On April 16th 2024 I was enjoying a peaceful nights sleep when I naturally stirred – as I tend to do – and I felt that I needed to call my PA to straighten and massage my legs.

I had an experienced member of staff with me that evening and I asked her to lower the electrical profiling bed so that my legs could be repositioned comfortably. This is never usually a problem, but on this occasion we had experienced a power cut.

All of the house had no power as a result of my electric toilet shorting and blowing fuses in my main circuit board. It was about 03.00 in the morning and my poor PA had no option but to phone the council. We are not electrical experts and did not understand why the whole house was effected.

We did not really expect anyone from WCBC to attend my property, but at around 03.30 there was a gentle knock on the door and a qualified electrician had come to save the day. He re-instated the power throughout the house and explained to my PA that the electrical system in place was old and outdated. The cables and circuit board were all over 20 years old – this was not safe and needed updating to the current fire safety insulated cables and a circuit board that ran individual smaller circuits on.

The service provided to this point by Wrexham CBC can not be faulted and I will go on to explain further good work by certain departments and individuals. I am always 100% fair and honest as I truly appreciate good work and friendly behaviour. Unfortunately, this standard of supportive work is not replicated across the whole council in my experience…

I then had a visit from an electrical surveyor from WCBC, who had come to inspect the electrical cables and circuit board. The surveyor also talked me through having my house re-wired and a new circuit board installed. Plans were put in place to do all of this work while I was in Florida, which I was very happy with because it would cause a great deal of disruption. Credit where credit is due as this was another example of a supportive local authority thinking in the interests of a disabled resident.

During this initial visit from the surveyor, he noted my electronic shutter doors that I have had installed for over 10 years. He was concerned that in the event of a power cut, there was no way opening these doors which is obviously a fire risk. I could understand this point, even though we have never had an issue with this in the past decade. It was a point of concern for the electrical inspector and we co-operated by setting up a meeting with Safe and Secure Shutters who installed these doors originally.

At this meeting, the electrical surveyor expressed his concern that in the event of a power cut I could be trapped in any of the rooms that have been fitted with a shutter door. Safe and Secure shutters indicated that a back up battery is available for every door. I chose not to have these fitted over a decade ago because they cost £400 per door. I was happy to take my chances.

I have shutter doors fitted on my kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. They work really well for me and save a lot of space as when I was encumbered with the standard doors that are fitted on every council property, I would damage these with my wheelchair every time I needed to access a room in the property.

Whilst I was enduring a short break in Florida, WCBC were doing a fantastic job on my electrics. They transformed my out of date single circuit board and installed individual ones for each room. Previously, if the kettle blew a fuse in the kitchen it would lead to the whole property being affected, but now each room runs on a unique circuit board and I also have plenty of new plug sockets to make life easier.

The problem was that because WCBC have not agreed that I can have the doors fitted and fully operational, they are refusing to sign this off before I get the relevant safety checks from an Occupational Therapist and a Fire Safety Officer. I was happy to return from Florida to find the electrics in my house had been revolutionised by WCBC, but they had disconnected all the doors while they waited for a decision to be made.

9 weeks later and we are still waiting for a decision. It is especially frustrating as both the Occupational Therapist  and the Fire Safety Officer have been to the property and assessed that the shutter doors – with the addition of a battery back up – are the best solution for my needs. Job done, but we are still waiting on a decision.

I should also point out that I would now happily pay the £400 needed to install the battery back up myself, saving the Council thousands of pounds in the process.  God knows how much it would cost them to install new bespoke doors to fit my widened door frames?  I am being totally reasonable and thinking of everyone, including the tax payer.  Retaining my shutter doors is the best option for everyone in my opinion.  

I have just got off the phone with a senior manager within the housing estate office and he has informed me that the council have decided that they will not allow me to keep the shutter doors. This will mean logging another appeal and further meetings with senior managers within WCBC over the coming months. All the time, I am stuck in a house without adequate fire safety or privacy for me or my staff.

Whatever happens over the next few months, I will definitely be sharing it with my readers and the local and national media, because no one deserves to live under such circumstances and be treated like a second class citizen.

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I wish this was my only issue with Wrexham County Borough Council. Sadly, it is not. I also have ongoing issues with Adult Social Care, the Direct Payments Department and now Housing Benefit which I am having to reapply for. I wont go into all these issues now as I have just blagged your head for several paragraphs – you deserve a break I will get back to you about these other issues in future blogs, but for now just be reassured that I am fighting with as much fire in my belly as ever. I have some good people around me and justice will prevail for me and all disabled people living in the Wrexham area…