Council home tenants who were members of the stock options panel feel bitterly let down as their 12-month input seemed to have no sway on councillors who ignored their wish to transfer to a registered social landlord.

Chairman of Holway Tenants and Residents Association and a tenant stock transfer appraisal panelist, Ray Cooper, said: "I cannot nor can my fellow tenant panellists fathom why Flintshire County Council has made the decision to retain its housing stock.

"The financial analysis did not warrant it. Senior council officials advised against it. The panel voted 13 to eight in favour of stock transfer."

Mr Cooper has written to Flintshire leader Cllr Aaron Shotton, first minister Rhodri Morgan, his deputy Ieuan Wyn Jones and local AMs expressing his concerns.

"When Savils did the housing stock survey their statement was that Flintshire County Council hadn't maintained their stock over years," said Mr Cooper, of Meadowbank.

"That's bad management and they're to blame. What we're interested in is are we going to get our houses done?

"I'm in a non-traditional house and I've been waiting for a new roof for four years and improvements to the bathroom couldn't be completed because a worker said the floor was rotten.

"I can't redecorate because if you take paper off the walls they're falling down.

"The Savils survey showed the non-traditional homes weren't worth keeping. I haven't put in for repairs for years because it's just a waste of time.

"These were only meant to be here for 20 years, they're 55 years old now. In a business plan if you were spending money you wouldn't spend on these, you'd build new ones and a transfer option made that viable.

"Over the last 12 months things looked great because we were coming to a solution – with the Welsh Housing Quality Standard being put into place something was finally happening.

"It's so frustrating to me the whole time spent on the panel. Most of the tenants here all feel the same thing – we haven't been treated fairly.

"All I want is for Flintshire or the Welsh Assembly to tell me where the money's coming from. We went for stock transfer because that's the only viable option. By going for retention they don't have to ballot the tenants.

"What the tenants want to know is what's going to happen and when it's going to happen – not this uncertainty."

Flintshire's performance in dealing with both urgent and non-urgent repairs to council property is the worst in the whole of Wales, according to the most recent Assembly local authority performance figures.

On September 27 Flintshire's full council voted for what its officers described in a report as 'a challenging and high risk' decision to retain it housing stock. Many members who said they were brought up in council houses claimed it was their duty to preserve social housing for future generations.

The retention option is only viable if the council gets assurances from the Assembly that a reduction in the scope of work would still achieve WHQS, that achieving it by 2014/2015 is acceptable instead of 2012, and that the Assembly can guarantee the level of maintenance and management funding at 4.75 per cent per annum up to and including 2019/2010.

Retention means an investment of £456m against an income of £188m leaving a shortfall of £280m over 30 years.

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