A FRAIL Southampton pensioner has been told if she wants to have a bath she should think about moving house.

When great-grandmother Phyllis Anderson complained to the city council that she could no longer use the bath in her Weston council home of 40 years she was told she should consider moving.

For the past 11 months the 79-year-old widow has not had a bath because she cannot lift her legs over the side. Instead she has to wash at the bathroom wash basin.

Now she has been warned it could be another eight to ten months before the council adapts her bath into a shower.

Mrs Anderson said: "I just cannot get into the bath.

"Last November I phoned to ask the social services if I could have a shower but I never saw anybody until July this year.

"My application was only processed by the council in September this year.

"They wrote to me saying the budget was tight but if I moved they would have it ready in the new place.

"No way would I move. All the neighbours are my friends, the bus stop is in front of my house and my church is just up the road. I've been here for 40 years.

"When you are getting on in life you don't expect this, do you?"

Mrs Anderson, who suffers from angina, asthma and epilepsy and suffered a heart attack two years ago, applied last year to adapt her bath at her council home into a sit-down shower.

But 11 months later the former play school teacher received a letter saying the budget is under "enormous pressure" and it could be another eight to ten months before the work is done - in the meantime she should consider moving out of her two-bedroom home.

Ward councillor Richard Williams is supporting Mrs Anderson's plight.

He said: "It's very uncaring. She has lived next to her neighbours for donkey's years.

"You want people to have an independent life.

"When elderly people move it can be very unsettling for them. Sometimes they do not recover."

Age Concern Hampshire director Chris Perry said: "There is a problem nationally in terms of getting occupational therapy assessment. It is something that needs streamlining.

"If they have identified a need then they have a statutory responsibility to fulfil that need.

"The local authority and the PCT do have a responsibility to help her."

Mrs Anderson added: "I nursed my disabled husband for 20 years and I only had support once a fortnight.

"When he was alive the council ordered a stair lift for us but he died a fortnight before it came - so we never got it."

But the council has insisted it has no intention of making her move, although they admit there are long delays.

In a statement the council said: "There are extremely high demands on both the occupational therapy and the housing adaptations services, which both operate with limited budgets. Unfortunately as a result all applicants face long delays.

"While the council is happy to carry out necessary adaptations in tenants' homes, the letter sent to Mrs Anderson did outline the fact that she is eligible for a transfer to more suitable accommodation.

"The council has no intention of making her move but it is standard council policy to encourage tenants who are under-occupying their homes to move to smaller accommodation which in turn helps to free up much-needed family homes."