IMAGES: How Wycombe resident's bathroom was left unfixed by Red Kite

Shirley Hawes, 80, who lives in Hithercroft Road in High Wycombe, revealed to the Free Press how parts of her bathroom wall had rotted away in June 2022.

She contacted Red Kite Community Housing who own the building to try and find a solution, in which she was referred to the Dunstable-based contractors, Gilmartins.

A section of the wall was removed but it was left abandoned for well over 12 months.

The wall was removed over a year ago and it has not been fixed since (Image: NQ)

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And after numerous calls to Red Kite and Gilmartins to try and find a resolution, she thought she had a breakthrough when workmen arrived at her property in June this year.

However, the repairs were abandoned when she was told her bath ‘potentially contained asbestos.’

This later turned out to be false, as the ‘asbestos’ was later revealed to be old plasterboard.

The bath was ripped out in June this year and has been left in the same position since (Image: NQ)

When visiting her house on August 10, she told the Free Press: “As you can see, this is what we’ve had for over a year.

“The wall was removed in June 2022 and the bath has been standing on its side since June this year.

“It’s been challenging as I have a disabled husband and son, so they have been using the shower room to get ready but it’s quite small.

“As I said before, this has gone on for long enough.

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Following the Free Press’ intervention, Red Kite Community Housing apologised for the ‘miscommunication’ between themselves and Gilmartins and made the pending repairs a ‘matter of urgency’.

The bath was ripped up a year after the wall was removed (Image: NQ)

They also confirmed that works were due to start on August 16 but after seeing the state of the bathroom, the repairs began six days earlier on August 10.

They are due to be completed today [August 11].

In an official statement, Red Kite said: “To start, we would like to apologise to Ms Hawes and her family that the issue with her bathroom has taken so long to rectify.

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“Unfortunately, a series of miscommunications between us and our contractors has led to failings with the repairs and refurbishment of the bathroom.

“Once again, we apologise and would like to reassure Ms Hawes and our tenants that we will look further at this case to see how we can learn and improve our service.”