FAMILIES living on a "forgotten" estate are demanding to know why decades of promises have not been kept.

Houses have doors with one lock, tiny toilets and windows that do not open far enough to escape in case of fire.

Residents of Leighton Road, Enfield, said they have been promised extensions to their crammed family homes for 20 years but nothing has changed.

When Enfield Council got rid of outside toilets, it simply created one inside. But this had the effect of making the toilets tiny, and less soundproof.

Tenant Sharon Hockley, 52, who lives in a three-bedroom house with her husband, Bob, and her two adult children, said: "It's so near to the living room, if you've got company it's a bit embarassing and some of our bigger relatives do not even fit in.

“I was brought up in a house exactly the same as this in Angelsey Road, Edmonton, and they had extensions done 35 years ago. The council said it would do it but ran out of money when it got to this road, and I think it's been forgotten about ever since." Neighbour Rachel Broomfield, 47, agreed. She said: "We don't get many visitors any more because of the fact they can't get into it and our elderly relatives feel embarrassed." Enfield Homes has recently installed uPVC doors in the houses in the street.

But when the doors came they had no deadlocks and only some have been modified after tenants bitterly complained.

Councillor Chris Bond, who has been trying to help the tenants, said: "How many doors haven't got them? And how many people don't realise how insecure they are? Enfield Homes should do a survey." He has now taken up the tenants' case and is referring it to the scruitiny process.

Enfield Homes director Councillor Edward Smith said the complaints sound "disturbing".

He said: "Clearly we want to do modernisations but we need to first listen to residents' concerns so we can get proper feedback."

He said there were often historical reasons why renovations were made in one street and not another.

Mr Smith said he could not remember Leighton Road coming up at board meetings but he would look into the complaints.