Yvonne O'Brien, 43, who has lived on Longridge for four years,claimed city council bosses did not want to spend money on the estate because a housing association was due to take it over at the end of the year.

"As long as they spend money on Manchester, they don't care about us," she said.

Mrs O'Brien told the Guardian how she had been waiting months for a tree to be chopped back and her garden fence to be repaired.

"I just don't have the money for that kind of thing," she said.

Last year by the time council workmen replaced her bedroom window frame, the old one had rotted.

"They just don't care about the Longridge estate because they are getting rid of it," she said. "I think the tenants have been forgotten."

She claimed at a recent tenants' meeting, they were encouraged to support Manchester Methodists' bid to take over the estate.

"The tenants were basically told that we might as well support the takeover because the council hasn't got enough money to spend on the estate," she said.

Yesterday a council spokesman said there was a waiting list for repairs.

"The council waits until a number of jobs need doing in the same area because it is more cost-effective to do it that way," said the spokesman. "If the work is an emergency then we do it right away but Mrs O'Brien's repairs are not."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.