Family's kitchen nightmare

Elaine Morris said her family’s life was disrupted to such an extent that she has lodged an official complaint with North Lanarkshire Council.

She dismissed as “nonsense” a claim that the lengthy delay was due to workers moving a boiler for safety reasons.

Mrs Morris said she can’t understand why work on her property in Northfield Street took so long when a similar job at her neighbour’s was done and dusted within a week.

The mum of two said: “It’s been a shambles. I have a son with type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease who has to stick to a strict meal regime, and we had to work around this while we had no kitchen.

“We’ve spent weeks making phone calls and sending emails, with no one getting back to us or being told that workers had been out on days when we had been at home. They told us there would be no weekend work, but turned up one Saturday at 7.15am!”

The work was done by council contractor Mears and John Apperson, investment and repairs manager with the council, said: “The kitchen has now been fully installed following a temporary delay to allow for the safe repositioning of a gas boiler.”

However, Mrs Morris retorted: “That’s nonsense. The boiler was moved on the second day of work, April 4, and records will show this.

“The delay was having no one coming to our home on a regular basis or informing us what was going on.

“I’ve taken days off work, having been told someone would be here, only for no one to appear. They say workers have been here when no one’s at home, but my husband and I can’t be expected to be off work all the time waiting for workers.”

Mrs Morris said another frustrating feature was workers often doing only one minor job per day. She produced a letter from a council architect “partially upholding” her complaint, apologising for distress caused and accepting that the work lasted longer that it should have.

She added: “It’s been complete incompetence. My neighbour received a disturbance allowance of around £100 for work that lasted a week.

“We would expect a lot more than that for what we’ve gone through, but they’ve said we’ll get only the standard payment.”