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Couple still living in front garden

 

Extract from Windsor Express - Sat 27 September 2014 - by Francis Batt

Couple still living in front garden six months after floods

A couple are still living in their front garden more than six months after February's devastating floods wrecked their home of 50 years.

Keith Huckle, 79 and his wife Jane, 76, of Ouseley Road, Wraysbury are now in a cramped mobile home parked in front of their house - paid for by their insurance company.

The ground floor rooms of their home are bare with all the floorboards gone following the damage caused by the rising water.

Mr Huckle said: "We don't know what to do. Neither of us is very well. "My wife is still tending the garden which has been helping and the neighbours have been wonderful. But we are dreading the winter."

Mr Huckle added: "We have arguments but you can't avoid that when you are in a confined space together for six months.  He fears he and his wife may have to leave the village.  A recent report by a surveyor brought little comfort. The house may have to be rebuilt.

"When we first saw the house 50 years ago it was a cold and rainy night and the road was a dirt track. But when we saw the garden and the patio inside we knew we wanted it to be our home," he said.

Mr Huckle says his biggest mistake was arranging for initial repair work to be carried out by a company from outside the area, whose van turned up in the village soon after the floods.  He was not satisfied with the work done and the subsequent wrangle has caused unwelcome delays.

Wraysbury's flood warden Dave Francis said: "There are still 31 people in the village unable to live in their homes.

"We are all rallying round to look after them as best we can."

 

Source http://www.windsorexpress.co.uk/News/Areas/Wraysbury/Couple-still-living-in-front-garden-six-months-after-floods-26092014.htm