Mother calls for improvements at Gilroy Court Hotel (From Croydon Guardian)

Mother calls for improvements at Gilroy Court Hotel in Croydon

7:40am Monday 10th December 2012 in News

A mother has called on the council to improve the standards of a notorious temporary bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless families, after she was bitten by bed bugs.

Sharon Chivero, 24, who has been living in Gilroy Court for the past two months with her four month old son Aaron, said her linen and room was not cleaned once a week as it should be, and her complaints to the council over bed bugs had fallen on deaf ears.

She said: "The place is disgusting, it is filthy, and it is nasty. Basically the onus is on you to do everything. When I told the council they didn’t seem to care.

"My child is living with me and he isn’t happy, he is very upset."

A spokeswoman for Euro Hotels, who runs Gilroy Hotel, said any complaints made to them are dealt with as quickly as possible.

She said they change linen at least once a week and mothers can get fresh linen for their children as often as they need it.

She said: "If you have a bite you can come to the reception at any time as we are open 24/7.

"We have a pest control company who work for us and they deal with these things. We deal with it straight away, that is our policy."

The conditions at Gilroy Court were first exposed in a Newsnight documentary earlier this year.

A Council spokesman said: “Pest control has been called in twice to treat Ms Chivero’s room but on both occasions they did not find any evidence of bed bugs.

“The council does make regular checks to make sure rooms are in a suitable condition but we would expect the hotel’s management to pick up on any problems residents may have and deal with them accordingly.

“We are also in the process of appointing a family liaison officer at the hotel to deal specifically with any issues they may have and provide support to them in what are very difficult circumstances.”