Disabled Colette fights to keep council house in Kingsbury

Colette fears for her independence if she is moved from her home in Kingsbury (Image: Archant)

A disabled woman from Kingsbury is facing eviction from her childhood home amidst claims that Brent Council broke its promise to allow her to remain there after her mother’s death.

Wheelchair-user Colette Feighan, 45, who has cerebral palsy, said the council indicated to her in February that she could continue living in the adapted house in Milton Avenue, after her mother Margaret died from dementia in August.

She had sought assurances as council tenancies can only be inherited once, and her mother had taken over the property from her husband, Gerard, after he died from oesophageal cancer in 1999.

Ms Feighan has now been told she faces being moved from her home of the last 34 years to a smaller property with no guarantee it will be in the borough.

The charity volunteer, who had worked for 14 years as a learning disabilities support worker for Brent Council-affiliated organisations, said: “I am terrified. I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.

“My house means everything to me.”

The three-bedroom house has had thousands of pounds worth of adaptations, including the installation of special hoists, lifts and door fittings to help Ms Feighan live as independently as possible.

One of the spare rooms in the property is used to store vital equipment she needs.

“If I move I would need more support from the council than I currently have,” she said.

“I feel it would affect my health both physically and mentally. I just feel I would lose all my confidence.

“I have lost faith in the council; it makes no sense for them to move me to another area and pay for a new place to be adapted.”

Aaron Wood, Ms Feighan’s boyfriend, who lives nearby in Colindale, added: “Colette is at breaking point.

“It was her mother’s last wish that she could stay here and she even wrote to the council in 2003 to ask them for an exemption.”

A spokeswoman for Brent Housing Partnership, the arms-length organisation that manages council homes in the borough, said: “The law states only one succession can apply per tenancy; in this case this has already been applied.

“We are sympathetic to Ms Feighan’s situation and are considering, in line with Brent Council’s policy, whether she could be granted a discretionary tenancy to a home that meets her needs.”