A YORK council tenant has blasted civic leaders for failing to let a three-bedroom empty property in her street, despite the city's chronic housing shortage.

The three-bedroom terraced house in Doherty Walk, Foxwood, has lain empty since just before Christmas, said next-door neighbour Colette Mills, 34.

Colette said the boarded-up property regularly attracted local children, who played in its garden and threw rubbish into hers.

A gang of children recently threw mud at her windows, smashing them.

Residents also use the property's garden as a dumping ground for their rubbish.

Colette said council clearance officers had been into the garden about once a month to clear the mound of rubbish, which included a fridge and a three-piece suite.

In June this year, the Evening Press reported the plight of a Foxwood family of four who said they were being forced to share a bed in a first floor flat because of the desperate shortage of affordable family homes in York.

Colette, a single mother of four, branded the failure to let the house next to hers "disgusting", and said her family had themselves been forced to share a hostel room for three weeks while they waited for a council home.

"I think the council should get it sorted and get it to those families that are desperate for homes," she said.

Ms Mills' mother, Christine Masson, 53, a council senior home care assistant from Dringhouses, said: "It's disgusting that it should be standing empty. There's nothing wrong with it."

A council spokeswoman said the council had first become aware that the property was empty in January, but that it had not become available to re-let until June.

"The tenant was not living in the property for some time before then," she said, adding that she could not disclose why the house had been vacant for six months.

"We have cleared the garden on a number of occasions, and we would appeal to any residents who see people illegally disposing of rubbish to contact us immediately," she said.

"We have made the property secure and are in the process of re-letting it."

Updated: 11:01 Friday, August 20, 2004