A DISABLED mum is furious with a housing association after it offered her family their “dream home” and then took it away at the last minute.

Heather Browning-Sheppard, 30, lives in a two-bed flat in Spey Close, Thornbury with her husband Greg, 38, who is a shop assistant, and their two sons, nine-year-old Blayze and Ashton, seven.

After having a fall three years ago, she uses a mobility scooter which she parks outside her front door – but in April, she was told by her landlord, Merlin Housing Society, that the vehicle must be removed due to it being a health and safety hazard.

As she needs the scooter, the family were put on a waiting list for a new home and were told that a two-bed house in Alveston would be theirs from August 17.

But just a day before the move they were then told the Alveston property was unsuitable due to Mrs Browning-Sheppard’s disability.

This has left her furious with the way Merlin has treated them.

She said: “Merlin made an issue of the mobility scooter, even going so far as to tell me it wasn’t a necessity, it was a choice – like anyone at the age of 30 would want to be using one."After a meeting at the housing office, they put our case on the management transfer list – and I received a phone call that a house in Alveston had become available.

“As our dream of having a house became more real, we got excited. We viewed the property and we fell in love, it was almost perfect. They asked if we wanted it.

"We said yes on the provision that a stairlift would be put in, while stressing that if Merlin wouldn’t put it in, we would finance it ourselves.

“We spent the entire weekend packing and getting ready to move. But the next day I received a call from the lettings officer informing us that the occupational therapist had deemed the house unsuitable.

"She has not seen me for over a year, but in her opinion all houses were unsuitable.

"When I pressed for detail I was told I could fall when my husband was not around. I could fall in any property – the fact is we were shown something we fell in love with and they told us it was ours, then they withdrew it.

"We can’t understand why they think the problem is insurmountable when it could be overcome easily. We just wanted our dream home and Merlin have now told us that all houses are unsuitable.

“We’ve had to sit down and tell our two boys that they are no longer going to have a double bedroom to share and a garden, but will have to stay in their current single bedroom.”

Merlin said it had apologised to the family and would find them a new home.

Neighbourhood services manager, Jennifer Griffiths, said: “We thought we had found somewhere for the family, but an assessment by our occupational therapist reported that the property was not suitable for them.

"We recognise that this assessment should have taken place before we told the family that we were considering moving them into the property but we believe the decision to not offer them this house was in the best interests of the family.”

The family are still in their flat – with the scooter outside.