A CONCERNED brother has today spoken out after his mentally ill relative was left without light in his bathroom.

A CONCERNED brother has today spoken out after his mentally ill relative was left without light in his bathroom.

Dave Cass's brother Martin lives in Bramford Place in Bramford Road, a supported housing service run by the Richmond Fellowship and built by Stephen Howard Homes.

In November the lights went out in Martin's bathroom, leaving him without any light source and needing to leave to door open to use the toilet.

It took four weeks for the housing complex to fix the problem and then the light promptly stopped working again, forcing Dave to make a series of frustrated phone calls before the problem was eventually sorted for good another four weeks later.

Dave, 58, of Irlam Road, Ipswich, said: “The problem is now solved but the stupidity of how hard it was to get sorted really annoyed me.

“I don't think it should happen and it certainly shouldn't take that long to fix. He got used to it but he shouldn't have had to.”

Dave said the problem with the light was not simply a broken light bulb but something which needed an electrician to fix the whole of the wiring.

Julie Mayhew, service manager for Ipswich for the Richmond Fellowship, said: “The staff have every sympathy for the tenant and did their best to get the fault fixed, but as the building is still under guarantee any defects remain the responsibility of the builder and not the Richmond Fellowship.

“Six phone calls were made by the property services department to chase up the repair and staff offered the tenant some alternative accommodation while waiting for the builders to attend to the repair but he declined as he felt that the hallway lights provided adequate lighting in his bathroom.

“The length of time waiting for repairs to be completed in this defect period is unacceptable.”

A spokesman for Stephen Howard Homes, the builders of Bramford Place, said the company did not want to comment.

Have you had a problem with your home? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.