A DISABLED pensioner who was a virtual prisoner in her own lounge because the council delayed widening her doors can finally reach her own bedroom.
Cheshire West and Chester Council contractors have at last carried out work on the internal doors of 80-year-old Mary Blackwell. But she is still unable to leave the house in her wheelchair.
Her brother John Peake, 64, fought tirelessly on her behalf from his home in Anglesey.
He said: “They have further committed to remove her front window and install a patio type door and access ramp so that she will be able to leave her home in her wheelchair.”
The pensioner, of New Road, Childer Thornton, was struck down last June by an inability to stand without suffering intense pain.
Since then she has relied upon a wheelchair to get around – but the door to her bedroom and bathroom was too narrow to allow the chair to pass.
After months of asking, the council finally acted so that she can use the toilet and sleep in her bed for the first time in nearly a year.
Ms Blackwell said: “They’ve done a good job. When they do the window and ramp and rails, I’ll be able to get out on the path. Not since the middle of June have I had the smell of fresh air.”
Her brother, a former site manager at Vauxhall Ellesmere Port, travels from his home in Anglesey to visit his sister.
In February John’s concerns at the delay were registered as an offical complaint, by Mark Palethorpe, director of adult social care & health at Cheshire West and Chester Council.
He asked the council’s solutions team to log his concerns so that they could be thoroughly investigated.
