Last updated 15:57, Wednesday, 14 May 2008

AS hundreds of West Cumbrians basked in their yards and gardens, lit up the barbecue and threw up their windows to the sounds and smells of summer, a thought should be spared for the tenants of Lowca whose homes are swathed in polythene sheeting and whose backyards are crisscrossed with rusting scaffolding pipes.

Copeland Homes’ promise of new kitchens and bathrooms must have been welcome news in the dark days of January. But why is work, that was promised to be completed in four weeks, still going on? More importantly why are the tenants being left to pick up the pieces?

The houses will never belong to the tenants who loyally pay their rent week in week out, but these houses are their homes, their castles that they have lovingly cared for. Surely tenants have the right to have their homes respected by their landlord and the right to know when to expect contractors in their kitchen?

Sadly it seems that the tenants of Westcroft have been left in the dark this summer, in more ways than one.