REFURBISHMENT work on hundreds of council houses across Doncaster has been dramatically halted for health and safety checks in the light of two recent asbestos scares.

All Decent Homes work currently being carried out by contractors on behalf of St Leger Homes stopped on Tuesday lunchtime.

Around 600 householders - some elderly or vulnerable - were left with half-finished work as contractors downed tools.

Council bosses and St Leger Homes chiefs said that the stoppage was to ensure that all "project management and health and safety procedures are being rigorously enforced."

The development came just days after pensioners evacuated at short notice after potentially dangerous asbestos fibres were found moved back into flats in Woodlands. Residents evacuated from two town centre blocks of flats are still in temporary accomodation after asbestos was found there.

Residents in Armthorpe, Edenthorpe, Cantley and Balby are among those complaining about being left in "un-liveable" conditions after workmen were apaprently told just to make properties safe before leaving on Tuesday lunchtime.

Many are also angry at a lack of information; a letter sent out to 600 homes by the council gives little information, saying work had been "temporarily suspended" due to "circumstances beyond the council's control" but promises to keep people informed.

Margaret McDougal, 72, has spent a week without a kitchen and only a basic heating supply in her warden-coontrolled home in Westbourne Gardens in Balby. Her husband is to undergo a major heart operation later this week.

She said: "Things have been like this for us since last Friday and I don't know when it will be fixed now. The kitchen only contains a sink and our food is all in cardboard boxes. It is no way to live."

Close by, 85-year-old Geoffrey Swapp's home was left with no bathroom, an unfinished kitchen and a large hole in the external brick work.

He had moved out while the work was taking place but daughter Sharon Ellison, 47, with whom he was now staying, was furious about the delays, the disruption and the effect the works were having on her dad.

Said Sharon: "This has been really stressful for everyone. Dad has angina and he can't walk very well. He likes his independence but he's used to living in a bungalow and our house has stairs.

"We've had to block up the hole, which they made for plumbing work, ourselves, to stop rats getting in. It would be terrible if dad had a rat infestation on top of everything else."

In Edenthorpe disabled residents were also left with major problems.

Ettie Patrick, who lives in a sheltered-housing bungalow, has a heart condition, diabetes and is partially sighted but will be returning to a house without a kitchen.

The 88-year-old widow was staying with her son Neil, 67, in Peterborough, while the work was carried out, but anxious to be with her cats while her son goes away on holiday, she is coming back to Doncaster.

Her son said: "Because of her heart condition and her diabetes we had to take her away from the home.

"The workmen are carrying out a four week project to fit a new kitchen, central heating and renovate the property, so we decided she would stay with me while the major work to fit the kitchen was due to take place.

"Because of her cats she is insisting she wants to return so we have got to try and make her as comfortable as possible.

"But it is quite alarming to find out my mother is going back to a house where the main kitchen door has been demolished.

"It has been very frustrating and we are anxious this is resolved as quickly as possible."

Local councillor Garth Oxby and fellow ward councillor, Mark Thompson to make sure everyone had at least a basic standard of washing and cooking facilities in Westbourne Gardens but added he was unimpressed at the way the matter had been handled by St Leger Homes and the council.

Said Coun Oxby: "I've been trying to get some answers from the council but I keep getting contradicting information and being passed around. No one knows what is happening."

In a joint statement issued yesterday, Doncaster Council managing director Paul Hart and Martin Musgrave, chief executive of St Leger Homes, said: "The safety of residents is always our paramount concern and following the recent two incidents involving asbestos being found in homes that have undergone renovation by contractors working for St Leger Homes, Doncaster Council and St Leger Homes have called a 48 hour stop to all current works to ensure all project management and Health and Safety procedures are being rigorously enforced."

Elsewhere, concerns have been expressed about personal belonging being removed from St James flats from which people were evacuated two weeks ago.

Council bosses say that inventories are being made and all property photographed prior to being removed to allow the flats to be cleaned.