A HOUSEWIFE who has waited nine years for a new kitchen has been told she will not get it for another 12 months.

Beverly Coward, of Waidshouse Road, Nelson, said the council told her she would get a new kitchen in 1998.

But nine years on the 43-year-old Housing Pendle tenant is still waiting for a replacement for her kitchen, which has been in place since the 1960s.

This comes shortly after it was revealed that Housing Pendle upgraded houses in Colne at a cost of £250,000 - only four years after they were upgraded.

Mrs Howard said: "I am very upset that this has happened. They should stop fobbing us off and get on with it.

"The work surfaces are cracking and the wood is all falling off. The kitchen tiles are coming away.

"We have waited for a long time. It's wrong giving people new kitchens who don't need them and the ones who do are not getting them."

Pendle Housing Association said Mrs Howard's kitchen was due to be replaced in the next 12 months.

However the mother-of-two said the building surveyor who assessed her kitchen told her it could take up to two years.

She said: "In 2002, all the residents of this area seem to have got their kitchens done but we seemed to have been missed.

"Both my husband and I are very upset nothing is being done for us.

"Next door they got a new kitchen last year so they could rent the property out."

A spokesperson for Pendle Housing, who took over housing services for the council in 2006, said: "Mrs Coward had new windows installed two years ago, and Housing Pendle is only upgrading properties which haven't had improvement work done for a significant time.

"Mrs Coward's home will be upgraded in the next 12 months and work to her home will include a new kitchen, new bathroom, new heating system and a re-wire.

"This is part of our commitment to invest £45million in upgrading our homes over the next five years."