1 February 2007
A single mum living with her daughter and multiple-sclerosis suffering mother were left for seven weeks without central heating after heating engineers failed to locate a single part needed to repair her boiler.
When the heating cut out at Kelly Rushton's home in December, she called community housing group Bolton at Home to ask for a repairman to come out and fix their boiler.
Engineers from the organisation arrived but informed Ms Rushton that they needed a specialist part in order to repair her boiler – and after seven weeks, they still had not returned.
Speaking to the Bolton News, Ms Rushton said that she, her one-year-old daughter and her mother had to suffer temperature of minus one degrees Celsius in her home over the Christmas period.
"It's been constantly cold and it doesn't seem like there's any good reason for it not to be repaired. It is unacceptable that there are minus temperatures in a toddler's room," she said.
"We've had to go to my neighbour's house to have a bath or shower. Bolton at Home has told me that it has the repair part so I don't know why its staff couldn't come and fix it."
Bolton at Home did send over two electric heaters for the family to keep warm on December 10th, but it reclaimed them on Boxing Day.
Since the story hit the press, the community organisation has since sent over engineers to fit the new part and has apologised to Ms Rushton for the excessive delay.
"Bolton at Home regrets any inconvenience caused to the customer by the intermittent fault to the boiler," a spokesman told the Bolton News.
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