A PENSIONER with arthritis has been unable to turn on his bath taps for five years, because Croydon Council will not replace them.
Joseph Latter, 76, moved into Bridge Place Sheltered Housing, Croydon, in 2009, after his wife, Eileen, died aged 67.
But immediately he found his severely arthritic hands could not turn the taps to his bath on.
His daughter, Cherry Hassan, 50, has been trying since then to push the council to install new taps, but says she has been constantly ignored.
Mrs Hassan said: "He is an able man but for so long he hasn't been able to turn on these taps.
"I've contacted the council so many times and they took all the details down and said they would do it, but have never shown up.
"It's been five years.
"I keep phoning up but it's becoming a bit of a joke and I've had enough."
Mrs Hassan says she has to leave her home, in Selsdon Road, South Croydon, three times a week to come and turn on her father's taps so he can have a wash.
"I have to come over here because I want to make sure the flat doesn't flood and he doesn't want to have to ask his neighbours.
"He doesn't want to do that and why should he have to?
"He's a proud man. It's just a pair of taps."
The grandfather of four's hands were made worse after he underwent chemotherapy for bowel cancer five years ago, with treatment leaving his fingers numb to this day.
Mrs Hassan said: "He's always had problems with his hands and they are mangled now and have been getting steadily worse in the last few years.
"He's OK with the kitchen taps, because they are more modern and he can push them down and up.
"It's the old-fashioned ones he has to twist that are the issue.
"There are people around to help him and we're a close family, but my sister Sandra lives in Eastbourne and can't easily come up.
"When he moved into these flats five years ago, as soon as I saw the taps, I knew he wouldn't be able to turn them on but still nothing has been done about it.
"If something isn't done soon, I'm going to go to BBC Watchdog."
No one from Croydon Council was able to comment on Mr Latter's case by the time the Advertiser went to press.
