u/Lo-Botanist

Hi friends, forgive me for if I use any incorrect terminologies. I'm posting on behalf of my mother and am not the homeowner and thus am unsure of correct terms. This is a council house for context, in England.

Earlier this morning, we heard a loud "bang" come from the ceiling and the ceiling started flooding in my mother's room, waking her up. The ceiling is soaked, leaking and we've had to turn the water and electrics off. The problem arises because for the past 6-8 months, we've been contacting the council because there's a huge crack in the wall, spanning from the foundation to the roof on the external wall, causing a lot of moisture, mold growth and drafts. My mother has COPD, but the council didn't do anything. The pipes had also been buzzing and rattling for the past 5 months, or so, and again, nothing was done. Now the tank has "overflown", but it sounded like a very loud thud/bang.

The council are sending an engineer, eventually, but communication has been limited. We contacted them about 2 hours ago (7am, it's now 9am). The water has seeped through the ceiling and multiple floors, but we haven't been given any information on proper safety or what to do. We also don't know where it's spread, if it's just the tank, the pipes or also the boiler. We're worried our electricals will become damaged/destroyed, that and no electrics means no fridge/freezer. We've also no water and no guidance as of yet.

We're quite angry, because it is an old house and these things happen, but we've been communicating with them for near 8 months about structural issues with the house and strange noises. Now this. My mother is disabled and they've shown little to no care. Is there anything we can do? For the past 8 months, the council has expected us to pay out of pocket for repairs, but this has just gone too far now. To the council's credit, it's still early morning and thus they've not had much time to respond, but given our 6-8 month history of giving them ample notice of issues... I'd like something to be done about it ASAP in case they fob us off again.

Thank you for any advice in advance. I want to say thank you now because I may not have WiFi to respond due to turning off electrics. However, I'll try my best to respond when the Hotspot does work. I appreciate your kindness, for those who respond.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your replies. Engineer has come and gone, and the damage was caused by a missing overflow pipeline and the water has been damaging the walls for the past 8 months, hence the giant crack in the wall and dampness. None of the electrics were affected (Thankfully), they're going to send someone to fix the tank but not the wall. As suggested, I'm going to send off pics of the wall damage and contact the regulator and possibly MP as well via my mother's accounts as this doesn't solve the damp/mold issue. Hopefully it gets fixed or we get moved into a new house. Thank you everyone for the replies, it was a panic.

Hi friends, I'm 22 and vegan. I'm quite young and got to wondering if being vegan has ever been easier? That maybe public perception had gotten worse and I'm just not aware of it due to my age? Or perhaps it's gotten better? Would love to hear from people who've been vegan a long time or even a short time.

Either way, I'm curious to hear when people found being vegan the easiest. Personally I feel like the world has become more hostile since I've started, but maybe that's because I'm more aware of how messed up the world is and am no longer in my baby-vegan phase. Perhaps my current views will change when I'm older and have had more time to process these feelings and come to terms with it.

Hi all, bit of a vent post as I’m feeling pretty isolated right now.

I recently lost a long-term online friend group (~2 years) after a discussion about the Billie Eilish vegan controversy spiralled into a bigger argument about veganism itself. What upset me wasn’t people disagreeing with me, I’m used to disagreement, but how quickly the conversation became dismissive and uninformed while also shutting down my attempts to explain why veganism matters so deeply to me.

For me, veganism is much more than a diet. It’s tied to my spirituality, ethics, culture, and lived experience as someone whose family is directly impacted by climate change. My friends reduced veganism to stereotypes like “it’s privileged,” “it’s impossible,” “but protein,” and “what about indigenous people,” without really engaging with veganism as a broader philosophy or taking time to research it properly.

What hurt most was that when I tried to explain why I was upset, the conversation was shut down and my messages were deleted instead of discussed. One person responded with “can we not, I already have so much drama right now,” and I ended up leaving because I no longer felt respected or understood there.

Part of why this affected me so deeply is because climate change is not abstract to me. My family is from Bangladesh, where millions of people are already being displaced due to floods, erosion, and rising sea levels. So hearing suffering treated like “drama” hit a nerve for me emotionally.

I think what hurt was the feeling that conversations about climate change and exploitation are often treated as distant or theoretical in Western spaces, even though for many people abroad they’re immediate, lived realities. When your own family is affected, it’s difficult to watch those issues be brushed aside as internet discourse or inconvenience.

I’ve always tried to make it clear that I’m okay with nuance and discussion. I understand going vegan is difficult for some people, and I’ve never expected perfection from anyone. I just wanted to be allowed to explain why these issues matter so much to me. Instead, before I could even finish explaining myself, my messages were deleted and I was muted.

Now I’m sitting with this strange mix of grief and relief. Relief because I don’t want friendships where I have to suppress my values to keep the peace, but grief because I genuinely believed these people cared about me, and losing a friend group still hurts.

I don’t really know where to go from here. I guess I just needed to get this off my chest somewhere people might understand.