A mum who claims that every room in her flat is covered in damp and mould has spoken of her fears over her daughter's health.
Polly Harvey lives in a one bedroom flat in Lancashire with her two-year-old daughter. She says she is scared for her daughter's wellbeing after she was hospitalised with an illness that doctors told her could be linked to her living conditions.
The two-year-old girl is the same age as Rochdale toddler Awaab Ishak was when he died rom respiratory failure as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s flat. Polly told LancsLive she is terrified of her daughter facing the same fate.
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Polly’s daughter was in hospital for one week with gastroenteritis, which caused her to feel nauseous and have diarrhoea. She says the doctor told her that her toddler could be experiencing the sickness due to living in ‘damp and mouldy conditions’ in their Stacksteads flat. Since Polly raised her concerns, managers Together Housing said they had visited her flat and completed repairs.
Before the work was undertaken, Polly told the Free Press: “My mental health is shocking. It is not a livable condition. It is a joke. How can anyone live like this? The walls are that damp that if I were to paint the paint comes off and the wallpaper is coming off.
“I contacted Together Housing for months now and I don’t get anywhere with them. I wish I never moved here.”
Polly says she was not prone to illness before she moved into the Brandwood Road flat and after moving in she says she and her daughter keep experiencing chest infections, which is making her concerned. She says the damp climate has caused mould spots on her daughter’s blanket and on her mattress.
She also says that she previously had an issue of black mould spread across the kitchen before her kitchen was changed. Polly says every room in the flat has damp and mould including the porch and at times she has noticed a pool of water at the window sill that she has had to mop up and has found the carpet wet.
The single mum moved into the bottom floor of the flat four years ago but says she first noticed the issue a year-and-a-half ago. Polly says when she contacted Together Housing about the mould issue they told her to scrub the walls with bleach.
She says Together Housing first cleaned the mould with bleach last year and came to clean for a second time. However, she says if it is cold and raining the mould grows back quicker and the damp’s pungent smell intoxicates the rooms.
Polly says even her sofa gets wet from the damp and Together Housing told her to put the heating on to resolve the issue. Polly says she asked to be moved to another flat. Angela Stuttard, Group Director of Property at Together Housing, said: “We take reports of damp and mould very seriously and the safety and wellbeing of our residents is our priority.
“We are aware that there have been some issues at the property and we have attended and completed all repairs as they have been raised by the resident.”
She said that workers had been due to visit the property again on Tuesday, April 11 to complete a full inspection. She added: “We will take this opportunity to revisit all of the residents’ concerns and make sure that we are doing all we can to resolve them.”
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