A COUPLE in Logan were left without heat and hot water for two days at their council-rented property after their boiler broke down over the holiday period.

It got so cold in the property that the council had to put them up in sheltered housing for the night after they requested more support.

With temperatures dropping as low as -8 degrees Celsius in Logan over the holidays, the couple found the two small fan heaters they had been given by the gas engineer, who turned their boiler off because of a hole in one of the parts, to be inadequate.

Mrs Taylor, who went through a heart valve replacement surgery five years ago and another operation to her brain which left her hospitalised for two months in 2019, said: “I phoned East Ayrshire Council and I said look, the fan heaters we’ve been given, they’re tiny heaters, they’re not keeping us warm.

“I’m disabled, my husband’s a pensioner, we’ve both got disabilities and the girl on the phone says ‘well, have you got heaters, you’ll just have to sit the pair of you in one room with one of them’...

The council said once the bank holiday period was over, they’d send somebody round to sort it out.

But Mr and Mrs Taylor spent two nights from New Year’s Day with only the small heaters and were so cold that they couldn’t bear it any longer.

Mrs Taylor said: “We called them again and said look this is ridiculous, we’re freezing... They just told to us to sit down in front of the heaters again.”

Mrs Taylor’s son-in-law got involved and called on their behalf, at which point the council conceded and offered the couple a bed in sheltered housing for the night.

A council spokesperson said: “In general, if we are unable to repair a system straight away, we will always supply two temporary 2kw heaters if requested.

“Situations where re-housing would be required is extremely rare but we will use this experience to inform future scenarios to ensure that we can provide support.”