Bognor family forced to live weeks without aworking kitchen

Deborah Edwards, her fiancee Des Ling and his daughter Nicola Ling (23) were forced to exist with many of their day-to-day belongings in cardboard boxes crammed into the lounge of their two bedroom flat.

The work was completed last Friday, April 11 '“ 30 days after it began. Their new sink was left propped up on pieces of wood for two weeks during that time.

Ms Edwards said as the work was being finished: "We are getting bit fed up with living like this now. We've had no choice. We had to live on takeaways for two weeks, day in and day out because we didn't have a proper kitchen.

"But the worst part has been having to do without a washing machine for a month. I need to wash my uniform for my job as a health care assistant at St Richard's Hospital. Nicola also needs her uniform washed for the hospital. We have had to keep going to the launderette."

The family's problems in their Arun District Council-owned first floor property in Berghestede Road began on March 12.

That was when the first group of workmen from the council's contractor, Connaught, arrived. They ripped out the entire kitchen, installed the new sink on its temporary supports. They came back the next day and installed new electrical fittings.

But that was the last the family saw of them until after Easter. More workmen turned up on their front door the Tuesday following the weekend and took out the bathroom.

They put in a new bath, toilet and sink. Only the bath couldn't be used for a day or so because it wasn't connected.

This entailed trips by Ms Edwards, Mr Ling and Ms Ling to nearby relatives to keep clean.

Further work was carried out during the first week of this month to decorate both rooms.

The flooring was installed on April 4 and the tiling took place on April 7. Further work was done last Thursday and Friday to complete the job after a foreman had visited the property.

"The work has just been done in dribs and drabs," said Ms Edwards (44). "It's been a real pain in the backside.

"We know people who have had their work finished within a week. But there has been no communication about our flat."

This was shown when a message about a spare key for the workmen to let themselves into the flat when the occupiers were at work was not passed on for five days.

Van driver Mr Ling (53) added: "It's not the workmen's fault. They have worked well when they have come in. It's the management that seems to be a problem."

An Arun spokesman said the work took three days longer than the scheduled 15 days. Connaught had apologised for the delay.

The Easter holiday, a wait for the style of tile required by Ms Edwards and Mr Ling and two days being ubable to get into the flat had led to the over-run.

Ms Edwards and Mr Ling were kept informed of the situation during the work. "Connaught, and the council, aims to supply the best possible service to their tenants and work only to the highest standard," he added.