GOOD SAMARITAN'S CONCERN FOR OAP

10:22am Wednesday 8th October 2008

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AN ELDERLY woman living without working electricity for at least six weeks is now being helped by Wirral’s adult social services team after intervention by the Globe and a concerned reader.

A utilities company worker contacted us in tears to describe how he’d found the 89-year-old lady living in appalling conditions at her own home in an area of Birkenhead.

He had first visited the resident to carry out maintenance work six weeks ago, only to find her electrics were not working. He immediately contacted Wirral Council’s social services department to alert them.

But last week he returned to the property for a check up and found the woman’s power still apparently off and her situation unchanged.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “The weather has taken a real dip in temperature and this lady was there lighting candles so she could see at night. When I left the house I sat in my car and cried.

“I have an elderly mother who I look after and I could not believe that someone could be left to live like this.”

The worker then contacted social services to ask why nothing had been done, and claims he was asked: “What gives you the qualification to say this woman needs help?”

He told the Globe: “I was gobsmacked. I said my qualifications included being a human being and having actually been inside the house, which was obviously more than the person answering the telephone had done.”

The worker then contacted the Globe newsdesk and we then took a visit to the property, which sits in a row of smart, privately-owned semi-detached houses.

We found that the electricity supply was in fact connected, but not none of the light switches or sockets on the ground floor - where the woman slept in her living room - worked.

The living room itself was stacked high with newspapers and piles of unopened mail - including letters from the council - and sat dangerously close to those were candles the lady used at night for reading.

Her kitchen had buckets of stagnant water on the floor and there was months’ old rotten fruit sitting on a shelf, covered in flies, while her pet dog had messed in various places around the ground floor of the large home.

The lady told us she had no family and had no recollection of the utilities worker calling at her home the previous day.

Wirral’s adult social services department now say they are in the process of contacting the woman to ensure their services are available to her.