A HOUSEBOUND pensioner has been stranded in her Canvey flat for the past year-and-a-half – because her wheelchair is too wide to get out of her front door.

Jose Cooper, 78, has been trapped in her Beatrice Littlewood House flat, in Kitkatts Road, since social services upgraded her wheelchair, which doesn’t fit through her three-foot wide front door.

Jose and her husband Ron, 79, have been visited by social services three times since, but a smaller wheelchair has not been provided.

Jose said: “I don’t mind being in the front room all day if I’ve got things to do, but it would be nice to go and sit outside when the weather’s nice.

“I’d also like to go and play the bingo nights and card games they have in the communal area and see the other residents.

“Some people have told me I should get the door widened, but it would be much simpler to give me a smaller wheelchair. I don’t know why they can’t do it.”

Jose has left the house twice since her chair was upgraded. Last November, firefighters had to carry her out following a kitchen fire.

Jose remembers: “My husband had left the stove on and there was a loaf of bread on the hob.

“The whole kitchen filled with smoke, but I couldn’t move to get help.

“Fortunately, the fire alarm went off, but the fire officers had to break down the door because I couldn’t get there to let them in.”

The only other time she’s been outside was last Christmas when she borrowed a friend’s wheelchair to visit her daughter.

She added: “It was lovely to get out.”

Susan Morris-Newnham, of NHS South East Essex, said the wheelchair was the right size for Mrs Cooper and anything smaller would be unsafe. It was up to Castle Point Council to improve access to the property, she added.

“At the last discussion, in July 2008, Mr and Mrs Cooper said they wished to address their issue directly, by contacting the relevant local authority,” she explained.

However, both Mr and Mrs Cooper dispute this claim.

Jose said: “No one told us I couldn’t get a smaller one. We thought they just couldn’t find a wheelchair the right size.”