AN ARDROSSAN woman is signed off work with stress and has cancelled a dream holiday to Mexico after the council repeatedly botched attempts to replace her windows.

Last week Sandra Muir from McDowall Avenue was left ankle deep in wall insulation material when workmen removed her bedroom window and thousands of polystyrene beads flowed into the room – and kept on coming.

A piece of trim around the window was all that was holding back sackfuls of the tiny balls the council had injected into Sandra’s wall cavity.

Sandra, 63, is raging at the latest in what she claims is a catalogue of errors and poor communication between contractors and the council.

A year ago, workmen arrived at the door of her semi-detached without notice to replace her windows that day.

Sandra sent them away saying she needed notice.

According to Sandra the council then wrote to her specifying a date for the job – but they failed to turn up.

Sandra had booked a day off from her job as a support worker for a health charity and rearranged the furniture and removed curtains as instructed in the council’s letter.

She said: “When I phoned the council to find out what was going on, they knew nothing about it.

“One hand doesn’t seem to know what other is doing.” Sandra, who lives alone, was due to fly out to Mexico on holiday next week, but has had to be signed off sick due to the stress of the upheaval.

She has been told by her travel company she will not be reimbursed due to the short notice.

She said: “I’ve lost it all. All the travel tickets and accommodation are all gone.

“I just went into meltdown and now I’m dreading them coming back.

“I’ve got no idea when it’s going to be sorted out now – it’s making me ill just thinking about it.

“They will also have to refill the cavity insulation which will be even more disruption.

Sandra was also left with a freezing cold house after the window was apparently replaced incorrectly. “I was left the whole weekend with a frozen house before they came back to put the window in straight – it was Baltic!” A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “We appreciate this unfortunate incident has caused disruption to our tenant and would like to make an assurance we are doing all that we can to minimise this.

“This property was included in our 2014/2015 windows replacement programme and following a survey it was arranged with the tenant that work would start on 23 January 2015.

“Works started as arranged on the scheduled date, however when on site and after removing inside trims on the back bedroom window, cavity wall insulation spilled out and into the room.

“Our operatives have significant experience in replacing windows and the majority of replacements are carried out without problem. However, on this occasion, unfortunately an issue arose with the cavity wall insulation.

“This was a very unfortunate and unforeseeable incident and is the first time we have encountered this particular material within the cavity.

“The joiner immediately refitted the trims and postponed the works to seek further advice.

“The situation was made worse by the particularly blustery weather. However, the joiners cleaned up the spilled cavity wall material, refitted the tenant’s blinds, and helped move furniture back into place.

“A further site visit was carried out on Monday, January 26 with the intention of arranging a suitable date to return that would ensure the tenant didn’t have to take time off work.

“It is inevitable that there will be more spillage during the required window replacement works but we will take every precaution to keep this to a manageable limit and will of course, as is the case with all works, clean up any mess and return the property to an acceptable condition before leaving.

“We continue to make arrangements and to assess the best possible means of minimising any disruption.” Sandra says she will now be seeking compensation from the council for the loss of her holiday.