Council officers have stunned an 82-year-old disabled woman by suggesting she should move house to take a shower.

The bizarre offer has been made to frail Margaret Harrison, pictured, because Bradford Council says it cannot afford to install a shower in the flat where she has lived for 20 years.

The independent pensioner cannot get into the bath because of her worsening health and the Council was asked by her occupational therapist to replace it with a shower at her home in Hendford Drive, Barkerend, Bradford.

The authority stopped "major adaptations" to properties last October because its 26,000 houses will be passed to the newly-formed Bradford Community Housing Trust next month.

The trust will do outstanding work and adaptations - but the Council has suggested Mrs Harrison could move to a property with a shower, to cut the wait.

Mrs Harrison, a former president of Bradford Red Cross who received a certificate of honour for 50 years service to the charity, said her occupational therapist submitted an application for the shower to the Council last October.

"I was told if I didn't hear anything in eight weeks to get in touch with the housing department. I rang them and they told me it would be repairs, but repairs did not know anything about it."

Mrs Harrison, who suffers from angina - hardening of the arteries which effects the calves of her legs and high blood pressure - said: "I can't manage to get in and out of the bath and have been getting washed."

"I simply couldn't face moving. I have many health problems and my good neighbours and friends are here. I wouldn't go."

Her ward Councillor Mukhtar Ali said the Council had told him that a dozen disabled people in Bradford North were in the same situation and about 30 overall in the district.

"We are only talking about a few hundred pounds to put a walk-in shower into her bathroom," said Coun Ali. He said he would be complaining to the Council's chief executive Ian Stewart about Mrs Harrison's plight.

He said Mrs Harrison, a former secretary of Otley Road Tenants' Association, had given years of service to the community: "We have reached an absolutely appalling situation when we suggest someone in Mrs Harrison's situation could actually have to move to have a shower."

The Council's principal housing officer Ian Simpson has written to Coun Ali (Lab, Bowling) saying that the area housing office had not received the request from the occupational therapist until November 27.

The letter adds: "I very much appreciate Mrs Harrison's frustration, however, unfortunately, there are a number of other tenants in the same situation. The disabled persons housing service should also be contacting Mrs Harrison to see if she would consider moving to a specially adapted property. If this was the case the waiting time would be greatly reduced."

Bradford Community Housing Trust, which will take over responsibility for the housing stock, has pledged to carry out £176 million of improvements and repairs to the homes over the next five years.