A North Yorkshire woman has called out Hackney council after she alleges her 85-year-old mother was left without a carer for five weeks.

Maria Fazzani is deeply concerned for her mother, who she preferred not to name, as she suffers from a degenerative brain disease called Alzheimers and often refuses to eat due to her illness.

Maria’s eldest son, who lives in London, visited his grandmother in Lavender Grove and found her living in appalling conditions with rotting food in her fridge from February and off packets of bacon, ready to “explode” from bacterial gasses.

Maria said: “I have to pay my mother’s bills, I get her food delivered through Tesco, I have arranged for a milkman and I phone her at least once a day to make sure she’s okay.

“If I dropped down dead tomorrow, what would happen?

She’s not capable of going shopping but [Hackney council] don’t consider that, they just rely on the fact that I’m doing something.”

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Maria says her mother’s care package, which was put in place about a year and a half ago, was “working okay” until about March this year.

She says she was forced to put “systems in place” to ensure her mother was supported including contacting the district nurse team to ensure she takes her medicine.

Maria has suggested the council put her mother, who is not self-funded, in a nursing home in North Yorkshire so she can be near family. The concerned daughter sees it as a cheaper option for the council rather than it paying for a nursing home in London.

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She understands her mother can be difficult with carers and can become aggressive, a common symptom of Alzheimers.

“I’m not saying my mother isn’t aggressive, she has hit the carers. She’s hit the doctor but she’s also 85 years old, about five foot tall and weighs about five stone because she doesn’t eat. She’s riddled with arthritis. If she hits them she’s probably hurting herself more than shes hurting them and they cant seem to deal with it.”

Maria believes her mother is not getting the care and attention she needs and says she is “screaming out for help” but feels social services are not doing much despite her emailing “all the time” on a weekly basis since July 30, and telephoning on numerous occasions.

The council says it is “restricted” in commenting on a vulnerable person’s care.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are providing support to meet Ms Fazzani’s needs and we are in regular contact with her daughter about her care.”