ELDERLY and disabled people in a small Exmoor village have been ‘freezing’ over Christmas after being left without central heating for almost six weeks.  Karen Mitchell, 66, lives with her husband John in the Orchard Way sheltered housing estate in the village of Timberscombe. But for more than a month the couple have been waking up feeling cold during the night, despite piling up duvets and blankets.  Mrs Mitchell said contractors from Magna, who manage the estate, had visited her home four times, but never managed to fix the broken air-source heat pump which failed in early December.  The cold snap has left her and her husband layering on clothes, hiding under blankets, sitting beside electric heaters – and still feeling uncomfortably cold.  With temperatures forecast to fall as low as nearly minus eight degrees, Mrs Mitchell said she was left feeling depressed and too afraid to wash for fear of coming out cold. She said:  “I have been quite depressed about it. I woke up the other morning and I didn’t want to get up, I was dreading to get out of bed and a bit tearful. You don’t want to have a shower because it is so cold. 

“We have both been waking up in the middle of the night cold. We both have COPD, bad enough to feel a bit wheezy. We are getting condensation in the house, even on the pictures on the stairs. It is getting really cold at night.”  Magna have provided the couple with two electric heaters, and the couple purchased a third one to try and raise the temperature in their home. But Mrs Mitchell said it still is not enough and has resorted to turning the oven on with the doors open to help warm the kitchen. She said:  “I have had the electric oven on to try and get the house a bit warmer. When I come out here to cook it is too cold. I am wearing a pair of thermal tights and a pair of leggings and I am going to put another pair of trousers on. My husband is wearing two jumpers, two t-shirts and a vest and he is still cold under a blanket.”  Mr Mitchell, a veteran of the armed forces, is feeling the bite of the cold particularly acutely, in part because of his low blood pressure. Mrs Mitchell said the plummeting temperature left them unable to wash and that the situation was leaving her husband stressed. She said:  “Medication has made his blood pressure quite low so he does feel the cold probably even more than I do. He gets very stressed and has a back problem. He doesn’t want to get in the bath and come out freezing. We aren’t washing because we don’t want to go out into the cold.”  Josephine Parsons, 75, who has lived on the Timberscombe estate for 25 years, has been without central heating and hot water for a week. She said her house had become ‘a fridge’, leaving her not wanting to leave her bed: “My heating went out last Wednesday but I have had problems before. It is 14 degrees in my house, I have a gas heater but it isn’t doing enough.  “I didn’t get out of bed this morning until gone half past nine because the house is like a fridge.

“I’m dreading going to bed, I am 75, I have a heart condition, I have to take blood thinners and when I get cold I cannot get warm again.  “Magna told me they could get it sorted around January 24. I have a little convector heater in the lounge but it isn’t doing enough. I am fully dressed at night sitting on the sofa with a fluffy coat on.  “My hot water isn’t working either, I have had an engineer out on Friday night and he couldn’t fix it. He spoke to another chap and they said it was kaput.”

Mrs Parsons said she feels warmer leaving the house than staying in it, and said she even began to feel dozy from cold on one occasion. She said:  “It was really cold on Thursday and I was feeling very dozy. I was sitting on the sofa and my friend who is a nurse said I had the first signs of hypothermia, and told me to get a hot drink down me.  “It was warmer going out this morning to get my prescription than it was in the house. I have suffered with depression and such like since my first husband died. You just sit watching the television trying to take your mind off it but you’re just getting colder and colder.” 

Pete Bird, 78 and his wife Patricia 76, have had no central heating for several days. Mr Bird said the ‘freezing’ temperatures had left him feeling down and angry – and taking trips to the local pub’s log fire to keep warm. He said:  “It is freezing in the middle of the night, I have to put a heater in the bathroom before I can go in to have a shave.  “It was minus five last night – we have the electric heater on and it’s only 14 degrees now. It’s bloody freezing. The radiators are stone cold, none of them are working.  “I’m down, I am angry, it’s all because of the cold. I went up to the pub yesterday because there is a log fire up there. I shall probably go there again in a minute.  “My wife sits watching TV with a blanket over her. It is definitely affecting our health, I went to bad last night at 8 pm just to get warm.” 

Mr Bird said despite repeated efforts by contractors, there was no fix in sight for his central heating. He said:  “The heating went off on Thursday night. I rang them on Friday morning, the engineer came, couldn’t fix it. Another engineer came on Saturday and he couldn’t fix it. One came on Sunday and he couldn’t fix it.  “We were told an engineer would come on Monday and nobody showed up. We aren’t getting anywhere.”  Mr Bird, who said he suffers with COPD, cancer and mental health, was forced to wear an overcoat in his house – and was still shivering. He said he had filed a formal complaint with Magna. Commenting, a spokesperson for Magna said: “"We are working with our contractors to resolve issues with air source heat pumps at three homes on Orchard Way as quickly as possible. 

“We are in contact with our customers to keep them up to date and make sure they are warm while their heating is being repaired, which includes providing additional temporary heaters where needed and covering the cost of running them."