Cancer patient’s anger at squalid council flat

DETERIORATING HEALTH DUE TO DAMP & MOULD

A 77-YEAR- OLD cancer sufferer with one lung says he is living in primitive conditions at a one-time showpiece council apartment block in Wexford town.

Nicky Carthy ( pictured), who is being treated for throat cancer, said his doctor has told him that living in damp, mouldy conditions in his flat is exacerbating his deteriorating health.

‘It’s very damp in here,’ said Nicky, pointing to one of half a dozen patches of mouldy ceilings and walls in his town centre flat at Abbey Place.

In the 1980s, the then-new apartment block won an award for its innovative design, but in Nicky’s apartment the signs of decay and lack of maintenance are everywhere.

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IN THE courtyard outside, the lights don’t work, but comlaints about them were bounced between the council and the electricity supplier.

Nicky said he had complained about the problems ‘101 times’.

He said the last time the council sent workmen to try to fix the damp was four years ago.

‘Four days after they said they fixed the damp, the water was coming through again,’ said Nicky, who worked for years in London before returning to his hometown.

‘Eighteen months ago they sent an electrician to fix the electrics, but now every time I switch the lights on, the television comes on.’

Nicky said the Borough Council had put the damp problem down to a leaky roof, but he believed leaky pipes were to blame.

He said he had had a lung removed some years ago and is currently being treated for throat cancer which has affected his speech.

‘I don’t want to move from here. It’s just around the corner from where I was reared.

‘I just want the council to come here and fix the leaks...who can live like this?’

A spokesman for the county council’s housing department said Mr. Carthy’s property would formerly have been the responsibility of Wexford Borough Council.

‘Since the abolition of the Town Councils, their stock has now transferred to Wexford County Council.

‘A member of the housing department will call to the property next week to assess the situation,’ he said.