Costessey family left without heating for three weeks

As most of the city struggled to cope with the freezing temperatures earlier this month, one family was left without heating and hot water for almost three weeks.

The temperature in Tina and Richard Morbey's house in Costessey plummeted to minus 18 centigrade at one point after their boiler broke on Boxing Day.

The couple, who live in a Cotman Housing Association home in Millcroft Close, even had to send their children to stay with relatives as the house got so cold.

Their boiler was finally fixed last Friday - just under three weeks after they first reported the problem.

Meanwhile, Norwich was gripped in a wintry blast which saw temperatures drop to minus five centigrade, up to four feet of snow fall and hundreds of schools across the county close.

Mrs Morbey, 42, who has a condition known as fibromyalgia which causes persistent pains and tenderness in many areas of the body, said: 'We are pleased now it's fixed but the whole situation annoyed me. We contacted the housing association numerous times and they came out several times, but we were constantly being told that they couldn't get the parts.

'We were left in horribly cold conditions. We had to survive on one electric radiator and a fan heater the whole while. We got to the point where you didn't want to move from where you were because it was so cold.'

Engineers went out to the couple last Wednesday but could not fix the boiler because they did not have the right parts, the couple said. They then came back two days later to carry out the work.

The couple said that they kept calling the housing association who referred them to the heating engineers, who would then refer them back to Cotman.

Mr Morbey, 42, said: 'How is it, in a supposedly civilised society that our situation was allowed to continue…?

No one from Cotman Housing was available for comment.

Do you have a story for the Evening News? Call reporter Kate Scotter on 01603 772326 or email kate.scotter@archant.co.uk