Parents and children protested outside housing offices, accusing Oxford City Council of breaking a promise to improve their community.

The group said the council had failed to fulfil a promise made nine months ago to pay for a children's play area, security gates and fences in Field Avenue, Blackbird Leys.

Children joined their parents outside the council's housing offices, in Cuddesdon Way, yesterday afternoon armed with placards.

Residents living in council-owned maisonettes in Field Avenue claim an agreement for the revamp was reached in September 2004, but work had not begun.

After the protest, the council said a number of improvement projects had not been carried out during the last financial year, but £25,000 had now been set aside for the Field Avenue scheme.

Money would come from this year's council budget and work would begin soon.

Mother-of-three Shanda Radbourne, of Field Avenue, said: "One day they tell us we can have the security gates and the play area, the next they tell us there has been a mess up with the budget.

"The children have nowhere to go, it upsets me that our children have got nothing."

Mother-of-one Samantha Cunningham said: "We've been up here on a number of evenings to agree the plans and we were given sheets of information on what we were getting and what had been agreed.

"It's quite disgusting -- I'm a single mum and I know there's no chance of getting out of the maisonettes so they could at least make it better for us and the children."

Mother-of-three Barbara Page, of Field Avenue, said: "We want a play area for the kids because during the school holidays they get out through the fence and other kids come in. We want what we were promised."

No-one from the housing offices spoke to protesters during the rally, which was organised by the Independent Working Class Assoc- iation.

IWCA city councillor for Blackbird Leys Stuart Craft said: "It's a question of whether they have got any shame. This protest cannot do any harm and we hope it will at last have some effect on the council.

"Up until now they've been making promises and breaking them, then getting away with it. They are not going to get away with it this time."

A council spokesman said: "There were a number of projects that were not carried out in the last financial year.

"We prioritised these schemes and one of them was the Field Avenue maisonettes.

"The budget to carry out this work was agreed on Friday and we hope to start work soon on the security gates and fences, a play area and recycling bins."

As reported in the late edition of yesterday's Oxford Mail, residents are also unhappy about the state of a stairwell leading to the maisonettes.

Five-year-old Savannah Saunders was the third person to fall down the stairs in a year and broke her arm.

Residents want a non-slip surface to prevent further accidents, although the council said the stairs had already been covered with a non-slip paint.