A GRANDAD has spoken of his fears for his little granddaughter after a piece of roof fell from his building narrowly missing the tot's head.

The Glasgow Times has told repeatedly of the failings of repair work at Thistle Housing Association properties in Toryglen.

Shoddy repair work has seen chimney coping stones and tiles fall into the gardens below.

But this time there was a narrow escape for a four-year-old girl.

David Crockwell said: "My granddaughter has been staying with us since the lockdown began and so she's out in the garden all the time.

"She was outside playing this morning when suddenly a roof vent fell down and narrowly missed her.

"She's going to want to be out in the garden more and more as the summer comes in but we can't let her out there because we're in fear of something else falling off.

"The roof vent is plastic so it wouldn't have killed her but from that height it would have caused real damage."

Residents of Thistle Housing Association properties have faced more than four years of hell after a bungled energy upgrade programme of works.

The scheme should have taken 14 weeks to complete but years later and the shoddy work has not been resolved.

Glasgow Times:

It was paid for with £4 million of Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council money and carried out by Thistle with energy giant E-on.

Among a long list of failures, issues with the roofs have seen four instances in 13 months where roof tiles and chimney pots have fallen off.

This latest narrow escape makes five.

An investigation into the housing association by watchdogs found financial mismanagement and serious governance problems.

Despite support from the Scottish Housing Regulator, it was finally decided Thistle should be taken over by another social landlord.

Sanctuary Housing is now in the process of finalising a transfer of Thistle stock.

Glasgow Times:

As part of a formal consultation with residents, it was found that tenants and owners want Sanctuary to prioritise the E-on contract remedial work.

A formal transfer is still to take place but, once that happens, Sanctuary will work with residents to address issues to the roofs and other issues.

A Thistle Housing Association spokesman said: “We received a phone call from a customer this morning to report a plastic vent had fallen from the roof of their building.

“Our repairs contractor was immediately instructed to attend this address to check the roof and to ensure it posed no risk to the safety of our residents.

Glasgow Times:

“The report from our contractor should tell us why this happened and will be used to inform our plans for future remediation works.”

Residents say that other problems remaining include rainwater gushing down buildings, wall insulation filling with water and faulty windows sills.