'Unacceptable'
Alex Gore • Published 18 Dec 2011 17:00
2 Comments
A MUM and her severely disabled daughter face a miserable Christmas in "unacceptable" conditions because operations to install a much needed lift have stood half-finished for five months.
Arthritis sufferer Charmian Carter, 54, who has been unable to carry daughter Julia, 12, upstairs since she was six months old, thought her prayers were answered when - after more than 10 years of complicated discussions - Reading Borough Council approved funding for the lift at their Caversham home.
By August builders had completed the necessary extension and elevator shaft connecting the ground floor dining room with an upstairs bedroom, but could go no further until the lift was installed. But five months later the family is still waiting for an installation date.
Both rooms are still bare brick and concrete, and piles of furniture and belongings clutter the house, including the cramped sitting room where Charmian is forced to sleep alongside her daughter.
Julia has microcephaly, is in a wheelchair, cannot speak, needs 24-hour care and has never been to school. She is fed through her stomach and Charmian is desperately worried dust from the gutted rooms could cause serious infection.
Charmian, who moved to the Honey Meadow Close house a year before Julia's birth, is frustrated at a lack of information from the council, which is dealing with the lift supplier on her behalf, and said: "In a way we're worse off than when we started, because at least we had room to move around. It's like we've gone backwards - 12 years and for what?
"We just want it finished so we can get back to some sort of order. It's a disgrace. We're not getting anywhere, we're not being told anything, the council just say they are trying to get hold of the lift company. We're in complete darkness."
Council spokesman Oscar Mortali said it has been chasing suppliers ECA Lifts on "almost a weekly basis" since the autumn - six times in the last month alone - for an installation date.
He admitted: "It is completely unacceptable for her and her young daughter to be living in these conditions. We fully understand the hugely difficult and challenging circumstances Ms Carter and her daughter have to face every day as a result of her disability."
ECA Lifts managing director, Ken Lewcock, said Dutch-based manufacturer Access Lifts has gone into administration but is expected to be taken over shortly. He hopes to have an installation date early in the new year, and insisted: "The council know about this."
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 15 Dec 11
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Tony
Unregistered User
Dec 18, 22:13
Report commentWake up Council, Cancel the contract and get it from another supplier. The extra cost could be covered by a donation from the Chief Executives salary as a Christmas gesture.
Recommend?
Yes 9
No 1
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Wabbajack
Unregistered User
Dec 18, 22:58
Report commentHow about relocating them all to a single story building? A lift seems a tad ridiculous if the daughter is wheelchair bound and the mother of the Arthritis...
Recommend? Yes 19
No 4
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******
Dec 20, 12:02
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******
Jan 22, 16:13
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