THE home of an elderly disabled couple from Lancaster was left devastated by contractors hired by the city council. Fred and Emily Elliston, who are both in their 70s, were too frightened to leave their bungalow after workmen wrecked their burglar alarm. And the modernisation of their council home in Tarnsyke Road went from bad to worse when the contractors also:

ripped out television and telephone wires

left gaps and holes in their windows and the kitchen floor

wrongly fitted an unpainted back door

The couple, who have been burgled three times, were left distressed by the devastation of their home and only when pensioners campaigners threatened to take the council to court was anything done about it.

"We daren't go out even now," said Emily, 70. "We were burgled before so we never left the place. We didn't want them to take the back door off because we'd had our own put in and it was quite new. But they told us we had to and the new one doesn't even fit properly.

"There's gaps around the windows letting rain in and they just snapped up the floorboards with crowbars. It's not just us. There's an old lady in her 80s who's had problems with her windows. All these houses are for pensioners and disabled people. I just hope they complain to the papers or Mr Grave after reading this."

Former councillor Robert Grave, who campaigns for pensioners' rights, has been working on behalf of the Ellistons and helped secure satisfaction for the couple who have been council tenants for 49 years.

In a public statement he said: "The city council has finally agreed to put right the wrongs for which I have been fighting since March this year. This is a satisfactory outcome to a very contentious case against the city council to the benefit of two of our pensioner members."

Despite the lengthy negotiations between Mr Grave and officials a council spokesman refused to even acknowledge the Elliston's case and further refused to name the company responsible but in a prepared statement admitted: "We have policies and procedures in place which ought to prevent this situation arising and as a result of this complaint we will be conducting an immediate investigation into the matter."

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