A Denny daughter fears her paralysed father will have no home to go to when he leaves hospital in two week's time

James Brown (63) has been in the spinal unit of Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital since he broke his spine in an accident near his home in Dalkeith back in April.

Now confined to a wheelchair due to his injury, he is about to be discharged on Thursday, September 24 and has not yet been allocated an adapted house.

Falkirk Council stated this week it was continuing to look into the situation, but admitted there was a shortage of suitable premises available in the area at the moment.

Daughter Maryann, who lives in Dryburgh Avenue, Denny, said: “He was out a walk with my mum in Dalkeith when he fell down a bank and hit against bricks, breaking his spine. He fell in the water and nearly drowned.

“He has been in hospital ever since. We wanted him to move to the Falkirk area so he could be near us because he’s going to need a lot of care and support.

“We’ve been on the housing list since July and I’ve been bidding for about three or four properties every week with no success. All he needs is a ground floor house with a wet room and a ramp.

“The council say there are no properties available for him, but that is a load of rubbish – I’ve been driving around and I see a lot of houses with ramps.”

James has already had to put up with the trauma of his accident, treatment and rehabilitation – now he does not know if he will have a place to live or not when he leaves hospital or whether he will be heading to Falkirk or Dalkeith.

Maryann said Falkirk Council told her if no property could be found for James in the next two weeks before his discharge he would either be sent to Midlothian Community Hospital or Falkirk Community Hospital until a suitable premises becomes available.

“We hope he gets a house first of all,” said Maryanne. “But if he can’t get a place in time we hope he will be sent to Falkirk Community Hospital – there’s no way we could even visit him through in Dalkeith at the minute.”

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “The applicant has been given the appropriate level of priority in line with our allocations policy based on his acute needs. To meet those needs, he requires a fully adapted property.

“Unfortunately we have a shortage of suitably adapted properties but we are looking at a variety of potential solutions to help us meet the long term need for adapted properties in the Council area.

“We will continue to work with the family to review their housing options, to help identify a suitable housing outcome for them.”