A DISABLED man from Buckley has taken it upon himself to clear and clean large parts of his retirement housing estate.

Christopher Conley, 41, suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and uses a wheelchair but hasn’t let that stop him from undertaking maintenance work to areas around Jubilee Court in Buckley.

The retirement housing estate - which contains 61 bungalows for pensioners and those with disabilities – is owned and managed by Flintshire Council.

The Leader: Christopher Conley at his Jubilee Court residential estate in Buckley.Christopher Conley at his Jubilee Court residential estate in Buckley.

Mr Conley said: “The (pave) stones were in an atrocious state. They all needed cleaning as the council hadn’t done it in about 30 years.

“The council own these properties but won’t even come and maintain them properly. The street team won’t come anywhere near to cleaning any of the paths.

“I just wanted to tidy it up as I didn’t want the pensioners falling on it and hurting themselves. There were parts with thick black algae and when it got wet, you could just envisage a pensioner slipping over on it and doing untold damage.

“So, I actually took it upon myself to clean all the slabs because we knew the council weren’t going to do anything about it.”

Mr Conley was inspired to do the work by two of his neighbours who had cleaned the paving in their own porch areas.

However, after twice being turned down by Flintshire Council for having an outdoor tap fitted, Mr Conley took it upon himself to have one fitted privately before also buying two hose pipes, two extension leads and a pressure washer.

The Leader:

After weeks of work, Mr Conley said: “It looks a lot better now than what it did when I first come around here. It was in an unforgivable state.

“Some of the pensioners aren’t able to do the job I’ve done, whereas I can do the whole 360 degrees if I feel like doing it.

“The council ought to be embarrassed of themselves for letting it get like this in the first place. It’s disgusting.”

Mr Conley now hopes to complete more parts of the upper half of Jubilee Court but admits that it is getting more difficult due to accessibility.

The council disputes that no maintenance work is done at the court.

Flintshire County Council’s Chief Officer for Housing and Assets, Neal Cockerton, said the authority would like Mr Conley to get in touch.

He said: “The Council does carry out regular maintenance work at Jubilee Court.

"In relation to this particular issue there are no reports or requests by Mr Conley, if Mr Conley would like to get on touch with the Council we can investigate further how we may assist him.”