A DISABLED war veteran has criticised a housing charity after workers sent out to repair blocked guttering allegedly damaged a garden of remembrance he created in memory of fallen comrades.

Former Royal Engineer Mike Girdwood, who served in the Falklands, said that he repeatedly asked East Lothian Housing Association (ELHA) to fix the guttering as rainwater flooded onto the garden he had created.

And when someone was finally sent out, he said they ignored his request not to trample on the plants, destroying what was left.

ELHA confirmed there was a disagreement over the placing of a ladder during the repair work but said the worker sent out abandoned the job after accusing Mr Girdwood of acting aggressively.

The claim is one of a number of allegations Mr Girdwood has made against the housing association, which he says has repeatedly ignored pleas for the home he shares with his partner Sandra to be brought up to standard.

He says he became trapped under a specially adapted hob in the kitchen soon after moving in and had to wait over an hour for help.

And he claims a broken thermostat which was left unfixed for months led to electricity bills of £800 which the couple cannot pay.

Mr Girdwood said when he tried to join the association’s tenants’ panel he was refused membership because he had outstanding complaints against them.

The 51-year-old, who uses a wheelchair after suffering nerve damage and paralysis in his legs, moved into the house on The Hedges, Tranent, in August last year with Sandra, who is deaf.

But he said that from the day they moved in there had been problems, and attempts to resolve them met with no response.

He told the Courier: “When we moved in there was blood on the walls and it was filthy but they claimed it had been cleaned. It has gone downhill from there. Any attempt to get things sorted leads to accusations that we are bad tenants rather than solutions.”

Mr Girdwood said that soon after moving into the property he became trapped under the adapted rise-and-fall hob in the kitchen as he was using it while sitting in his wheelchair.

He called ELHA’s emergency help line but was told his situation was not an emergency and ordered to pay a call out fee up front before they sent anyone to his aid.

He said: “They were more interested in my credit card details than getting me help – I was trapped for an hour and 15 minutes.”

And he claims that when the thermostat broke in the property, an engineer who was sent out put in a temporary bypass which was supposed to be there for a few days until it was fixed.

Nearly five months later, when it was still not fixed, he said he received a bill from his electricity supplier for £800 and when he asked ELHA for compensation was told they could only offer up to £100 to him.

But the most painful moment, Mr Girdwood said, was when the garden he had created at the front of the home was trampled on.

He said: “Like many ex-servicemen I created a garden in memory of those colleagues we lost but it was being flooded by the blocked guttering.

“When a workman was finally sent to fix the problem, I explained about the garden and asked him to work around it. Next thing I knew he was trampling all over it and when I confronted him he accused me of being abusive.

“I have been appalled by the way this housing association, which is run as a charity, treats its tenants.”

ELHA confirmed Mr Girdwood had not been accepted onto its tenants’ panel because of unresolved issues he had with the association.

But it said it had offered to review the issues caused by the thermostat problems with Mr Girdwood and was awaiting a response, adding that the incident with the hob was now being dealt with by insurers and action had been taken to ensure it did not happen again.

A spokesperson said: “We have tried to engage with Mr Girdwood to resolve all outstanding issues and he has responded by making the same complaints through various channels. Until such time as he or his representatives are willing to engage with us, we will be unable to resolve the issues.”