* He used to have a free intercom but it was taken away a few weeks ago
* Former Desert Rat was discovered only when his grandson came to visit
A war veteran aged 99 lay helplessly in pain on the floor of his sheltered accommodation for two and a half days after a free intercom service that could have alerted staff was cut to save just 42 pence a day.
Former Desert Rat Harold Lee feared he would die alone after he fell face down and was unable to get up or call for help.
A pendant alarm the great-grandfather was carrying landed out of reach when he collapsed.And his intercom – through which he had been getting a call every morning from a manager to check he was OK – had been disconnected weeks earlier after he refused to pay a new 42p daily charge imposed in council funding cuts. The widower, who lost his wife Mabel two years ago, was saved only when his grandson Jaa, 24, came to visit him and found him on the floor.
Mr Lee’s son Jules, 63, said the family felt ‘extremely let down and disappointed’ at the way the Second World War hero has been treated.
‘It could have been fatal had he not been found,’ he said. ‘This is a man who made this country what it is by going to war so you would think he’d be worth 42p a day.’
Mr Lee, who has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren, maintained yesterday that he would not pay the new charge because it had been ‘thrust upon him’ and had not been part of his agreement when he moved in.
By Paul Bently in the ‘Daily Mail’ 27th August 2013.
