Woman, 79, forced to walk streets for 6 hours

From the archive, first published Saturday 9th Dec 2006.

A 79-year-old woman had to walk the streets for more than six hours after workmen turned up without warning to remove asbestos from her flat.

Kathy Reynolds, who is unsteady on her feet and walks with a stick, was ordered out of her housing trust home into a cold wind shortly after 8am.

She said: "I had no warning they were coming - they just turned up and said We've come to remove the asbestos, love, you'll have to be out while we do it'.

Her mother-in-law and her friend, who both live nearby, were out for the day so she said she was forced to trudge the streets until 2.20pm.

Tiredness then forced her back to her Bradford Community Housing Trust flat in Alcester Garth, off Hendford Drive, Pollard Park, Bradford.

Mrs Reynolds said: "I think it is disgusting that I had to traipse around Bradford for six hours. I was so unprepared when they came that I had to run and make my bed. I made them a cup of tea, got my coat and went out.

"I took a bus and wandered round town. I did a bit of Christmas shopping but it was cold and windy."

Mrs Reynolds said she was left without a bathroom hand basin for two days after the work started on November 28. It was left propped against a kitchen cupboard until her son moved it out of her way that evening. Her shower has still not been put back and the bathroom needs retiling.

She said: "My bathroom is all upside down. The shower curtain is in the bedroom and the shower unit in the hall.

"I am sickened. You try to keep your home looking right and it ends up looking a mess. I am hoping they will put it right before Christmas."

Mrs Reynolds said the housing trust had written to her in October saying the asbestos removal was going ahead at an "undefined" time.

Councillor Rupert Oliver (Lab, Bowling and Barkerend) said: "While welcoming the recent improvements in housing trust properties, I am shocked and surprised by the disruption to the lives of elderly tenants by a lack of care and concern when repairs are carried out, as with the case of Mrs Reynolds. It is clearly not acceptable that elderly people be effectively evicted from their homes at this time of year and be as good as forced to walk the streets in the run up to Christmas."

Steve Short, head of operations at Bradford West City Community Housing Trust, said: "We apologise unreservedly for the inconvenience caused to Mrs Reynolds due to oversights on our part."

He agreed that Mrs Reynolds was not informed that workmen were attending and said the work was done by 1.30pm.

He added: "Unfortunately, we did not arrange the refitting of the sink and shower unit straightaway. The sink was fitted back on Thursday, November 30, and the shower and retiling work will be carried out on Monday."

e-mail: jenny.loweth @bradford.newsquest.co.uk