Clitheroe family of five in one room because of damp (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Clitheroe family of five in one room because of damp

6:30pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News By Jessica Cree, Education reporter

A FAMILY of five has resorted to living in one room because of damp issues in their Clitheroe home.

Daniel and Dawne Snape have been living in a Great Places housing association home, in Franklin Street, for the past two years.

But they say they have been experiencing problems with damp for the last eight months.

They said that the situation had become so bad that two of their three children were exper-iencing breathing problems, and had had to be hospitalised on several occasions.

Former carpet sales adviser Mr Snape, 35, said water had been coming in at the back of the mid-terrace two-bedroom property, affecting the kitchen and the children’s bedrooms.

He said: “It has got to a point where all five of us are in one room because the children’s rooms are so bad. They have had breathing difficulties and we believe it is from the cond-ition of the house.

“Our eight-month-old Henry, and our two-year-old Jacob, have both been in hospital two, or three, times each over the last couple of months, for about a week each time.

“We have been constantly trying to get Great Places Hous-ing Group, which manages the property, to do something about it, but it just seems they keep forgetting about us.

“We would really like to get moved, or at least get the prob-lems sorted.”

Maggie Shannon, director of performance and innovation at Great Places Housing Group, said: “Our property services team has been working closely with the family to sort out the problem.

“We understand that they would have liked this completed sooner, and we apologise for any disruption this has caused.

“We have identified a number of improvements that need to be made to the home, and this work has been planned to take place shortly.”