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WORRIED tenant Patrick O'Donnell says he has been left waiting eight years for a new home for his severely disabled partner.

Mr O'Donnell, 50, lives in Macaulay Square, Calne with Anne Axford, who suffers from Huntington's Chorea, a condition that affects the body's central nervous system.

He said Westlea Housing Association had promised to rehome the couple after Ms Axford, 45, became wheelchair-bound eight years ago.

Westlea found the couple, and their three children aged from 15 to 23, a home in Dixon Way which it promised to kit out with a downstairs bathroom.

But the housing association, which spends more than £100,000 a year kitting out homes for disabled tenants, is still waiting for pricing and funding details before it can renovate the house .

Mr O'Donnell said: "As a family we can't survive anymore. My partner is living downstairs as she can't make it to the upstairs bathroom.

"I have to carry her upstairs and I have hurt my back from her weight. The other day she had a fall in the shower.

"Her quality of life is terrible and she has nothing to look forward to.

"All I want is for my partner to have some dignity. It is not her fault she is ill.

"The home they have given to us in Dixon Way has been boarded up and there are squatters. I am at the end of my tether. I dread to think what will happen if we don't get re-homed soon.

"I don't know how much longer we can go on living like this. Without our carer Sue Wells we wouldn't have been able to manage this long."

Westlea asset manager Phil Bowley said: "We understand the difficulties these residents face in their current home and have been working hard for some time to try and find a way of helping them.

"During the past year or so we designed and made a planning application to build a new house that would have been built to suit their needs but unfortunately this application was refused.

"We're happy to have at last found a property that can be extended to provide a ground floor bedroom and bathroom and glad to have been given planning permission for this work.

"It is then hoped that this work can go ahead within the next couple of months so that these residents can have moved in by the summer.

"Although, as landlord, we are not required to provide home adaptations we are committed to helping improve the quality of life for all residents - and particularly those living in difficult circumstances because of a disability."

2:09pm Thursday 20th March 2008

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