Gavin Henderson loves going for walks when his sister visits his assisted living flat in Inverurie.
“In the flat, he gets really sluggish because it is so hot,” sister Deanne Latham says. “When he goes out he says it’s nice and cool.”
Gavin, who has Down’s syndrome, has lived in a one-bedroom apartment at St James Court for four years.
The 53-year-old is one of 24 residents at the Inverurie housing complex for adults with learning disabilities.
Since he moved in, however, he faced high indoor temperatures that his sister says are caused by poor ventilation and hot water pipes that run through a store cupboard.
On a recent evening, Deanne, who is Gavin’s legal guardian, recorded temperatures of 29C in Gavin’s living room and 31C in the kitchen. As our pictures show, Gavin often strips down to his shorts in an effort to stay cool.
Efforts to keep the flat cool, including bringing in fans, have failed to make a difference.
And while temperature in the north-east have been unseasonably high this September, Deanne says that the heat in the apartment remains consistently high all year round.
“It’s like a greenhouse,” she says.
“[Gavin] keeps saying, ‘I’m hot, I’m hot’. These people are there 365 days a year. They don’t go on holiday. They are there all the time.”
“With things like the Indian summer we’ve just had likely to become more frequent, it’s just horrendous.”
‘No one can control the problem’
Gavin and Deanne are not the only people to feel the heat at St James Court.
The housing complex was opened in August 2015, with a fifth of its £5 million construction cost coming from the Scottish Government.
The project aimed to move adults with learning disabilities away from shared accommodation into self-contained, single-occupancy flats and was heralded as a triumph.
“The people who live here will have access to innovative, top of the range facilities,” said then-Aberdeenshire Provest Hamish Vernal at the complex’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
However, temperature issues in the apartments soon appeared.
In October 2017, two years before Gavin moved in to his flat, a service user quoted in the Care Inspectorate report for St James Court said: “The building is so hot inside, I am concerned that it is tiring for staff and residents, and no one can control the problem.”
The problem was raised again in the June 2021 Care Inspectorate report. “I enjoy living here but it’s very hot,” another service user said.
‘You just feel uncomfortable and sweaty’
Deanne, a retired GP in her 60s, says families of residents are wary of complaining about the heat because they don’t want to jeopardise their relatives’ places in the home.
The Inverurie woman, who lives in England but travels north regularly to see her brother, is happy with many aspects of the care home, especially the hard-working staff.
But she believes conditions in the apartments are intolerable for both residents and staff.
“It’s stuffy,” she says.
“Once you’ve been there about an hour or so you get you get headaches, concentration lapses. You just feel uncomfortable and sweaty. You want to come home and have a shower.
“I did speak to some of the staff members who sleep over at night. They have trouble sleeping.”
Attempts have been made to beat the heat. Mobile air conditioning units were brought in, however the noise agitated some residents.
“These are very handicapped people,” Deanne says. “Some are autistic and don’t want noise.”
What does Aberdeenshire Council say about the heat?
Aberdeenshire Council, which owns the building at St James Court and opened the complex in partnership with residential care provider Inspire, acknowledged the “overly warm” flats.
An Inspire spokesperson said: “We would acknowledge that there are ongoing issues with the heating at St James’s Court and continue to work closely with Aberdeenshire Council, who own the property, to address these issues and find a long-term solution.”
Aberdeenshire Council said it has put in a “number of mitigations in place to support residents, including providing portable air-conditioning units to all residents”.
It added: “We have also commissioned a report from an external contractor which has recommended the installation of a new style of ventilation system which we are trialling in four of the flats, including Mr Henderson’s.
“We are also due to install new windows in the communal areas next week which we believe will mitigate against some of the heat issues.”
But Deanne worries that proposals such as new windows and reflective blinds will not bring temperatures in the flats down to acceptable levels.
“More radical changes, for example a new heating system or individual hot water heaters for each flat with much improved ventilation will be required to reduce the overall heat in Gavin’s flat,” she says.
