On Monday 8 December, the Housing Committee of the Council will meet, at the Conservative Party’s request, to consider changes to the allocation of social housing for applicants.  You can read the report here.   The article below is longer than usual – when you’ve read it, I hope you understand why.

Personally, I don’t believe the current system is working.  That’s not to say targets aren’t being met and staff aren’t doing their best to meet the targets but, if you look at it from the perspective of someone who is trying to find a home to rent, the system is shambolic and random.

Case One: A young family in Cherry Tree Road were offered a godforesaken hole of a property and, when they turned it down, they are now further down the list.  Nothing, it seems, can alter that.  So the system is saying tough.

Case Two: Here, though, is perhaps the worst example I have come across.  I’ve not used the full names of the people, as I haven’t sought their permission but the case is genuine and I will be taking it up on Monday morning.

Yesterday morning, I called to see Mr B and his partner Ms C at their semi-detached home rented from Wirral Partnership Homes, near Pasture Road in Moreton.  He had rung and asked for help with a traffic issue.  When I got there, it was much more than a traffic issue. 

Stroke victim

Ms C had a intracranial haemorrhage and cerebral vascular accident (a stroke to you and I) in October 2007.  She is 59 years old.  When I walked into the house, I saw her curled up in a ball on the bed in the lounge.  The lounge is also her bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.  Family pictures all around of smiling babies.  Her clothes hanging up on the picture rails. 

No bathroom

A commode is next to the sofa.  The sofa is Mr B’s bed as he can’t leave her.  She is unable to walk up or down the stairs and has had a number of falls trying to get to the commode in the night.  As she has no access to bathroom facilities, her carers have to strip wash her in the lounge using a bowl of water from the kitchen. 

The progress she made in recovering during a stay at Clatterbridge has now been reversed,  Ms C is depressed and was frequently upset while I was there.  Mr B is frustrated and concerned for his partner who he is spending so much time caring for and is probably exhausted.

The Primary Care Trust has written to the people responsible for managing the housing allocations asking for urgent help for Ms C and Mr B.  They are desperate for a bungalow in which they can both live in with dignity and with the facilities to help her recover. 

What kind of bloody system allows people to rot like this?  I did not come into politics in order to apologise for the system’s failings or gloss over the bureaucracy’s bungling. 

In spite everything going on at the moment – June and Alan Fletcher’s flooding in Reedville Grove; cuts to libraries and leisure centres and various planning, road safety and crime issues, Ms C and Mr B will get all the help I can give.  If that means going to the Director of the Department concerned, so be it. The local press?  If necessary.  Turning up at the meeting on December 8th? Definately.