Hallglen man waits four years for Falkirk Council repair

But after The Falkirk Herald stepped in the work has now been carried out.

James Hoggan, who lives in Beauly Court, asked the council to repair the rendering on his privately-owned house in 2016.

As the council was carrying out other repairs on his block of flats at the time, Mr Hoggan paid in advance for the work to be done.

Despite that, the repair was never carried out.

He said: “I needed a repair on the roughcasting after I had new windows put in. They gave me a price – I said to go ahead and then I waited and waited.”

When he asked what had happened he was told that the line had put in for the wrong address.

He added: “For the sake of one digit wrong, the work wasn’t done. They said they would put another line in, so I thought that would be okay.”

At first, Mr Hoggan wasn’t too worried about the delay, but despite numerous phone calls and emails he was no further forward.

Last year, he appealed to his local councillor, Lorna Binnie, to help him out and  she was assured by council staff that the work would be carried out urgently.

Despite that, the repair still wasn’t made.

Mr Hoggan became worried that as well as being unsightly it might cause problems with damp, having been left so long.

“I was going back and forward again and again and nothing was happening.

“I’ve even had people out to see it – one guy refused to believe that I had paid in advance although he eventually agreed that I had.

“It’s been absolutely ridiculous – I shouldn’t have had to spend all this time chasing up the council to do a job!”

Councillor Binnie told The Falkirk Herald that she had not been aware that the repairs she had asked for were never carried out and contacted the department again, asking them to follow it up, urgently.

On Tuesday, a Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “We are extremely sorry about the delay in carrying out this work. The repair was completed today and we will arrange to have the scaffolding removed.”