MUM Jacqueline Mackie is furious after her daughter's asthma flared up when council contractors left a rotting window nailed shut in her 12-year-old's bedroom for four weeks.

Ms Mackie said her daughter, Francesca, spent nights coughing and spluttering as dust built up in the sweltering council owned flat in Chiltern Avenue, High Wycombe.

Contractors from Wycombe District Council had visited the flat a month ago to paint all the windows.

They nailed the window shut in Francesca's bedroom after finding that the frame was rotting and told Ms Mackie that a new one would have to be made.

Ms Mackie claims she was told workmen would return a week ago, but had heard nothing until the Free Press rang the council on Wednesday to see what had happened.

A council spokesman said contractors have now temporarily fixed the window.

But Ms Mackie said it was a ridiculous situation that families had to wait weeks to have windows fixed during the summer.

She said: "I just couldn't understand why it was taking so long as it seems like a simple straightforward enough job," Ms Mackie said.

"But the health worries I had for my daughter were quite serious. They don't seem to understand. I do the best that I can to make her happy but then I have to stand by and watch her suffer without being able to do anything about it. It's just not on," she added.

District councillor Anne Stenner (Lab, Booker and Castlefield) said: "It is not right she has had to wait so long especially during a heatwave. I know that the council are inundated and are doing their best but perhaps it's time they spread the work out among other contracting companies if there are problems getting the work done."

A spokesman for the council said it had tried to get a different contractor to complete the job and after failing to do so organised for the window to be temporarily fixed until a permanent replacement was ready.