A MOTHER of three has been left angered after the council failed to send an engineer, leaving her family without heating in freezing temperatures for two nights.

Jennifer Mceneany, of Moss Road in Winnall, and her three children were left without heating for and hot water for nearly two days after the boiler stopped working on Sunday, December 11 afternoon.

It took the 41-year-old over an hour to get through to Winchester City Council’s emergency number but it wasn’t until after the mother went to the Winchester City Council office to demand to speak to a manager, that an engineer was sent to fix the problem.

The Winnall resident said: “I lost it onto the phone to council after spending Sunday and Monday calling. So I said I’m going to sit here until I’ve spoken to someone.

“It’s just been one thing after another with the council, there was no apology from anyone and my kids are all absolutely freezing and full of colds now.”

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Jennifer’s children are aged two, four and six, with one being diagnosed with ADHD and another with autism. The mother said: “Two of my kids are disabled so having no heating is not great. They’re morale was affected and now my two year was ill already.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous, they kept coming up with excuses. They haven’t got the staff to be fixing everything so they should rectify it by putting boilers in which don’t break down.”

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The family were supplied with two heaters on Sunday evening and now has working heating since the issue was fixed on Tuesday.

Jennifer, who is starting college in the new year, added: “I have heating for now until it goes again.”

A council spokesperson said: “We are experiencing a high volume of calls due to the sudden onset of cold temperatures. We apologise to any of our tenants who may experience a delay as a result, and we are actively prioritising related calls to address concerns around heating and hot water as soon as possible.

“If a fix is not possible quickly, then an alternative heat source such as electric heaters would be provided. As the Christmas break approaches we will be contacting all our tenants to remind them how they are able to contact us over this period.”