Belfast woman will not receive flood payment

The family of an 89-year-old woman whose home was damaged during flooding at the end of June have expressed anger after she was turned down for a £1,000 emergency payment.

Phyllis Todd from the Cregagh estate in east Belfast was turned down for the payment by Castlereagh Borough Council.

That was because rain water came in through her roof, not the front door.

Castlereagh Borough Council said the criteria for the payments was set by the Department of Environment.

Mrs Todd's son-in-law said the damage to her home would cost about £3,000 to repair.

"Her ceiling had fell in the toilet - it nearly fell on top of her actually," Terry Morrison said.

"From the ground up her carpet all the way up the hall, her hall landing, her toilets, the floors are all going to have to be lifted - they're all still soaking - a new ceiling's going to have to be put into her toilet, we're going to have to get the roof surveyed.

"Plus everywhere's going to have to get stripped - stripped right down to the bare wood again. Even some of the floors are going to have to be lifted up and new floors put down."

Mr Morrison said his mother-in-law was not in the best of health and "this definitely won't help her".

"This council need to get their head out of the sand here and get something done for this old woman," he said.

Mr Morrison said council representatives had come out one Saturday morning, and looked at the damage.

"They phoned me back within an hour and said my mother-in-law doesn't qualify for the £1,000 grant," he said.

"Point blank they said she didn't qualify because it didn't come through her front door.

"This has all come through her roof, down her pipes, in her windows, all down her stairs and they say she doesn't qualify. I want someone out her to explain to me why she can't get this."

Mr Morrison said Mrs Todd's relatives would do what they could to help her.

"All of the family will rally round and we'll get this done for her," he said.

"But it would be nice if we could get it, it would help us along a bit and we could get it started."

Helen Moore from Castlereagh Borough Council said unfortunately Mrs Todd did not qualify for the payment.

"The council is merely administering a scheme, the criteria of which is set by the DoE," she said.

"Therefore any payment that the council makes in respect of that scheme has to be in accordance with the criteria set.

"An ingress of water through a defective roof, windows whatever does not make the criteria of the scheme which is extremely unfortunate and something we're sympathetic to."

The Fire and Rescue Service dealt with more than 700 flood-related callouts in greater Belfast after torrential rain at the end of June.

At the height of the flooding, many roads were impassable and about 1,000 homes were left without power.