ELDERLY residents at a Weymouth sheltered housing complex have been left trapped for a month after a lift broke, it is claimed.

The grandson of one of the residents at Jenner Court in Stavordale Road said no action has been taken by the managers of the building, despite repeated attempts to contact them, and residents – many disabled or suffering health problems – have been left to walk down several flights of stairs to access the laundry room on the ground floor.

One elderly resident said that she had been relying on family members to help out.

She said: “I just felt trapped. I can’t really use the stairs and nothing seemed to be getting done. But we are a little community and we try and look after each other.”

Although there are two lifts in the building, one is out of order and residents on the third floor have to walk down several flights of stairs to access the working lift because of how the building is designed.

The grandson one resident, who didn’t want to be named, said: “This has now been going on for a month and it is starting to become neglect.

“Some of these people are in wheelchairs. My grandmother has hip and back problems but is more mobile than a lot of the others. The laundrette is on the bottom floor and they need to get out to go to the shops and access the community facilities. A lot of these people are vulnerable, that is why they have had to go into this type of housing, but they have been left to cope with this.”

He added: “They are only able to go out to get small items and some are practically trapped in their flats and relying on relatives taking shopping up for them.”

A spokesperson for Peverel Retirement, which runs the complex, said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to customers at Jenner Court. We have been working closely with our specialist lift maintenance company (Orona) to repair the lift as quickly as possible and it should be back in service very soon. Our onsite house manager will continue to keep residents updated on the progress of the work and help out wherever possible. “The welfare and wellbeing of our residents is always our most important concern and our onsite House Manager has been working hard to help residents with shopping and other day-to-day tasks.”