ELDERLY residents say they are living in cold flats and enduring icy showers because of faulty heating in their council-run sheltered home.
Pensioners living in the 35 warden-controlled flats are resorting to wrapping themselves in blankets or taking their chairs into the corridors to keep warm.
Despite their continuous calls to council chiefs to fix the problem – as Hampshire braces itself for another big freeze this week – they say their plight has fallen on deaf ears.
Campaigners for elderly people’s rights have branded the ordeal ‘appalling’ as 40,000 more older people die during winter months.
The residents of Winchester’s Danemark Court, who are all in their 80s and 90s, say the heating system has been problematic for two years but the situation has got worse since December.
Council bosses have admitted “a full scale repair” is needed but residents at the Gordon Road accommodation say nobody has told them when it will happen.
Violet Lipsham, 89, who is battling breast cancer, said: “When you get to our age, you do expect a bit of warmth but nobody seems to listen.”
The mother of six, grandmother of 16 and great grandmother of 18, added: “People have been here to look at the problem but all we get is excuses. Time and time again we just get told there is nothing that can be done.”
In some flats the radiators give off no heat at all forcing the residents to stay in bed and use blankets and hot water bottles to stay warm.
Mrs Lipsham added: “The corridors are beautifully warm but as soon as you enter the flat, it is like walking into an ice box.
“When I am in the shower for the first few seconds it is OK, then suddenly it is as if someone has thrown a bucket of ice-cold water over me.”
Barbara Fishlock, 85, a widowed mother-of-two and ex Help the Aged charity shop worker, said: “First thing in the morning and in the evenings, it is unbearable. The shower starts OK but it finishes long before it should. It’s as if someone has got the hose pipe on you. We all pay our rates and tax so why should they get away with this? Peggy Bodger, 82, added: “The month we had the snow was unbearable. I dread the next cold spell.”
Director of Age Concern Hampshire Chris Perry, said: “It’s appalling. For Winchester City Council to allow their residents in one of their sheltered housing schemes to live in these conditions is just not acceptable.”
A city council spokesperson said: “We have employed a building consultant to identify the causes of the problems in preparation for a full-scale repair of the entire heating system.
“In the meantime we will continue to do everything we can to help residents and to deal with individual faults as and when they are reported.”
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