A FAMILY of five – including a newborn baby with a heart defect – claim their plea for housing was “ignored” by Sandwell Council for 10 weeks, after they were evicted from their home in a row over keeping a dog.

Scott Delaney, his partner Keely Stevens and three children were forced to cram into his mother’s Old Hill semi, already home to five people.

Jobless Mr Delaney, aged 27, believes he was finally offered a three-bedroom high rise flat in Rowley Regis just hours after telling housing officers he had contacted the News.

His mother Angela Kesterton, aged 48, said: “We are so grateful to the News. If they hadn’t contacted the council, I’m sure they wouldn’t have been offered the flat so quickly.

“Every time Scott went to the council they kept asking for more ID and didn’t pass the information he gave on to the right people. He couldn’t get anywhere.”

She said her son had initially been offered hostel or B&B accommodation, but was told beds for his children could not be guaranteed.

Mrs Kesterton said life had been a “nightmare” with so many people squeezed into her Woodcroft Close house, also home to her daughter Chelsea, aged 15, son Sheldon, aged nine and grandchildren Kenzie, aged five, and Archie, aged two.

Mr Delaney and Miss Stevens, aged 20, and children Lilly, aged two, Alessa, aged one and two-month-old Millie, who has two holes in her heart, had to share a bedroom with Sheldon.

Mrs Kesterton, aged 48, said it was a “huge relief” that the family were moving out this week after being offered the fifth floor flat last Friday.

She said the council had told them that, because it was not ideal for a family with young children, after 26 weeks they will be able to go onto Sandwell’s bidding system for a more appropriate property.

They lost their Dudley home when the private landlord changed the locks claiming they had broken their tenancy agreement by having a dog.

Their pet, an English bulldog called Beauty, will continue to be cared for by Mr Kesterton’s father while the family are living the flat.

Councillor Mahboob Hussain, deputy leader of Sandwell Council, said: "We have worked with the family to find them suitable accommodation given their difficult circumstances.

"We offered them a three-bedroom property on October 31 which they have accepted and moved in to.”