ANGRY estate residents are caught up in a furious row with their housing association, claiming it has broken promises on landscaping their 'dangerous' gardens.

Eastern Valley Housing Association has come under fire from people living in British School Close, Abersychan, whose steeply sloped back gardens were due to be renovated this year.

Residents claim EVHA promised them in 2001 that full landscaping would be carried out free, but were shocked earlier this year to be told that it was too expensive after two years of waiting.

Eastern Valley says staff looked into landscaping which, at an estimated cost of £20,000, exceeded its budget. It has now given tenants a list of options for their gardens, but the tenants say these are not good enough, and fall short of what they had been expecting.

Linda Cromie, 28, said her steep garden is difficult to mow and unsafe for her three children Lewis, nine, Jordan, seven, and Jessica, two.

She said: "I've had three lawnmowers that have blown up because it's so steep. I'm scared to let the children out there when it's wet because they could fall, but they have got nowhere else to play."

The options put forward by EVHA were: to fence off the gardens completely, leaving residents with only a patio,

to provide low-growing low-maintenance plants to cover the incline, effectively restricting access to the gardens,

leave them as they are, or for residents to contribute towards landscaping the gardens themselves.

Resident Chris Cook, 34, said none of the options are acceptable, and he would continue to fight EVHA.

"We were promised that our gardens would be landscaped and that we didn't have to do anything. Now they are saying that's not the case and we've either got to do it ourselves or have nothing."

EVHA chief executive Mark Gardner said: "What we promised to do was to look at what work we could do.

"Unfortunately the cost estimates that came out far exceeded our budget, so there's no way we can do the landscaping. Instead we have given the tenants options that can address appearance and safety issues."