Family is back in from the cold

WARMING UP... Tammy Mellor and daughter Kiera Collier have their heating and hot water back after waiting over a month for repairs

A FAMILY which has struggled without heating and hot water since before Christmas has been compensated thanks to intervention from the Chronicle.

Tammy Mellor, from Malby Street, Coldhurst, was forced to take her two daughters, aged five and one, to her friends and relatives’ houses for baths and showers when her housing association landlord repeatedly failed to repair her broken boiler.

The fed-up family has relied on two fan heaters to keep warm — and racked up more than £200 in electricity bills — since December 21, when the faulty boiler was first reported.

But after the Chronicle contacted Guinness Northern Counties Association, Ms Mellor and her partner, Darren Collier, can now enjoy hot baths and some compensation.

A relieved Ms Mellor said: “It was just an ongoing saga and I wanted them to stop messing me about saying they’d come to sort it out.

“I couldn’t keep asking people if I could bring my daughters round for showers and I had to use saucepans to do the washing up.

“It was five weeks — it’s been mayhem but now we’ve been offered a compensation package and we have our hot water back.”

Initially, a new part for the boiler, ordered by Guinness’ contractors Eagaheat, arrived broken and the family was told they would have to wait for the stockists to reopen after the Christmas break, on January 6.

Ms Mellor added: “Contractors came to mend the boiler on January 7 but they didn’t know about the part I needed and when they last called to sort it out last Wednesday, they said someone had broken the fitting so they couldn’t put a new part in anyway.

Mick Boaler, assett manager for Guinness Northern Counties, said: “We are very sorry that our contractors have taken this long to resolve the boiler problems at Malby Street and caused Ms Mellor and her family such inconvenience. Temporary heaters were provided during this time, however the delay in obtaining the parts needed to complete the repair is below our normal standard of work and completely unacceptable.

“Eagaheat arranged to visit Ms Mellor with the parts required to repair her boiler and to discuss compensation with her directly.”

Work was carried out on Tuesday afternoon.