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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Connor Lynch

Residents 'unable to shower or open doors due to faults' at East Belfast independent living facility

Residents living in an East Belfast independent living facility say they have been unable to shower or move about the building properly as they wait weeks for repairs to be made.

Maureen Boyd, chair of the Inverary Fold Tenants Committee says that there are a range of problems within the building, including broken showers and fire doors, which is making life very difficulty to the elderly residents who live there.

She said that she and a number of other residents have been unable to shower for seven weeks due to their regulators being broken so that the water coming out if is either "freezing cold or scalding hot".

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Maureen said: "For the past seven weeks I and five or six other residents have been unable to shower due to their regulators being broken so the water is either freezing cold or so hot that you would be scalded.

"Some of these residents are very elderly with mobility issues and could end up very badly hurt if they were to use these showers.

"We have been asking Radius Housing for weeks to sort out the problem and we are still waiting for it to be resolved.

"There are also problems with the fire doors within the building, which are now left in a permanently closed position and are very difficult for some of the residents to use due to how heavy the doors are.

"The doors are supposed to be open at all times and only close in the event of a fire and we have been told that Radius are waiting on parts to fix the doors, although we were told this months ago.

"There are some residents who would regularly walk the hallways to get a bit of exercise but they have not been able to do this for weeks due to the fire doors.

"We feel like Radius are really letting this facility down because there are some great staff members here who work very hard for all of the residents but they are just not getting the help that they need."

Radius have said that repairs to the fire doors were made on Friday, February 24, shortly after residents had spoken with Belfast Live and that the problems had been fixed.

It also said that work was due to take place on the broken showers.

A spokesperson for Radius Housing said “There are a small number of apartments in Inverary Fold where showers are set to be replaced soon.

"One apartment currently has no working shower and a replacement will be fitted early next week. We have updated this tenant in relation to the works and have apologised for the delay."

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