Video: The Shaws’ concerns and why they are not allowed back home
An elderly disabled couple in New Basford are still not allowed to go home weeks after a devastating factory fire.
Kenneth and Pauline Shaw were evacuated from their home on Friday, July 8 after a clothing factory at the rear of the property went up in smoke.
The Shaws’ housing association bungalow is next to the damaged factory, where a large wall has been labelled unsafe which, if it collapsed, would fall through their kitchen.
The couple have been living in a flat designed for one person ever since, arranged through Tuntum Housing Association.
I just want to go home
Pauline Shaw said: “The flat we are in is for a single person and we are both disabled; I fell in the shower and hurt my back and it doesn’t seem as though anyone is bothered about getting us home.
“I wish someone would pull their finger out and do something about it as it’s getting us down and it’s making us both worse than what we are.
“I just want to go home.”
There’s not a micro of asbestos
Kenneth said he fails to see why they are not allowed home.
He said: “We gave a three-storey house up for this bungalow especially designed for disabled access and look where we are now.
“The environmentalist went into the home testing for asbestos and put pumps through the house and said there’s not a micro of asbestos.
“It’s all down to this wall which will probably still be there when we are all gone.”
Richard Renwick, chief executive of Tuntum Housing Association who are responsible for the Shaws’ bungalow and current accommodation, explained why the couple can’t go home yet.
He said: “The reason why we can’t allow the Shaws to move back in now is that the wall which is adjacent to the bungalow is not safe, according to our engineers.
“We can’t allow them back in when there’s that possibility.”
Mr Renwick also said that Tuntum have been doing all that they can to keep the Shaws as up to date with developments as possible.
He said: “We communicate with the Shaws on a daily basis to reassure them that we are taking all necessary steps to get them back into their bungalow as soon as possible.
“We are not immune to their predicament and we are sympathetic towards them.
“Sometimes these things can take much longer than you would really like.”
