Stonehouse couple Feeling mucked about by what's happening in their home

May 15 2008

A FURIOUS Stonehouse couple have been left homeless while their home undergoes an upgrade.

Moira and Norman Hamilton, of McLean Gardens, were due to have their kitchen and bathroom replaced on Monday as part of South Lanarkshire’s Home Happening programme.

The elderly couple were told on Thursday last week that the community hall within the sheltered housing complex would remain open to provide them with somewhere to stay.

But by Friday, they had been told that the hall would be shut for up to two weeks to enable workers to install a new heating system there.

Norman (76) is severely disabled as a result of having cerebal palsy. He was offered the chance to go into respite care during the course of the upgrade, a gesture which angered both him and his wife and full-time carer Moira.

They were also told that they could use a house in the village’s Camnethan Street for a few days while the work in their own home was completed.

Mrs Hamilton said: “These suggestions were very poor. Given that my husband is disabled, how am I supposed to get him into a house that has a flight of stairs up to its entrance?

“If anything we should have been given special priority because of Norman’s condition and instead we have been mucked about since Home Happening began at McLean Gardens at the start of the year.

“The hall was supposed to be open for residents to use during the works and yet when we need it, they close it down... it’s awful.

“I want whoever is responsible to accept that this is their problem and realise that this has had adverse affects on my husband.

“It has been a very stressful time and he has been getting himself into a terrible state. He has even had panic attacks at night.

“The whole thing could have been avoided if they had just kept the hall open.”

The couple have now made plans to stay with Mrs Hamilton’s cousin who also lives in McLean Gardens.

A South Lanarkshire Council spokesman said: “When the work was arranged in Mr and Mrs Hamilton’s home, it was thought that the common room would be available.

“However, as the works to the common room took longer than originally thought, we contacted Mr and Mrs Hamilton and offered to re-arrange the work in their house to a time when the common room would be available.

“Mr and Mrs Hamilton have, however, decided to stay with relatives during the day to allow the work to take place as planned.”

This is not the first time that residents in McLean Gardens have complained about being inconvenienced as a result of Home Happening programme.

In January they hit out at the arrangements for the upgrade.

Elderly residents voiced safety concerns about leaving their homes in the hands of strangers.

They also said they were given just one week’s notice of the work meaning that they had to vacate their homes between 8am and 4pm every day until the upgrade, which had been expected to last up to two weeks, was complete.