Heavenly end to pensioner's noisy boiler saga (From York Press)

Heavenly end to pensioner's noisy boiler saga

2:07pm Thursday 5th November 2009 in Sorted By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

“IT’S like heaven. Thank you very much.” That was the reaction of a grateful pensioner after a noisy boiler in her home was finally repaired.

The Press reported last week how disabled Beryl Dixon, 72, of Eastholme Drive, Rawcliffe, was being driven to tears by the repeated banging noise from her central heating boiler, which set her dog Charlie barking.

She said she rued the day the taxpayer-funded equipment was installed in her York home last year, saying she had been perfectly happy with her old one.

The energy-efficient replacement and new radiators were mostly funded under the Government-backed Warm Front grant scheme, which provides heating and insulation grants for households on qualifying benefits.

She said the boiler broke down after being installed, and then broke down again about six weeks ago.

A succession of repairmen made a series of different diagnoses and were unable to fix the problem.

A Warm Front spokesman said then the organisation understood the intermittent noise had been upsetting for Mrs Dixon and it was fast-tracking delivery of the necessary part.

He said it treated all such cases extremely seriously, as providing the highest level of customer service was Warm Front’s top priority.

Now Beryl has told how a series of workmen turned up at her home over several days after The Press’s article appeared, with the final team managing to fix the problem.

“It’s been sorted,” she said. “I can’t believe it. It’s wonderful. It’s like heaven. It’s been three nights without any banging from the boiler.” Beryl said she had no doubt the problem had been fixed because of the coverage in the newspaper, and she was convinced she would still be stuck with the banging noises, had she not contacted The Press.

“I just want to say thank you very much,” she said.