RED tape delays are keeping a family trapped in a nightmare neighbourhood, it has been claimed.

Karen and John Kay sold their home, on Curran Avenue, Whinney Banks, to Middlesbrough Council. The house will be demolished with 163 others as part of the town's £20m New Deal for Communities regeneration programme.

Now they are desperate to move to a new property on Greenland Avenue to escape the vandals who set fire to cars and properties and intimidate residents on their street.

"We have agreed to the deal but we are just not getting anywhere," said Mrs Kay, 41. "We keep thinking we are going to get moved and then we get told 'it's legal work'.

"In the meantime, kids are setting fire to the flats opposite all the time. They are just destroying the estate. My husband works nights and I can't sleep because I'm too scared."

Mrs Kay said her children, Kerry, 12, and nine-year-old Andrew, were afraid to leave the house.

"It's too dangerous for my kids to play out. We daren't leave the house empty either, in case it gets burgled. Someone has to stay in all the time.

"We have all got houses to go to, but it's getting moved there that's the problem. We just want to be told when we are going to get out of here."

New Deal housing project co-ordinator John Hutchinson said: "We understood the frustrations of people waiting to be re-housed and we are working as quickly as we can to accommodate the needs of everyone on the estate.

"We are hoping that we can reach an agreement and complete all the necessary legal procedures with the people who own their own properties in the very near future."