My disabled sister lives in sheltered accomodation. Thre is a communal "lounge" where the residents can get together for coffee, meetings etc. This used to be comfortable and reasonably homely. But no more. This room has now been done up, and is utterly hideous (I hope to obtain a photo for the next instalment of this rant). But even worse, the furniture has been arranged in a way that is neither social nor practical for the residents. They asked the manager to complain to the council about this, and she received the following bewildering and rather rude reply:
The furniture was
made bespokely for the lounge. It will not fit any other way than the existing
layout. The lounge is where it is now for practical reasons (accommodating more
tenants). The old style whilst maybe suiting a few tenants was not condusive in
a health and safety aspect.
Aside from the extraordinary use of English, this missive shows a flagrant disregard for the comfort of people for whom this is their only home. The writer of the letter even told one man (who said that it wasn't possible to have a nap in the chairs, which are small and hard and low-backed) that "if he wanted to go to sleep, he should go back to his own room" .
My sister is furious and frustrated by all this. So am I. And my blog is the best and least harmful place to express my feelings. Sorry about that.