Elderly North Walsham residents facing six weeks without a lift in their sheltered housing complex

Elderly people in a three-storey sheltered housing complex are facing up to six weeks without their only lift.

Victory Housing Trust is closing the lift at Saxon Court, North Walsham, today so that an £80,000 replacement can be installed.

The trust said it had offered to pay for those affected to stay in alternative accommodation but none of them had taken it up, although one person would be staying with a relative in the town.

Victory would pay for her taxis so that she did not miss out on entertainment and other activities back at Saxon Court.

The complex, on Hall Lane, has 26 flats, 18 of which are on the first and second floors.

An 81-year-old resident said some would be sitting it out upstairs in their flats until the new lift opened.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said that, like herself, many residents had leg and heart problems. Several used walking frames and found climbing the stairs very difficult.

'I don't know how they're going to get their shopping and washing baskets up and down the stairs,' she said.

She thought residents had declined the offer of alternative accommodation because they feared being alone in separate hotels.

'They weren't very happy. If Victory had booked up one hotel for everyone, maybe we would have accepted,' she said.

The woman said the lift was unreliable and had broken down on several occasions.

A Victory spokesman said it was 25 years old and needed replacing. Unfortunately that would mean there would be no lift for up to six weeks but, they hoped, the work might be finished earlier.

Victory would be placing a member of staff in Saxon Court on weekdays to provide reassurance and help residents to use the stairs. The offer to fund temporary accommodation remained open, he added.