Sam Townend for Bristol North West

Is this Council letting down disabled people?

 Bristol City Council is making disabled Council tenants wait years for necessary adaptations to their homes to allow them to have a basic decent standard of living.  Bristol Council admits that its own tenants are getting a worse deal than tenants of Housing Associations. 

Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Bristol North West, Sam Townend, calls on the Council to re-direct resources to ensure essential adaptations are carried out now and to end the double standard with tenants of Housing Associations.

Sam says, “During my door to door visits in the constituency many disabled Council tenants, who want to help themselves, are telling me they cant get the home adaptations they need.  The Council has a duty to make the adaptations in good time.   Complaints by tenants are being ignored.  A wait of two years or more is outrageous- all these disabled tenants want is to be able to wash themselves.  They deserve that dignity. 

It is clear that the Council is systematically failing these people who often are not in a position to campaign themselves.  These adaptations usually cost less than £5,000.  I want to bring this failure to public attention and persuade the Council at last to act.”

Case 1:  Mr M

Mr M has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease.  He cannot walk any distance unassisted and is on oxygen 16 hours a day.  Mr M's bungalow has a bath which he cannot access.  As a result he has to have a strip wash assisted by his brother.

In September 2008 Mr M applied for his needs to be assessed.  Only in May 2009 did the Council send an occupational therapist to attend.

The occupational therapist assessed his needs as “Substantial”, the second highest grading before “Critical”, and concluded that the bath needed to be replaced with a level access shower.

Notwithstanding the therapist’s assessment he was only given a “standard” priority for the shower work.  A building surveyor has yet to come to measure up the work to be done with no date yet promised.  The Council has said it will take three months after a visit by the surveyor for the work to be done.

 “I was assessed as having Substantial Needs and that I need a shower because I cannot get in the bath, but it has taken one and a half years so far and a Council surveyor has not even been to measure up the work that needs to be done.  It has been a terrible time.” Says Mr McNamara.

Mr M has been through the entire Council complaints procedure and is now taking up the case with the Local Government Ombudsman.

Another brother, is a tenant with Brunel Care in South Bristol, has lesser needs and has had his bath replaced with a shower.  On this being pointed out to the Council, Tim Shephard, the Corporate Complaints Manager wrote in a letter:

“As you may be aware, his housing is provided by Brunel Care who operate a very different approach to that of the Council.  I am advised that were he a Council tenant, it is unlikely he would have been considered for the adaptation.  It is also the case that the demand for adaptations on organisations like Brunel Care is nothing like as great as that for the Council.  This allows them to be more generous in their assessments and quicker in carrying out the work.”

Sam Townend says, “This is a disgraceful admission by the Council.  Not only are they suggesting that to be a Council tenant is to be a second-class citizen, but that the Council is stricter on its interpretation of universal and objective assessments than this Housing Association.”

Case 2-  Mrs C, Southmead

Mrs C wishes to remain anonymous, however, all questions can be directed by Sam Townend or by her local Councillor, Jenny Smith.

Mrs C has multiple physical disabilities, type 2 diabetes, osteoperosis of the spine, sciatica.  This has resulted in her being unable to lift her legs.  The last time she had a bath she was unable to push herself up and ended up being trapped in the bath for an entire afternoon before a neighbour helped her out.  She wants the bath to be replaced with a shower.

On complaining to the Council, an occupational therapist visited her in August 2009 and agreed that the bath should be replaced with a shower.  However, the Council assessed the work needed as being of a “standard” priority too.  She has been told she has at least 18 months to wait.