are the correspondence between the community centre and Mr Midgley as well as photos of the work undertaken by Mr. Midgley. If you know of any other work that has been undertaken by this person that you can contact us on this email link.

Please note - we will only publish photos and stories from verified people and actual addresses so please remember to include your name, address and contact telephone number.

You decide - is this Calderdale's Tradesman from Hell?

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Letter sent from the Community Centre to the builder

Dear Mr Midgley,

Thank you for your final invoice – I enclose a cheque for £1,000 as an initial payment in good faith on our part. As you are aware we have not been overly happy with the standard of the work undertaken regarding the decorating and now in regard to the ramp, which is poorly constructed at best and even only a couple of days later is already crumbling and cracking.

We have given you a number of opportunities to fix your work to a professional standard but each time the resulting work has remained substandard.

As a result we will be taking this matter to our Council of Management to discuss where we proceed from here and are obtaining quotes from a number of builders as well as Calderdale MBC to find out the additional cost of ensuring that the work is completed to an acceptable standard.

We will be in touch to discuss any remaining payment once we know the cost of finishing off this work to an acceptable standard by qualified professionals. In the meantime I enclose a number of photographs documenting the areas of concern regarding the standard of work you have undertaken for us.

Yours truly,

Les Siddall,

Chair

They received the following reply:

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Some comments by the Community Centre:

• The ramp was done the weekend before the final invoice and as shown in the picture is a complete mess, badly constructed and needs to be replaced completely;
• The whole standard of the job had been questioned repeatedly not just four items and the above photographs show the final condition that the builder left the job in;
• Calderdale MBC are not funding any part of this work and as they are represented on the committee and receive all minutes and appropriate correspondence they obviously are aware of problems we were experiencing;
• The shower and wash tray located upstairs in the building were for screen printing and are shown below. They also failed to meet an acceptable standard.

Additional problems uncovered

The Extractor Fan	The Electrical work & Hidden Waste

The second letter sent by the Community Centre to the builder

Mr Midgley,

As you will be aware, though we were sadly in the dark until recently, not only was the standard of decorating substandard and the ramp unusable we have now discovered that the extractor fan was never piped externally just vented into the ceiling area, though you are aware that this is a building requirement. The electrical wiring fitted by your team was improperly carried out and again not up to code and that the telephone wire to the monitoring alarm had been cut by either yourself or one of your workers and that was the reason the alarm monitor wouldn't work. In addition you lied also about disposing of the old wood, which you elected instead to hide in the old stairwell rather than disposing of it properly as you assured us you would do.

When you took on this work you assured us that the work could be undertaken to a satisfactory standard within budget however not only have you left us with something that looks a mess but has failed its building inspection. It's little wonder that your electrician never issued a completion certificate for his work even though he is legally required to do so.

You know that we are a small charity and that we had to fund raise to undertake this work in the first place. You also know that we do not have the funds to correct this to an acceptable standard yet this toilet cannot be used until we are able to do so.

I would hope that you would have the decency to consider refunding part of the funds you have been paid to enable this to be carried out but if not, take note that we will be contacting the newspapers and BBC to ensure that this travesty is highlighted and that people both locally and nationally are left in no doubt as to the cause of our misery.

Yours truly,

Les Siddall,

Chair

P. S.

We have just received your undated letter and noted its contents. To correct your assertion that the photos were taken prior to the work being completed – these photos were actually all taken after receipt of your final invoice and your notification of completion. We have digitally dated copies of all these photos if you doubt this and of course the various experts called in by us to look at examining and correcting the standard of your completed work are all witnesses to your final standard of work.

The latest reply:

The community centre has requested this story be published in full as they refuse to give into threats and accusations.

• They do not see how you can overlook not piping an extractor fan externally,especially as the wrong type of fan was used in the first place;
• The ramp was left as shown. As the photographs clearly show this was badly constructed and consists of a pile of sloped concrete and is not a proper ramp;
• The monitoring station was working properly prior to work commencing and was tested weekly. It has failed to work since work commenced;
• Note, despite his claim that he thought we only had £7,000 his final invoice was for £7,700;
• As shown by publishing this information we have nothing to hide. We actually received a number of grants towards both a disabled toilet and plumbing INCLUDING the screen printing area and the latter is obviously not appropriate to nor intended for personal use;
• The community centre will be happy to have their day in court;
• Regarding disability, it should be noted that three of the seven committee members as well as the centre manager are all registered disabled, including the person this letter was addressed to;
• Finally, the paint shown in a photograph is currently stored at the community centre and was donated AFTER work was supposedly completed by Mr. Midgley;
• This is an obvious attempt to bully and blackmail the community centre and no-one should give in to such tactics or allow them to stay hidden.