Four elderly widows plan to take Bradford Council to Court rather than pay hundreds of pounds for their neighbours' new windows.

Home owners Joyce Marshall, 78, Marjorie Cochrane, 76, Maud Chattaway, 73, and Betty Tarrent, 74, of Myrtle Court, Bingley, face bills of nearly £600 each for improvements to their neighbours' council flats.

But they are incensed because they spent hundreds of pounds replacing their own windows when they bought their flats from the Council.

The council tenants won't have to pay anything for the repairs, but the four pensioners will under the terms of their leasehold agreement.

After the T&A first revealed the pensioners' plight in February, the chairman of Bradford Council's Housing and Environmental Protection Committee, Councillor Jim O'Neill, promised a review.

Seven months on, this has resulted in a rubberstamping of the original decision - and local councillors and Shipley MP Chris Leslie have branded the decision "disgraceful".

Today, Coun O'Neill said while he sympathised with the pensioners, it would be unfair to council tax-payers as a whole if the authority did not pursue payment.

He said: "We have reviewed the situation with our legal and housing departments and the line is that where it is legally enforceable on the lease, we will be asking them to make the appropriate contribution.

"If they don't pay, it falls on the tax-payer of Bradford instead. We would be failing the tax-payer if we didn't enforce it and, much as I sympathise with the ladies, I can't do it."

But Mrs Marshall said: "I'm not going to pay it. Why should I have to pay £570?

"I'm 78 and would rather go to prison first.

"I feel as if we are being hounded, especially when we have looked after our homes and enhanced them.

"It worries me that I am having to do battle over this."

Mrs Cochrane added: "We are hoping to get legal aid and take court action over this.

"We are going to fight it. It's awful - I have never been to court in my life and to think I may have to now, at my age.

"We are all widows and have no men to help us."

Her neighbour Mrs Tarrent, added: "I don't think a lot of this decision. Why should we pay this when we are all pensioners?

"My late husband and I spend a lot of money replacing the windows when we bought it."

Ilkley Tory councillor Martin Smith, who is on the housing committee, said: "It's absolutely disgraceful after all this time to come up with a suggestion like this.

"These poor old ladies who have put their windows in out of good faith are being penalised again for a policy to protect the existing Council workforce."

Bingley Tory councillor Colin Gill described the outcome as outrageous.

The women were being penalised for improving their properties at their own expense.

And Shipley Labour MP Chris Leslie said: "I am disappointed and will be urging the Council to be more flexible."

His advice to the widows was to seek legal advice.

"I have said to the Council that in future they should make it absolutely clear to future leaseholders what the situation is so there is no confusion about this."

T&A Opinion

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