A FAMILY is dismayed that one of the children who grew up in a Park North council house won’t be able to take it over from her mother.

William and Helen Livingstone grew up in the three-bedroom council house in Helston Road. Their mother, Nancy, continued to live in the home until her death last week aged 75.

Even before that, Helen, 46, who lives in a three-bedroom council house in Park South had requested to be moved to her mother’s house, but that had been refused.

Now the family would like the borough council to allow Helen and her teenage daughter to move to the house her mother lived in, vacating her own house.

Brother William, 51, said it was important for them all: “My son, and Helen’s son, and my brother all have registered mental health problems. My son and nephew, and my brother’s son Bradley have gone to their grandmother’s house every day – it’s a place of comfort and safety for them.

“We want them to be able to continue going there.”

Mr Livingstone says his family are well known to the neighbours in the street and they want Helen to be able to move into the house:.

He said: “They’ve said are we coming back, and when we tell them we have to get out within two weeks, they think that’s mad.

“They say that it makes no sense that anyone could be moved here when we know everyone and everyone knows us.”

He added that he and Helen were willing to pay for any repairs needed to her house and for it to be redecorated so it can be let to another family.

“We’d pay for all that happily,” he said. “We just want to be allowed to take over the home our mother lived in for 47 years.

“We’ve been told it’s not happening, but I don’t think we are asking a lot, it’s not a bigger house – it’s the same size, just a different one.

“We just want to be able to keep our family together. If my son and nephew can’t come here every day, and if my brother, who also suffers with his mental health, is not able to come here I fear what will happen to our family.”

A spokesman for Swindon Borough Council said the demand for family homes is so great, and so urgent, that it needs to be able to give Mrs Livingstone’s former house to another family.

He added: “The property in question is a three-bedroom house and we currently have more than 400 families on our housing register waiting for a home of this size.

“These families have all been assessed and some are emergency cases, which means they are in urgent need of accommodation.

“Due to the high demand for three-bedroom homes, we must ensure that families already registered are given priority when an empty property becomes available.”