Tenants of a 14-storey Bradford tower block who have been waiting since January for lifts to be repaired are threatening to take legal action over the delays.

Pavlo Mucha said he and other residents of Douglas Towers, many of them elderly, have had enough.

Bradford Community Housing Trust (BCHT), which manages the block in Radwell Drive, off Manchester Road, said last month the repairs were complex and would take another few weeks - now they are not expected to take place for another month.

More than a dozen people have been trapped in the lift in separate incidents during the past few months and last week fire crews rescued seven people trapped in two more incidents.

Mr Mucha said: "I am going to get a petition together and I am going to take legal advice. I am going to consult a solicitor because it is a disgrace.

"I don't think they are treating it as a priority. Somebody has been incompetent over this whole lift business."

Mr Mucha, 39, lives on the fourth floor with his mother Enrichetta, 76, who suffers from angina, asthma and arthritis. She can't get into or out of her home when the single remaining lift isn't working.

He said: "Somebody got stuck on Monday morning - a teenager. We have lift engineers out here every other day, surely it is more cost-effective to buy new lifts.

"This has been going on since the beginning of the year. The Trust has apologised to the Telegraph & Argus but nobody has apologised to us."

Lucy Matthias, 81, who lives on the 12th floor, has a heart pacemaker and cannot climb stairs. When the lift broke down once while she was shopping she had to spend four hours in the foyer waiting for it to be repaired.

She said: "I am scared that when I go out it will not be working when I get back. I don't want to move flats because I feel safe up here, and I know nobody can climb in through the window."

Mrs Matthias is supporting Mr Mucha's petition: "I will sign anything so long as we get a proper lift and not a tuppeny ha'penny one."

Les Thorpe, head of investment and regeneration for the BCHT Group, said: "We must apologise once again to the residents.

"We should be able to install the specially-built control panel by early September. The manufacturers are pulling out all the stops to get it completed as soon as possible."