Repairs on family's flooded Leicestershire home 'taking too long'

A woman who has waited seven months to return to her home after flooding has said the housing association repairs are taking too long.

Mud and sewage poured into Sarah Brackstone's house in Long Whatton, Leicestershire, on 16 February.

She and her teenage son were forced to spend the coronavirus lockdown in temporary accommodation.

The housing association, English Rural, said the time taken to repair the homes "could be considered excessive".

Ms Brackstone, 43, said it was the third time the property has flooded since she moved in, with previous flooding in 2012 and November 2019.

Her home was one of five around Crawshaw Close that was flooded in February.

"It was brown water - sewage and mud off the fields," she said.

She and her son George, aged 14, have been living at her mother's house since February.

"It's been a bit much for my mum and it's been a bit much for us - not having your own room, not having your own stuff," she said.

"I appreciate Covid has set things back but the whole thing could have been avoided - or at least the destruction reduced - if something had been done in previous floods.

"We have been treated as though we are causing them an inconvenience."

Another resident - who wishes to be known as Ange - said lockdown had meant she was unable to leave her damaged property.

"We were going to go but then Covid happened," she said.

"Even though it was a state and it really wasn't nice to live in, it was better than being moved.

"I've got a compromised immune system so I was safer in a home that I kept cleaning than going somewhere I had no history of at all."

English Rural said the time taken to repair the homes "could be considered excessive" but said that was due to the pandemic and the "mass furloughing of contractors and changes to health and safety procedures".

It said it plans to have work on Ms Brackstone's house completed later this month.

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