People affected by fuel poverty are taking their plea for more help to Falkirk Council by holding a demonstration at its headquarters on Saturday.
The protest has been called by Falkirk’s Forgotten Villages campaign, to draw attention to the plight of Falkirk Council tenants who are paying sky-high bills for a heating system they say doesn’t work properly.
Tenants across Falkirk – mostly in the upper Braes area – who have the Thermaflow heating system, are now paying as much as £25 a day for their heating and hot water.
And while the campaigners are very critical of how much Scottish Power is charging for the electricity, they believe the responsibility lies with the tenants’ landlord, Falkirk Council.
The council agreed earlier this year to spend £8 million installing mains gas to resolve the problem – but the campaigners say that will take at least two years to happen.
Campaigner Claire Mackie says she has no doubt that the situation is so severe that there is a real risk that someone will die in the cold winter months.
She said: “We feel that Falkirk Council is allowing this suffering to continue so we just want to make a stance and have those who are suffering come together.
“We know that council staff are not going to be in the building but we have to show that we are not going to lie down and take this.
“We have people sitting in homes that have ice on the windows inside, we have families sharing beds because they can’t afford the heating on.
“I don’t know how to describe it properly – they are not living in warm homes, they can’t afford to eat, they are stressed out about Christmas – but every penny they’ve got is going into a meter!
“Our other concern is that there are vulnerable people who are sitting there freezing, maybe not eating properly, and aren’t able to ask for help.”
Falkirk Council has said that it is offering a one-off payment of £100 to households in receipt of Council Tax Reduction and living in an off-gas area.
However, they added that with a limited budget they had to prioritise support to those most in need.
The demonstration is at the Municipal Buildings, West Bridge Street, Falkirk, FK1 5RS starts at 10.30 am on Saturday.
