A VULNERABLE mother has said a faulty window could have killed her 16-month-old baby after it caved in during Storm Ciara.

Adele Catto has been fighting for five years to replace her broken window, which she claims left her and her son frozen in their eighth-floor Springburn flat.

The 29-year-old was terrified when she came home on Wednesday afternoon to find the window blown onto the living room floor.

She said: “That could have killed my wee boy or killed me.”

The single mother-of-two has complained to her housing association, NG Homes, several times during that time about the window, which she says has been condemned by a number of inspectors.

Ms Catto told how the window frame was buckled and in need of replacement.

She and her baby Brandon left the house for the afternoon, returning to find the window punched through by the wind, lying on her living room floor.

Glasgow Times:

NG Homes have now replaced the caved-in window - but only after the Glasgow Times contacted the association.

Ms Catto believes that NG Homes would have continued to ignore her pleas had it not been for this paper.

She claimed that her son had been suffering ear and chest infections and a constant cold because of the freezing conditions in the flat.

She added: “It’s freezing in this living room.

“The whole house is cold because obviously the heating’s just coming back now.

“I get the cold all the time as well because the heating’s just going out the window.”

She has had bad experiences with NG Homes over the years, accusing them of being “cheap” and not taking her problem seriously enough.

The company initially raised a request with their contractor to fix the window, but Ms Catto claims this was not treated as urgent.

She said: “They’re saying it’s not an emergency, I’m saying it is an emergency because it’s freezing in here.

“They just don’t want to spend the money on fixing that window. The last construction person that was out, that’s what he said - they just don’t want to spend the money, but they’re going to have to.

“That’s the only option to fix it.”

It comes as Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis came down on the city one after the other, reaching nearly a week of freezing, wet and windy weather.

Ms Catto has had problems with the window since moving into the flat nearly five years ago.

The flat also didn’t have central heating when she initially moved in, which was only sorted when she got the media involved.

She claimed it was only after she contacted a local newspaper that the firm installed heating.

She said: “I had to phone the paper up and the minute NG Homes were phoned, they were out the next day to put heating in.

“That is shocking you have to do something like that to get something done.”

Despite her repeated calls for a replacement window, NG Homes were initially only going to inspect the window again and apply sealant to the frame, Ms Catto claimed.

She said she wanted the full window replaced and asked: “How many reports do you need? This has been going for five years.”

Catto has had the opinions of at least three contractors who have condemned the window and told her it needs to be replaced.

A spokeswoman for NG Homes said: “NG Homes is committed to delivering a high quality of service to all our tenants. We have arranged to have the window replaced and we are working quickly to rectify this matter for the tenant.”