CRABBS Cross residents have been left outraged after Redditch Council cancelled planned insulation works at the 11th hour.

Work on installing cladding to 45 homes in Forest View was due to take place this month but the council has now told residents it will not take place.

And now members of the Crabbs Cross Tenants' Association have formed a campaigning committee to fight to get the work reinstated.

Furious resident Robert Hickman said: "The houses are freezing cold and damp. We have been wanting the cladding done for years and the council told us it would begin this month and be completed by March.

"For months people have been getting ready for the work, moving sheds and carpets and now the council has just changed its mind."

Mr Hickman, who has lived on the estate for five years, added: "We all want to know what has happened to the money the council had allocated for the work."

The council's housing committee vice-chairman Councillor Albert Wharrad said: "The money was allocated and will still be spent.

"The council went out to tender for contracts to replace the doors and windows in the bungalows and the cladding.

"But the tenders which came in were for a higher amount of money than the council had made available to do the work."

Mr Wharrad said the doors and windows would still be replaced, subject to a satisfactory tender, and the council still intended to do the cladding at a later date.