'Heartbroken' Edinburgh woman's grandchildren not allowed to visit as council stairwell 'too dirty'

When Elaine Watt moved into her council flat on Leith Walk she dreamed of filling it with the shouts and laughter of her grandchildren.
Ms Watt said the smell of the stair 'makes her sick'Ms Watt said the smell of the stair 'makes her sick'
Ms Watt said the smell of the stair 'makes her sick'

The flat was bigger than she expected, and Ms Watt was delighted she would have space to invite the whole family around to see her, including her son, a teacher in Glasgow, and her daughter, who lives locally, along with their children.

But Ms Watt’s daughter has now banned her children from visiting their grandmother at home, as the shared stairwell in her block of flats is ‘too dirty’.

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Ms Watt complains of a foul stench, litter, human excrement, needles and dead rodents in the stairwell, despite tenants paying a £17 monthly fee for stair cleaning.

The back entrance to the stairwellThe back entrance to the stairwell
The back entrance to the stairwell

While the stairs themselves are cleaned, the area at the bottom of the stairwell at the back entrance to the block is not, Ms Watt said.

She added that she has asked Edinburgh City Council to have it cleaned but with no success.

“I need my the stair cleaned properly with disinfectant so when I enter the stair to go to my house I’m not gagging. If you cover your face with a mask you can still smell it. It’s really really bad,” she said.

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"There's a back entrance, and we pay 17 pound a month to the council for stair cleaning money.

"You walk into the stair and there’s a back entrance to the back door. It is absolutely vomiting stinking, it’s so unhealthy. I went away out to the country the other day and came back in, and when I got into my house I started being sick. It’s horrible.”

Ms Watt said she was initially very pleased to be moving into the flat two years ago.

“It’s an old property, it’s Victoria, with high ceilings, but when I got this flat I was so excited to be here because it gave me my independence,” she said.

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"I’m in the middle of Leith, I’ve got my family next to me, and my family was quite content about me being here. I didn’t have to rely on people to help me.”

But now because of the stairwell Ms Watt’s daughter will not let her grandchildren visit her at home.

“It’s disgusting, there’s absolutely no word for it, just disgusting,” she said.

“I have to visit my grandchildren because they’re not allowed to come to their gran’s, and fair enough. But I’m not allowed my grandchildren, I’m heartbroken.”

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Ms Watt said she and another resident of the stair tried to clean it with bleach and water, but that it needs “proper council attention.”

“It needs a deep deep clean,” she said.

“The stairs are clean on the way up, it’s just the back entrance. People fling things in, there’s needles in there, there’s human excrement.

"I’ve reported it on many occasions asking for it to be cleaned. I don’t think that’s a bad thing as it’s affecting my health.”

A council spokesperson said: “We take reports like this very seriously and will be in touch with the tenant to fully understand and respond to the situation she is facing in her stair.”

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