HEARTLESS

Charitable Brian Munson, who has now been diagnosed with bowel cancer, faces a bleak future because Southampton City Council is demanding an extra £2.65 a week in rent for the time he cared for his sick wife at his city home.

Next week 65-year-old Brian will try to keep the roof over his head when he goes head to head with the council. Last night the council's Cabinet member for housing and homes Paul Russell pledged to look into the case.

At Southampton County Court on Monday Brian is hoping to have the council's possession order against him set aside.

Together with court costs resulting from his battle with the council, he now owes more than £400, according to the council. After not paying he has been told he could face eviction.

Last September Brian gave his ex-wife Linda a new lease of life when he underwent a five-hour operation to remove one of his kidneys for transplantation.

Linda, 54, had suffered kidney failure in 2000 and though the couple, who were married for 17 years, had divorced five years earlier, Brian remained her full-time carer.

Last August the couple underwent an operation at Portsmouth Hospital when Brian gave his wife a kidney. Both are now making a full recovery from that treatment.

But the row with the council stems from almost a year up to March 2002 when Linda moved out of her home with her elderly father in Sarisbury Green and moved in with Brian.

He was caring for her in his home while the council found accommodation for her close enough for him to continue being her carer.

Brian offered Linda the only bedroom at his council-owned flat in Hawkley Green, Weston, while he slept on the couch for almost a year.

He spoke to the council about the situation and claims he was not told about any extra charge that would be incurred by Linda staying with him.

But a year after Linda moved into her new home - ten doors away in the same street - Brian received a bill charging him an extra £2.65 for every week that she had stayed with him.

"I wasn't going to pay it," said Brian. "It was not fair. Morally it was totally wrong.

"So the council brought out their big guns and have been harassing me for the past two years.

"I kept getting on to the housing department to try and get an appointment to see someone about it, but I got no response.

"Every time I went to the council there were about 30 people waiting. I could not wait as Linda was still on dialysis at that time.

"Eventually this year they finally decided to give me an interview but by then the appeals service said I could no longer appeal because of the time that had elapsed."

In February this year, just five months after going under the knife for Linda, Brian was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

He had to undergo an operation in London and has just finished acourse of chemotherapy but he will not know until later this month whether or not the cancer has gone.

"I have got enough to worry about without being thrown out of my home for something I don't feel I should have to pay," he said.

"I think the council have acted totally negligently and immorally throughout this whole upset.

"I told them Linda was staying with me. I would have expected them to say something then. But they didn't.

"If I had kept my mouth shut then I would probably not have had all this hassle. But because I have been honest and up front I am being penalised."

Last night Councillor Russell said: "I have some sympathy for the man involved. He should have been informed by the council what the repercussions are if you take in a lodger. Having said that we do look at all cases sympathetically. If this person was staying with him because of the reasons stated then we need to look at that sympathetically.

"Perhaps we ought to sit around the table and talk about this. But until I investigate this matter I can not comment further."