PEOPLE living on an estate have petitioned their housing association to replace ageing windows in their homes before the onset of winter.

Residents of The Wynd and The Garth, in Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, say they were told that Cestria Community Housing would replace the windows within the first year of the homes been transferred from council control.

But they have now been informed they will have to wait until next, at the earliest, for the repairs.

Raymond Greaves, of The Wynd, a driving force behind the petition, said: "We were told it was going to be this year, but we want it done before winter.

"My house first developed problems with moss and mould on windows two years ago.

"I can't clean it off because all the paint comes off. The council put airbricks in the ground floor and Cestria suggested putting one in upstairs, but it is too cold."

He added: "I have a severely disabled 18-year-old daughter who suffers a respiratory condition and this could cause her further problems."

Fellow resident Carol Messer said: "When they were trying to get us to vote for the transfer, we were told the work would be done in the first year, but now they are saying they are doing the worst houses first."

Cestria has launched a programme to modernise customers' homes in which more than 3,000 will get new doors and windows and 1,000 will receive new boilers and central heating.

Cestria chief executive Ian Broughton said tenants had never been promised by Cestria that the work would be done within the first year, but rather that it would be spread over a two-year period.

This, he added, was much quicker than the statutory fiveyear period.

He said: "We have consulted with the tenants and put together a programme which has been approved by the Tenants' Reference Group. They accept that some have to be at the front and some at the back (of the queue)."

Mr Broughton said Cestria had conducted a detailed survey of all the housing and had looked at the "intensity of failures" in whole areas when deciding which work to schedule first.

He said the petition would be brought up at Cestria's board meeting on Monday.