'These doors should never be fitted.. they are not fit for purpose' - disabled woman trapped in Edinburgh flat

A disabled Edinburgh mother has been left ‘a prisoner in her own home’ for the last few months after bungling council workers installed a heavy security door that can’t be opened from a wheelchair.

'Prisoner in my own home' - Melanae Kenny trying to open heavy security door

Melanae Kenny, who lives in a mobility-adapted council flat on Hutchison Medway, returned from a stay in hospital in August of last year to find Edinburgh City Council had installed a new security door on the communal entrance to her building.

The wheelchair user, cannot physically open the heavy door, and says even her able-bodied relatives have tried to open the door from her wheelchair, with no success.

Since then, Melanae says she has been ‘not locked down, but locked in’ - unable to access the outside world and taking a huge toll on her mental and emotional health.

Ms Kenny has contacted the council numerous times, but says she has been passed from department to department, with no one willing to take responsibility for her predicament.

She said: “It’s such a miserable situation - say you have rubbish - what are you supposed to do, pile it up in your house?

“Apart from even getting out, to go to the doctors or to go to the hospital, to do all those things, it’s ridiculous because it has made me a prisoner in my own home.

“It’s awful, it absolutely is - I’ve been like this since I was out of hospital at the end of August.

“I’ve been trying to get the council to do something about this and they haven’t.

"There was no consultation. When I was coming out of hospital we found it was there.

“The awful thing is this is a mobility-adapted flat - and then they stick this door on - what’s the point? You can’t get out, you can’t get in.

“It has affected my mental and emotional health quite badly. The door has effectively created a barrier to the outside world.. not even being able to open the front door and get out you just feel completely locked in - not locked down, but locked in.”

A council spokesperson said: “We take the well-being of our communities seriously. As part of our capital investment programme we’ve installed new secure door entry systems for our blocks to provide higher levels of safety and security for residents and tenants.

“We’re sorry that Ms Kenny has had trouble using a new door in her property and we’re in touch with her so we can resolve this as soon as possible.”

After being contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council said it will be installing an automatic mechanism for the door.

However, Melanae is still concerned that other disabled and elderly residents in the city will be struggling with these new security doors.

She added: “It should not take a journalist being involved for something to be done.

“It’s not just for me, I would like to continue this, because I know that occupational health have had responses from lots of people across the city, particularly people like myself who don’t have full mobility, and people like myself who can’t even open the door, because they don’t have the strength to.

“From my perspective these doors should never be fitted domestically because they are not fit for purpose.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.