Couple with five children worried over mouldy flat
A concerned mum says she fears for the health of her children due to her rented home being cramped and riddled with mould.
Samantha Penfold, 26, is living in a two-bedroom flat with her partner Andrew Morrisey and five children under seven.
Two children sleep in one bedroom, two in the other and Mrs Penfold and Mr Morrisey sleep on the floor in the lounge with their son, Leon, one, in a cot.
As well as being over-crowded, her flat in Bell Road, Park Wood, suffers from damp.
Mrs Penfold said: “There’s black mould growing all over. We’re at our wits’ end. This can’t be good for the children’s health.”
Two of the youngsters, Emily, six, and Connor, four, are Mrs Penfold’s from her former marriage.
The others, Sapphire, four, and Jaydon, four, are her partner’s from a previous relationship with her sister.
The property is rented from social landlord Golding Homes Housing Association. A spokes- man said: “Mr and Mrs Penfold moved into their property in Bell Road, Park Wood, in 2010 with their two children. At that time, the house was the right size for their family.
“Mrs Penfold now lives at the property with her new partner along with his two children and their one-year-old son, which means that the property is now very overcrowded.”
The spokesman blamed the mould on the fact there were so many people living in the flat.
“The build up of mould in the property is largely due to the excess of moisture causing condensation due to the overcrowding and we have carried out a number of repairs and treatments to the property over the last two years to mitigate this problem.
“We have also advised the family to use the extractor fans as much as possible and to ventilate the property which is common advice and practice for any of our customers facing similar problems.
“We understand that Mrs Penfold and her partner joined the council register looking for a four- bedroomed property in October 2016 and have been actively bidding for more suitably-sized accommodation.” Health commissioners are to make a final decision on whether gluten-free products should be available on the NHS.
West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group, which buys and plans health care for the area, has proposed scrapping free items for people with coeliac disease.
This causes the body’s immune system to attack itself if the person eats gluten, a protein found in some grains, causing pain and damage to the gut lining.
The CCG spends more than £130,000 a year on prescriptions for foods like special bread and pasta. It started 30 years ago when such items were much less common.
Healthwatch Kent, which represents patients, has published a report criticising the consultation. It said there was little evidence the CCG talked to people about their plans and that questionnaires don’t present a range of options or effectively deal with the impact on people with coeliac disease. A final decision will be taken on Tuesday, March 28.