A WINCHESTER family were left without heating over Christmas after being told it would be fixed before the festive period.

Stuart Weatherall, his wife and three children, aged three, eight and 10, moved into a city council property on Winnall Manor Road on December 14, only to find that the heating was not working.

Mr Weatherall explained how boiler company, Correct Contract Services, kept pushing the work back, which meant that it was over two weeks until it was fixed.

He also explained that one of his children had a chest infection at the time.

When the family first moved in, they found that the heating was not working because there was no money on the meter. When they topped it up, Correct Contract Services told them they had to wait for an appointment for them to un-cap the gas.

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Mr Weatherall said: “We had not heard anything by the Wednesday (15th) so we rang up to ask what was happening and were told someone had been out (on the Monday) so they closed the case. When we explained this was not what happened they arranged for someone to come out Friday (17th).

“When they came out they were here for 10 minutes before saying there was a part broken in the boiler and they needed to order the part. I asked when it would be here by and was told the Monday (20th) and they would come and fit it.

“Monday came and went so on the Wednesday (22nd) I had to ring them as they did not contact us to be told we had not been booked in and the part was not there yet.

“I still had not heard anything on Thursday so I rang again and after being on hold a while was told that the part was ready to collect on Friday (Christmas Eve) guaranteed and we would be the first job.

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“No one had arrived by 2pm so I rang to be told the engineer had left for the day and we would not be seen until after Christmas.

“I was very angry as we have three children, one who had a chest infection at the time and we wanted answers.”

“When I asked how should I bath or warm my children I was told to use space heaters. I explained they cost too much for us to be able to afford to run them and asked if they would help us due to this being their fault in our opinion and was told they would not help us unless we complained and then they may look into the situation.”

After this, Mr Weatherall was told that the problem would be fixed on December 29. Someone did arrive to fix it that day at 5.30pm and left at 8.15pm.

Winchester City Council was approached for a comment about this, but did not respond by the time the Chronicle went to print.

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Kimberley Barber