'Damp council flat makes my kids smell like mould'

A mother says she is worried for her children's health as damp conditions inside their home have left her daughters smelling of mould.

Jessica said her council flat in Bristol was "physically wet" due to damp, which made it seem like it had been "raining inside".

She said Bristol City Council had removed mould from her home twice during her tenancy, but issues have always returned. The council said it had tried to contact Jessica about further repairs.

A new law means the council could be breaking its legal obligations if it does not act quickly enough to remove damp and mould.

Jessica has lived in her council flat in Lawrence Weston for nearly three years and said there had always been an issue with damp.

"I've had to replace furniture," she said. "All my clothes have had to be replaced many times."

"It's got to the point where the inside of my wardrobe is mouldy... I've had to replace my mattress and my bed because they were mouldy."

"It has cost me hundreds," she added.

Jessica lives with her three-year-old and nine-month-old daughters, and said she was worried about the long-term impact on their health.

"It gets me down every day," she said. "I've been told you can smell it on my children, it's not a nice feeling at all, I'm extremely worried about their health."

Awaab's Law, which came into effect in October, means that councils and housing associations have to investigate reports of significant damp and mould within 10 days and then make properties safe in five working days.

Bristol City Council said it had brought in more people to try to tackle the issue, but the authority has a "huge backlog" of cases and does not know when they will be sorted.

Jessica's flat is one of hundreds that were built in the area in the aftermath of World War Two.

Bristol North West MP Darren Jones, who grew up in one of the flats, said he had countless examples of people in the area living in "completely unacceptable circumstances".

He said he wrote to the council in mid-January with details of another one of his constituents who was living with damp and mould so severe that their child had moved out to live with relatives.

More than five weeks later, Jones has said he had not received a response.

"This is a legal obligation the council has, people are being put in harm's way as a consequence of them being in breach of that law," he said.

"I'm sure the council will say there's a lot of it across the city and it's difficult, but that's no excuse and people deserve for it to be dealt with."

Jones held a meeting with residents, the council and investors to put forward the idea of knocking down the flats and rebuilding them.

"There's no question it's a challenging proposition but I can't see any alternative," he said.

"I grew up in these flats in the 1980s and they were damp when I was a kid and that was 30 years ago. This patch-up approach isn't going to work."

Jessica agreed that the flats should be knocked down. "I don't think it's suitable for people to be living in here," she said.

"I'm angry," she added. "They wouldn't want to live in these conditions and they wouldn't want their children to live in these conditions so why should we have to?"