Residents at Quayside Court in Lakenheath angry over 'ridiculous' heating issues at housing complex for elderly and vulnerable

Fears have been raised for the wellbeing of elderly and vulnerable residents at a Suffolk housing complex due to ongoing problems with their heating and hot water.

Helen and Carlton Read, who live at Quayside Court in Lakenheath, say there have been years of problems during the winter months at the development, which is run by Samphire Homes.

The block of 30 properties is for people over the age of 55, many of whom have either medical conditions or are retired.

Persistent issues over the last few years have left residents with either no hot water or heating and the latest fault, during the cold snap, has prompted the couple, both 58, to speak out.

Ms Read said: “My husband and I are angry and and fed up with this, it's ridiculous.

"You should be able to rely on the heating, especially at this time of the year. If the system doesn’t work, you have to change the system.

"It’s just very frustrating and it just feels like we keep banging our head against the wall all the time."

It's now Mr and Ms Read's fourth winter in the home after moving to Quayside Court in July 2019 and every winter they have had periods without hot water or heating.

However, the couple are concerned for the elderly and ill residents in the area who regularly have carers come to visit them.

“I think quite frankly we’re all fed up with this but it’s really concerning for the elderly people and those with health issues.

“In winter they shouldn’t be sitting freezing in their homes, it’s not fair on them at all and they don’t deserve that.

“They really shouldn’t have to deal with this rubbish, particularly considering how cold it is at the minute.”

Samphire Homes is part of the Flagship Group and a new heating system was installed to serve 21 of the properties at Quayside in 2019.

According to Ms Read, the problems began as they didn’t have immersion heaters fitted to their water tanks, so when the heating was down they also didn't have hot water.

Immersion heaters have since been added to solve the problem but the system currently in place does not seem to be able to cope with supplying heating as well as hot water, when many people at the complex need both particularly during the cold winter months.

Previously, residents have been given fan heaters to help but Ms Read highlighted that this isn't ideal as you can't leave them on overnight or when you leave the house, due to safety reasons.

Earlier this week, Ms Read said: "This weekend my husband was told a different story to what I was told when I phoned up this morning as the heating still wasn’t working this morning.

"We’re obviously being fobbed off with different stories.

"It’s been over four years now the system has been in and it’s never constantly kept working, there’s always something wrong."

Samphire Homes was approached for a comment.