Plans to adapt Ponteland home for a disabled little girl are rejected
Neil and Donna Scott have been campaigning for over 7 months to have plans to make their Darras Hall home accessible for their daughter passed but the Estate committee are having none of it.
A Ponteland family are continuing with an ongoing dispute over plans to renovate their Darras Hall home to make it more disabled user friendly.
Neil and Donna Scott were granted planning permission by Northumberland Council months ago but The Darras Hall Estate Committee who are against the proposed construction are going to great lengths to prevent the project from going ahead, stating that it is against historic bylaws.
The Scott family are wanting to adapt their family home to improve accessibility for their 7-year-old daughter Amelia who suffers from a rare debilitating condition called Jacobsen Syndrome. The illness means she has severe mobility issues and requires around the clock care.
Mum Donna is Amelia’s full time carer. She told us the past few months have been a real struggle:
“Amelia’s life, and our whole family’s life is difficult enough day to day. Nobody sees what goes on behind closed doors. To have to battle with the Estate Committee on top of all this is exhausting.”
The family are currently living in rented accommodation while the row over proposed renovation works is ongoing. Donna and her husband Neil say it’s not just difficult for them and Amelia, but also their other daughter fay who is 12.
“If Amelia is banging around and is noisy through the night, it is waking up her sister Fay, so she’s tired the next day when she’s got to get up and go to school, but the Committee don’t see all of that they just think we’re doing this to be awkward, but we’d like them to realise the importance of this situation for the entire family”
Yesterday the Couple found out that the Committee had filed for an injunction that would prevent the construction work going ahead. They were ordered to go to court in Leeds today, with only a day’s notice. Donna said it would be impossible to do so with a disabled child to care for at home. She told us it’s an incredibly frustrating situation:
“We should have been in the house by now and we’re still nowhere near ready. What the committee seems to be forgetting is that we’re not doing this for financial gain. We’re doing this for our family’s future and for Amelia’s future to give her what she needs.”
As the quarrel between the Scott Family and the Darras Hall Committee continues, Donna says she will do whatever it takes to make sure her child is not deprived of the quality of life she deserves and is entitled to:
“We sat by her bed when she was a baby in intensive care and we didn’t know if we’d ever make it out of those hospital doors. If Amelia can fight through something like that then this fight is nothing in comparison to what she has gone through. If the Committee thinks we’ll just go away quietly then we certainly won’t because we’ll fight for what is right for our family and Amelia’s needs until the very end”