Bradford pensioner Eric Ellis is being forced to spend summer indoors after being locked out of his garden.

Fences designed to keep intruders off the communal land mean that Eric cannot get onto the grass for a spot of outdoor relaxation.

And despite being barred from the green in Holme Wood for the last four years, he is still having to pay Bradford Council for the upkeep and maintenance of it.

Council housing chief Geraldine Howley said the fencing was put up to protect the land from intruders and that Eric, 74, was entitled to a key for a padlocked gate.

But Eric, who has suffered a stroke and can barely stand, says it is too far for him to walk.

He says his only chance to sit in the sun is by wandering to a slab of paving at the back of his first floor flat in Haslemere Close and catching the last of the rays as the sun sets.

"By then it's too cold for me," he said.

"We only get a few weeks' sun a year and I'm stuck indoors for all of them.

"I can get to the grass but only if I walk a hundred yards to a padlocked gate, which is much too far, or go through someone's house."

Neither of these options - nor a third option of clambering over the railings - is open to Eric, who was left disabled following a stroke nine years ago.

His flat, along with two others, only has one door which opens onto the main road with no way through to the grass.

He said: "All I want to do is take my chair and sit on the grass.

"But as I can't, why do I have to pay the ground rent to the Council?" Eric has lived in the flat since 1988 and said all he wanted, in return for his annual Council bill of £110, was a wooden gate closer to his door.

Housing director Geraldine Howley said: "We are sorry Mr Ellis has been unable to get into the communal garden area.

"Anyone living in the elderly person's complex can have a key to get into that area. A housing officer will call round and give him a key.

"We fenced the garden off and padlocked the gates at the request of the majority of residents in the complex to prevent people misusing the area.

"Some people were tethering horses there, which frightened residents and destroyed flowers and lawns."