A YOUNG couple claim they have been forced to live apart from their toddler son because a promised council house is not ready.

Kelly and Steven Harrison and their two other children have been crammed into Kelly's parents' three-bedroom house since Christmas.

But there is not enough room for 20-months-old Jordan who has had to stay with his grandad, who lives nearby.

Kelly, aged 22, said Bolton Council promised her she could move into a house in Deane before Christmas.

But she says she has been given three more move-in dates since without the house being ready.

Kelly added: "I was supposed to move in this week, but the council told me a fallen ceiling was being repaired.

"That was the final straw. I've had three children living with different members of the family for three and a half months.

"I'm sick and tired of being fobbed off - it is becoming a joke, really."

Kelly and Steven, aged 26, applied for a council house in November and gave up their private rented house on St Helens Road before Christmas to move in.

They then moved into Kelly's parents' house in Heathfield Street, Daubhill, with daughter Hannah, aged three, and baby son Thomas, aged nine months.

But Kelly, who works for Great Universal Catalogues, said there was no room for Jordan because her dad works a night shift and needed a bedroom to himself.

She added: "It was only supposed to be a short term thing but it is now dragging on and that isn't fair on his grandad who is 76-years-old."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: "We realise Mrs Harrison is keen to move into this property and we are moving things along.

"But it's one of a number of family homes being created from former flats and has required substantial refurbishment."

He added that forms for Mrs Harrison to sign to move in had just been posted to her.

He added: "We had considered our completion date coincided with the date Mrs Harrison had expressed as a preferred moving in date.

"If this has changed we express our apologies for the inconvenience. We do believe however, based on our experience of previous conversions, that Mrs Harrison will be more than satisfied with her new home."