Perth family threatened with another damp winter

Nov 20 2009 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

BLEAK housing conditions are putting a Perth family’s health at risk, it was claimed yesterday.

Fair City mum Ashleigh O’Brien told the PA that she feared for the welfare of her six-year-old daughter amid plummeting temperatures in their ground floor home in the Letham district.

Ms O’Brien (25), who suffers from asthma, has raised the issue of unfit housing with Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham.

The mother praised Perth and Kinross Council for carrying out improvements to her Logie Crescent home last summer, but is dreading another winter in the damp-threatened flat.

“The problem started in the back of the house last year and now it has spread to the front,” she said yesterday.

“My clothes, which were covered in green mould, and half my shoes have been wrecked.

“I clean the walls but damp starts riding up them again. It always comes back.

“I cannot put everything in the middle of the room and jump over it.

“It has got to the stage where I have even got to put a blanket round my doors to stop drafts.

“My daughter Kayleigh was off school last week because it was so cold. She fell ill and had to sleep with me because two duvets on her bed weren’t enough.”

Ms O’Brien believes her asthma has worsened as a result of her move to the house two years ago.

“It seems I have always got to use my inhaler more in the winter,” she said.

“The central heating is on so high I have got to watch my daughter doesn’t burn herself.

“I only get £80 a fortnight on Income Support. But it’s the same now as last winter and it is costing me over £30 a week.

“I can’t afford to live like this.”

The concerned parent said her home, which was built around 65 years ago, has continued to falter despite recent improvements.

“The smell that was here before has gone but not the damp,” Ms O’Brien claimed.

“It feels like the cold is coming up through the ground. Every night I have to put duct tape round the doors that stays on until we get up in the morning.”

A Perth and Kinross Council spokesman said housing repairs staff were trying to resolve the Logie Crescent problems.

But he insisted only condensation, not dampness, was found in the property following an independent damp specialist’s inspection last February.

“Specialist insulation, additional draft excluders, fillers around doors and windows and a wall mounted ventilation unit were subsequently installed,” said the spokesman.

“Advice in relation to the prevention of condensation and the importance of adequate ventilation of the property has been provided to the tenant.

“Our senior property inspector is monitoring progress in this case.”