'It does not feel safe': Residents at Brackley retirement home using walking aids on stairs after lift breaks
Residents at a Brackley retirement complex have said they feel unsafe after the home’s lift broke down, forcing some of them to navigate the stairs using walking aids.
The residents of College House/Pegasus Court and Manor independent living complex in Brackley have been left without a fully working lift since November.
This has resulted in some elderly residents using their walkers and walking sticks to get down the home’s stairs, according to one resident.
Resident Anne Rippin said: “There are several residents who have struggled to use the stairs with a stick, and some have gone down the stairs with a walker. This does not feel safe.”
The lift still works in the older section of the complex, but residents living on the newer side have been relying on family or walking aids to help them down a flight of stairs to where the lift is working.
According to Anne, before last week, one resident had not been able to leave her flat for over three months because her property was on the side affected by the lift outage.
Anne said: “It’s been very isolating for her; she has had to rely on her husband for shopping and everything else.
“We are a community here, and we regularly meet up for coffee mornings and events, and this resident has not been able to do any of that.”
The residents have raised the issue with FirstPort, the company that manages the complex, but feel their concerns are not being heard.
She said: “We have made a representation to the management and have been told the lift is a facility, not a right.
“I do not feel that the human impact of this has been addressed by management. We were told that if we have mobility issues, we should buy a flat on the ground floor.”
Only this week, the Banbury Guardian reported on a similar issue where several residents at a retirement complex managed by FirstPort in Chipping Norton had been unable to leave their homes for a month after the lift broke down.
According to the residents, the lift was entirely out of action for three weeks after engineers took away a part in January, forcing all residents to use the stairs.
When the part was refitted, there was no communication from the management, and the lift was back to the same state as it was before the part was taken away.
Anne says FirstPort has now set up a consultation with the residents regarding how much money will be spent on fixing or replacing the lift.
She said: “Not long after the lift first failed in November, an engineer came to look at it and told us that it was not repairable.
“So we want to know why the consultation process wasn't started back then, because now the projected time for the contract to be awarded is the end of April, and it will perhaps be the summer before the works are completed.”
A spokesperson for FirstPort said they are planning to modernise the home’s 30-year-old lift system.
They said: “We understand how disruptive lift faults can be, and we are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.
“Whilst the initial repair attempt was not successful, our specialist lift contractor is carrying out further diagnostics to identify the underlying cause."
“Given the age of the lift, we have also started the legally required consultation process to modernise the lift system and help ensure a more reliable service for residents.
“In the meantime, homeowners are receiving regular updates, and the development manager is on hand to provide practical support where requested, including assistance with carrying items and waste disposal.”