AROUND 200 residents of a block of flats were left without television for eight days over the Christmas period after a communal antenna broke in the latest round of bad weather.

The incident was reported by residents of Mill Court in Titmuss Avenue, Thamesmead to Gallions Housing on December 23.

Residents were told it could take 15 days to fix the antenna because it was not an 'emergency'.

Disabled Dee Palmer, 52, has lived in the block for 27 years, has branded the treatment of the residents by the housing association 'unfair'.

She explained: "The block has a mixture of elderly people and parents with children in it.

"We are all dependant on that one antenna for our televisions and for it not to be working at Christmas that was a big thing for us.

"At Christmas you do rely on the television but I also rely on it for my information to find out what is going on in the outside world.

"I am pretty much house bound and not to know what is going on and watch the news is a big thing for me."

Mill Court is made up of 90 flats across five floors.

Dee added: "I feel we were treated quite harshly. We were told because it wasn't an emergency it could take up to 15 days.

"At first I thought it was a problem with Sky, but we called them and they said everything was fine.

"All we could watch was DVDs. It seemed like because it was Christmas nobody seemed to care." A spokesman for Gallions Housing Association said: "The televisions are now working again - our engineers fixed the problem yesterday evening.

"The job was given a 15 day turnaround as it was not considered an emergency. This is in line with published information sent to all residents."