A father of three has been battling the local housing association to get his Radstock home fixed after a huge back window fell out of his home.

In a sign of what seem to be a systemic structural issue, the homes at the top of Radstock are cracking and moving - which led to a the young father moving his children out for their own safety.

His worries appeared founded when due to cracks in the wall, the window frame shunted out of the building and the glass eventually came crashing to the ground.

Luckily when that finally happened (March 3) Radstock resident Ashley Cogdell, who works long hours as security at one of the big coronavirus vaccination sites, had already moved his children away.

Problems began a year ago but it was not until January this year Curo builders came to his home in Spring Field Crest in Radstock following numerous reports of problems, and filled a large crack close to the window with filler.

But he knew that had not solved the problem, and fearing the worst watched as due to the building sagging, the window frame buckled out and a huge pane of glass crashed out.

Nub News visited his home at Spring Field Crest in Radstock and heard his horrifying story.

For months Ashley has been worried as he watched his home suffer from cracking and bowing and complained to Curo housing, but nothing structurally was done.

For Ashley and his wife, who has three small children aged just five, four and one, it became a case of watching for when the worst would happen.

Ashley explained : " We noticed yesterday that the concrete fittings had slipped so the PVC frame was out so we took our children away because we could see it wasn't safe.

Sure enough the concrete gave way, the window came further and further out away from the frame and the glass smashed away.

Last night Curo came out and boarded up the window and ratchetted back in and told the family : That 's it, you can move back in.

" But that's not safe", Ashley told us. " As you can see. It is not liveable in. Literally they have just put in a bit of two by four in and ratchet strapped the window back in. "

Later on Curo builders did return, forced the window back into the concrete frame and put in some bolts to hold it in place.

But Ashley told us: "There is no way of heating the room so it's freezing. They told me it was a temp fix and that it will be fine until they can get a building specialist out next month to check the building over, in the mean time they are making the glass panel to go into the hole which is covered by wood, I'm hoping sooner rather that later as it's currently freezing in my house. "

Other neighbours in the same housing area have contacted Nub News with photos showing many other structural problems and damp in the block.

Ashley told Nub News : " It could have been so much worse, what if my children or another child was under that when it smashed?

" It is still terrible, I work a 65 to 70 hour week so I don't get to see my kids and tomorrow I start work at 5am. So I won't be able to spend time with them because they are away and I am here trying to sort this out. "

Ashley has now also contacted the local MP.

He told Nub what he would like to see : " I would like it to be repaired properly and not just a bodge job. These buildings were only supposed to be temporary so they are already 30 years past their sell past date. I love living here but this is not a fit place to be."

Another local resident told us that in his property, the walls are falling down, there is damp on the back wall because there is no cavity wall installation and the window sills are falling off.

Ashley and his wife moved into the area in December 2018.

He said: " When we moved in we loved it. We enjoyed the area and our neighbours on all sides are really nice, there are lots of children around all playing together. It is just a short walk into the town.

" It was all so nice and then over a year ago these problems started and we reported it and Curo don't want to do anything about it."

In a statement Curo sent to Nub News the company said : "Our customers' safety is our top priority and we're very concerned about what has happened to this window. This must have been very distressing to witness and we're investigating how this could have happened.

"At the end of January we received a report that a window at this property needed plastering work. The window was assessed as safe and the job was placed in our queue to be actioned once COVID restrictions are lifted. This was escalated on Wednesday 3 March following reports that the window was broken. The same day we carried out an emergency repair to make the window safe. We returned on Thursday to continue the work, having erected scaffolding on the same day. When we came back as agreed on the Friday to complete the work, no one was in. We are in contact with our customer to arrange a time to return and to gather information to understand the cause of the damage.

"Where there are questions about the safety or structure of our homes, we will always investigate fully. We had already commissioned our own full building condition survey of Springfield Cres and will carry out any repair works needed once this is complete.

"Our initial assessment is that the broken window was not connected with any structural issues. B&NES Council attended today (March 8) and they have confirmed our own findings: that there are no structural or subsidence issues affecting the safety of our customers' homes at Springfield Cres."