Feminist author Laurie Penny returns from shops to find the patio at her Islington home has VANISHED because council took tiles away to repair them but did not inform her
- Journalist Laurie Penny, 35, was baffled after her patio mysteriously disappeared
- She came home from shopping on Monday, August 29, to find the tiles removed
- Penny noticed scaffolding was erected and figured it wasn’t the work of thieves
- After taking to Twitter, Islington Council informed her tiles were being repaired
A well-known feminist journalist was left bewildered after returning home from the shops last week to find out that her patio had been completely uplifted and taken away.
Laurie Penny, 35, left her north London home to go shopping for just a few hours on Monday, August 29.
She returned to find all of her patio tiles had vanished, while her furniture was very politely left stacked up neatly.
Penny, feeling baffled, took to social media to ask Islington Council why her patio was missing – after noticing that scaffolding had been set up to get onto her patio.
‘Thieves don’t generally tidy up afterwards. Or stack the furniture so neatly,’ she noted.
Journalist Laurie Penny returned to her north London home on Monday, August 29, to find her patio tiles had vanished, while the other garden furniture was neatly stacked
Penny quickly figured out that thieves weren’t behind the missing tiles and took Islington Council to task on Twitter
Addressing the council, Laurie tweeted: ‘This is awkward, but yesterday, I had a patio that I quite liked. This morning I popped out to the shops for a couple of hours, and now it’s well, um, it’s gone… I know you’re busy, but could you tell me who took my patio, and perhaps also why?’
Islington Council finally answered the mystery, saying that they had to remove the patio tiles and renew its waterproof membrane due to a serious leak at the property.
They admitted that Penny should have been informed her patio would be taken apart and apologised for the inconvenience.
A spokesperson for Islington Council said: ‘Islington Council is committed to ensuring that everyone in the borough has a place to live that is safe, secure, and comfortable.
Penny tweeted again yesterday, showing that some of the tiles had been returned – while scaffolding had moved to a neighbour’s property
Islington Council explained that a contractor had removed the tiles to repair their waterproof membranes after a leak – but they failed to let Ms Penny know in advance
‘Due to a serious leak at this resident’s property, it’s been necessary to remove patio tiles at the property and renew the waterproof membrane.
‘The resident should have been contacted by the contractor in advance of the work taking place but, regrettably, this did not happen.
‘The council has reached out to the resident to apologise, to discuss any concerns, and to reassure her that the patio will be fully reinstated.’
They added that the work to replace Laurie’s patio was nearly complete and should be done so by Monday, September 5.
Penny told local media: ‘It was a hilarious mess up, but it has a happy ending. By next week I should have a new patio!’
Penny began her career at Morning Star and went on to establish herself as a left-leaning commentator and features writer, critiquing Milo Yiannopoullos and other rightwing pundits.
Her stories have become famous online for dividing opinion and attracting comments from trolls, some of who she said threatened her on a regular basis.
In 2018, she revealed revealed the torrents of online abuse she faced as figures showed one in five women are sexually harassed online. The journalist was forced to move out of her home after being threatened with a bomb and is subjected to daily threats of rape.
The piece, published on Longreads, Penny said she resented being called ‘provocative’ for her views and believes she is targeted for being a woman.
Her book ‘Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback’ was published earlier this year to mixed reviews. Writing in The Guardian, reviewer Rachel Cooke described it as ‘lacking serious analysis’ and ‘ill-edited, ill-considered drivel’.
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