An Ealing woman is claiming that delays by the Council have left her without drinking water with the result that her severely disabled son has had to be put into residential care.

Lorraine Jones first reported serious structural problems with her Willow Road home 5 years ago. After a succession of surveyors and builders nothing was done to rectify the problem until it got to the stage where she says 'there is not a square room in the house.

Work did commence last week on Tuesday but builders hit a water main that wasn't the necessary depth under the surface. Mrs. Jones told the surveyor who had come to inspect the situation that she was concerned about the health of her son due to the lack of water. He is due to have surgery next year to have his eye removed due to a degenerative eye condition. Despite assurances that the Council would be informed nothing appears to have happened. Mrs. Jones rang Housing Services but despite again being assured that somebody would get back to her nobody did.

The following day she was still without water and phoned the Council again. They did promise that help was on its way but nobody arrived so she was forced to arrange for emergency respite car for her son at her own cost. Later that day a council officer did appear but was unaware that the home was without water. It was agreed with the contractor that the pipe should be fixed the following day and the water restored. The removal of this existing floor caused the kitchen units to break up leaving Mrs. Jones without cooking facilities.

On Thursday a new concrete floor was laid and finished by 5.30 pm. The contractors came again on Friday but said that the concrete was too wet to work on but that the surveyor would visit later on. Despite staying in all day Mrs. Jones did not hear the surveyor arrive but found a note from him saying that he would be back on Monday.

Mrs. Jones is angry about the lack of concern shown by the Council for her plight. She says in similar circumstances she believes Hammersmith and Fulham Council provide temporary cooking facilities for residents.

She said "I have been trying for five years to get these serious repairs completed by Ealing Housing, even going so far as to employ a solicitor, who the Council could not even be bothered to reply to, so I have no option but to inform the press. Every year our rents go up, and the list for council responsibility of repair gets shorter and shorter."

She says that she believes the upheaval and distress is likely to be no available because the work is not dealing with the structural problem and that she suspects that the Council are hoping the neighbouring private owners will be forced to deal with the problem. The movement in the walls has meant that it has been impossible to decorate for the past 5 years. Mrs. Jones, as a result, decided to investigate the possibility of exercising her right to buy but was told that the property was worth £282,000 and was available to her at £266,000. An independent valuation suggested that due to the structural problems the property was only worth £115,000.

A spokesperson for the Council said, "Mrs Jones asked the council to find out why her kitchen floor was uneven. To do this we had to dig up part of the floor and we discovered that a pipe not bedded into the floor was causing the unevenness. Unfortunately, disturbing the pipe meant that our workmen has to switch off the water supply. This was all undertaken with Mrs Jones' agreement and there was still a tank of water in the property which meant the family could continue to use their bath, WC and hand wash basin.

"We agreed with Mrs Jones that we would remove the pipe on Wednesday and we are now back on site replacing it. Once this has been done the water supply will be turned back on. The floor will then be retiled and all this work will be completed in plenty of time for Mrs Jones to reorganise the house for her son. Throughout this we have been explaining to Mrs Jones what needs to happen and when we be carrying out all works.