Mum appeals for house closer to hospital ill daughter needs to attend
By Ann O'Loughlin
A mother and her disabled daughter have urged the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court decision refusing to quash a local authority's refusal to provide them with house closer to a hospital the daughter attends for treatment.
A year ago, the High Court rejected their challenge to their local council's decision offering to adapt and upgrade their current rented accommodation to meet the daughter's needs.
The daughter is 28 but with the mental age of a 12-year-old, suffers with cerebral palsy, is confined to a wheelchair and is fully dependent on her mother for all aspects of her care.
She also suffers from severe and persistent respiratory infection, for which she is treated at an outpatient clinic in a major city hospital. However it is some 26 miles from her current home.
They say they should get a suitable house which is within five miles of the hospital.
The council had said it was prepared to adapt their current home in line with works suggested by an occupational therapist but says it does not have any suitable alternative accommodation available in the area she seeks, or elsewhere.
Among the reasons given for dismissing the challenge, the High Court's Ms Justice Marie Baker said it seemed to her to be outside her competence, and not a matter for judicial review, to direct that the council provide a house within the narrow geographical radius identified by them.
To do so would be to engage in an assessment of the housing stock, and the needs of the applicants, which is outside the power of the court, she said.
Following legal submissions from both sides, the Court of Appeal, comprising Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, Mr Justice Michael Peart and Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, reserved its decision.
