Ill woman left with no hot water or heating for five months

An ill woman was left with no hot water or heating for five months as Sheffield Council failed to replace her boiler.
Sheffield Town HallSheffield Town Hall
Sheffield Town Hall

Glenda Stainton, aged 67, lives in a council house at Heeley Green where she has been the sole resident until very recently.

She needed treatment for pneumonia in hospital earlier this year and, when she was discharged, she was left without any gas in her home.

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Ms Stainton said problems started in June when council staff carried out a routine check on her boiler. She said they told her it was unfit for purpose and switched it off without telling her – which she only realised had happened weeks later when the weather got colder.

She said: “My family are going mad. My granddaughter has been staying with me recently and we’re both freezing and I’m really not well. I’ve got enough on, I can’t be doing with it.

“If I catch a cold I’m back in hospital, I might not come out this time – I can’t cope.

“I wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone else, it’s shocking.”

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At one point she said she put a big coat on, sat in her car and turned the heating on just to be warm and had put her electric fire on ’24/7′ but said this increased the cost of her energy bills too much.

In 38 years of living at the property she said there had never been any problems before – and that she now wishes she had used her right to purchase the house years earlier because she ‘hates dealing with the council’.

Ms Stainton said she contacted the council several times, and that she was she was ‘shocked’ and ‘disgusted’ at the attitude of staff.

She said she had to rearrange only one appointment connected to the work, because she was looking after her daughter who is severely ill.

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Janet Sharpe, the council’s director of housing and neighbourhood services, said: “We have attempted to make appointments to replace Mrs Stainton’s out-of-date heating system for a while now. We’re pleased to say an appointment is booked in for this week to carry out the work.”

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