A disabled grandmother is being kept awake every night by the sound of water pouring through the ceiling of her council flat.

Lillian Morgan says the leak in her bedroom is so bad, a bucket she uses to collect the drippage has to be emptied at least three times a day.

The partially blind widow, who lives alone in her one-bed Canterbury home, reported the problem to East Kent Housing in November but says the company has failed to fix it, despite making at least four visits, because of difficulties getting into the flat above.

The 71-year-old says she has hurt herself on two occasions after climbing up to retrieve buckets full of water from the top of her wardrobe, where a damp patch with mould has now formed.

“It’s just beating me down,” she the Hales Place resident. It’s all the time and it doesn’t stop.

“You can hear the water coming through at night time and it keeps me awake.
"But I have to sleep in there, because I’m only in a one-bedroom flat and I can’t get comfortable in the sitting room.”

Her daughter-in-law, Helen Morgan, says the failure to resolve the issue after almost two months has badly affected Lillian’s mental health.

“She just doesn’t know where else to turn,” she said.

“She’s on anti-depressants as it is, and it’s made her anxiety worse.

“I think it’s disgusting. You don’t leave a pensioner like that.

"You don’t leave anybody like that. East Kent Housing say they’re trying to deal with it, but nothing has been done.

“I worry about the impact of all the damp she’s breathing in.

"She’s 71, and she’s breathing in mould every night when she sleeps.

“On your tenancy, it states that you have to let the council get into your home if they need to do anything.

"But they say they can’t do anything because they don’t have permission to access the flat above.”

An East Kent Housing spokesman said: “We apologise to Mrs Morgan for the problems she has been having at her property.

"We require access to the property above in order to investigate the leak, but action to gain entry has not been taken as it should have been and we are very sorry for this

“It has been made clear to East Kent Housing staff and its repairs contractor that a repeat of these circumstances is unacceptable.

"We will urgently be getting in touch with Mrs Morgan to make arrangements to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."