A DISABLED woman who says she has been left struggling to access her home is calling for work to be carried out.

Caroline Crowe and her husband James moved into the home in Mount Pleasant, Amport, in September last year – since then Caroline says getting into the house has become more difficult.

The house, which is owned by housing association Aster, sits at the top of a steep slope and there is a patch of muddy and uneven land outside the front of the property, which the couple says makes it difficult to access their driveway.

They are now calling for work to be carried out on the patch of land, so that they can drive into their driveway, allowing Caroline an easy route into the house. They are in the process of submitting a planning application in the hopes that this can be done. 

However, the couple claim that Aster is refusing to do any work until they take a gate down which they erected to keep their dogs off the road, but Caroline and James are refusing to remove the gate.

They say also the home should not have been made available for a house swap and claim to have spent £7,000 to repair a number of issues with the property.

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Caroline said: "I was doing a house swap with a family and there was no driveway here I asked them (the family) can I have a driveway and they said 'yeah there used to be a driveway there but we just did not maintain it' and it has got all grown over again with grass.

"I am disabled, and I would not have taken the property if I knew I could not have a driveway.”

Caroline added: “It impacts my life because I can't get up to my house because it is a 120-degree slope and it is so hard for me to get up and down it. I just don't have the power in my legs and that means I cannot get in and out of my property. It makes me feel humiliated and let down and my quality of life is not being taken into account."

The couple said they have also faced a number of other issues including broken locks, storage heaters that were not functional and holes in walls.

Andover Advertiser: Right the gate the couple have put in, left the previous state of the garden Right the gate the couple have put in, left the previous state of the garden (Image: Newsquest)

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An Aster Group spokesperson said: "We have been working closely with both our customers and Test Valley Borough Council to amicably resolve this situation with a solution that works for both parties, and we’ll continue to do so. This is a listed property, and so any modifications are naturally more complicated.”

A spokesperson for Test Valley Borough Council added: "We are aware of this issue and are therefore in contact with the relevant parties to address matters relating to the property. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this point in time.”