Woman aged 86 left without shower for five weeks

TWO APOLOGIES have been issued after an 86-year-old disabled woman was forced to live without having a shower for more than a month.

Both Charnwood Borough council and its housing maintenance contractor, Fortem, have apologised to Neliya Hames for the delay.

The 86-year-old told the Echo that work on her Hickling Court flat bathroom started on October 9.

To make matters worse she says that there had been problems with some of the work already completed and that had had to be ripped out and replaced.

Mrs Hames told the Echo: “I am very upset. I’ve not had a shower for five weeks. It’s terrible.”

Fortem was appointed to deliver multi-million pound improvements to the borough council homes in last March.

It was awarded a five-year con- tract by Charnwood Borough Council which said at the time the partnership would make council homes even better in the future.

Regarding the work on Mrs Hames’ home a Fortem spokesperson told the Echo: “Fortem was appointed to undertake work at Hickling Court to provide a lowaccess shower room for Mrs Hames as part of its planned maintenance contract with Charnwood Borough Council.

“The project started in October and since then there have been a number of issues which have delayed the work, resulting in the agreed completion date moving from 8 November to 19 November.

“Fortem would like to sincerely apologise to Mrs Hames for the inconvenience this extended timescale has caused and accepts that it has taken longer than it should have done.

“The company applies very highquality standards on all its work and would like to assure Mrs Hames that the focus is to make sure the shower room is completed to her full satisfaction.

“In the meantime, Fortem has been working closely with Charnwood Borough Council to ensure it minimises any disruption to Mrs Hames caused by the project being delayed.

“We are aware a council officer is due to visit Mrs Hames every day until the work is completed.”

A Charnwood Borough Council spokesperson said: “We would also like to apologise to Mrs Hames and we will be ensuring this work is completed by Fortem as soon as possible.

“Last year we invested £6.5 million on improving tenants’ homes and while we accept there can be occasional problems when work is carried out, tenants should expect a reasonable level of service and on this occasion that has not happened.

“We will also be discussing with our contractor how this situation arose in order to prevent something similar happening in future.”