THE way a council determines which disabled people are in most urgent need of help is to be reviewed after a paralysed accident victim waited months to get a shower in his home.

Durham County Council is sending workmen to start installing the shower at Mark Noel’s bungalow, near Bishop Auckland, this morning after The Northern Echo highlighted his plight last week.

Six other disabled people ahead of Mr Noel on a waiting list are also due to have work done to make their lives easier after the authority was “geed up” by Mr Noel’s story.

The former roofer’s mother, Carol Noel, contacted the paper because she felt the council’s system was letting him down.

Before Durham became a unitary authority on April 1, administering disabled facilities grants had been the job of eight councils using different procedures to assess people’s needs.

Now the new council is drawing up an improvement plan and will review its criteria for determining urgent cases. It will also set up a single system to monitor performance.

The most important thing for Mr Noel is that his shower should be running this week.

The 40-year-old paraplegic has needed round-the-clock care since he came out of hospital last November.

Without a shower, he has to be bathed by carers and keeps his head shaved because he cannot wash his hair.

He said yesterday: “I can’t believe this is happening so quickly after I spoke to The Northern Echo. It shouldn’t be like that, but I am grateful all the same.”

Councillor Rob Yorke, who took up Mr Noel’s case with officers, said: “It has taken a week to gee the council up.

“One of the problems has been that all the old councils used different systems of assessment.

“The money has always been there, but this has forced them to look at the issue.

“We have sat down with the various departments over the past week and worked on a strategy. We have focused on the problem and it has taken us less that seven days to sort it out.

“It is a shame that something like this has had to highlight this, but I am impressed with the work that had been done to resolve it.

“Mr Noel has not jumped any queue. Other people are getting work done as well.”

Durham County Council has no urgent cases on its waiting list for disabled facilities grants at the moment, having approved more than 100 since April 1.

About £1.8m is already committed from its budget of £2.5m.

A spokesperson said: “At the time of The Northern Echo’s first story about Mr Noel, he was already high up on the waiting list. Since then we have processed the six cases in front.

“We have been working our way through the list in chronological order and we are delighted to confirm that work will begin at Mr Noel’s house on Monday.”