A MAN who has been unable to get a grant to make his gutted Lydney home habitable says his 'Catch 22' situation is making him increasingly desperate – and broke.
Andrew Downie has been told by the Forest of Dean District Council that he has to live in his uninhabitable Queen Street home for three years before he qualifies for improvement help – to make it habitable.
And his situation is further complicated by a leg operation which means he must wear iron callipers bolted through his leg bone and has severely restricted mobility.
He was living in a mobile unit on his own land at Woolaston while working on the house, but the same council evicted him because he stayed in it for more than 28 days.
"I really don't know what to do," he said. "I can't go on living in the house in those conditions – it has no WC and no hot water – but I can't get a grant unless I do. And I can't live on my own land where I am doing no harm and cannot be overlooked by anyone."
He says he has spent as much as £500 wrangling with the council over his problem, but because of his leg complications he is unable to work and has to live on just over £50 a week for everything – even with a 98p rise last week from income support.
"It doesn't help being told by the council that all these measures are to stop developers when all I want is a home to live in," he said.
He was angered by a letter to the Review which said his plight would be solved if he changed his status to that of a traveller – unfortunately, he said, that appeared to be true.
"It is a case of one law for one group of people and a completely different law for others," he said.
"I think the least the council can do is try to give me some help – I feel justified in thinking they just don't care."