My home will be repaired at last

A mother has received an apology from the city council after scaffolding was put up around her family home and left for nine months with no work taking place.

Patricia Browne mentioned to her housing officer that the rendering at the back of her council home in Thurnby Lodge needed attention about two years ago.

After a wait of well over a year, she was relieved to see a team of contractors arrive to put up the scaffolding. However, nothing happened.

"They came on April 10 last year and put the scaffolding up," said Patricia. "I was told the builders would be coming the next day but they didn't.

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"My 20-year-old son is in a wheelchair and with the scaffolding all over the house it's been difficult to get in and out, as well as the fact it looks such an eyesore and it's deprived us of light all year.

"There's scaffolding front and back, all over the property, even though it's just on the back that the work needs doing."

Patricia rang the Leicester Mercury on Monday morning and, after a call to the city council, the housing department promised to get the work done as a priority.

They also visited Patricia yesterday to apologise face-to-face for the long delay.

A city council spokesman said: "An officer has visited the property and spoken to the tenant to discuss this matter and apologise for the delay in carrying out this work.

"The property has been inspected on two occasions. The scale of work required to make good the rendering may be greater than first thought.

"Given the inconvenience caused by the delay, this will be carried out as a priority."

He said the council had not been paying any extra cost for having the scaffolding in place for such a long time.

Patricia said: "It remains to be seen whether anything will happen, but they visited on Monday and the man who came said they were waiting for a report from someone.

"Suddenly, after all these months, they're expecting the report this week.

"They did offer to take the scaffolding down and put it back up again, but we've agreed they will take the scaffolding down from the front so we can get the light in again and I'm so happy about that.

"The Leicester Mercury is my new best friend."