IT HAS BEEN going on for more than 12 months, it is making people ill and it is causing a foul stink.

Now residents at Millbrook Towers are demanding that a family who have been using their balcony as an open toilet be kicked out for good.

The woman at the centre of the health row, who is not being named, strongly denied the claim. The mother of three says she been battling to get her life back on track - and fears she may be the victim of a malicious hate campaign.

But when a Daily Echo reporter visited the flat next door, a smell of sewage was all too apparent.

In September last year, the Daily Echo exposed the awful conditions that some council tenants were being forced to live with - but nothing has been done. We told how scores of residents signed a petition to have a seventh floor family kicked out of the Windermere Avenue flats.

They had been using their balcony as a toilet for several months before City Council workmen were called in to clear human excrement away.

The bath and toilet were reportedly piled high with blocked waste and the stink lingered in the tower block for weeks afterwards. After promising they would not do it again, the family were allowed to stay.

A year later, residents still face foul conditions every day - the stench of urine wafting through their homes, flies buzzing round the corridors and repeated illnesses among children. They say the council's attitude stinks and are demanding action.

Donna Smith, a young mum of two who lives next door to the problem family, says flies plague her flat and her children are repeatedly sick.

"I can't have the door to my balcony open too long because the smell comes in," she said.

"Everyone is complaining about the flies. They land on food and on the bottles for my 12-week-old baby.

"Every time me or my daughter spends any time on the balcony we get sickness and diarrhoea. I have had it constantly since living here."

Donna, 21, moved into the flat 18 months ago with Kaitlyn, now two.

She wants to see her neighbours and their unhygienic habits thrown out.

"Last time I sent round a petition to get them out but it never happened. I would do that again unless someone sorts them out and keeps an eye on them to make sure it doesn't happen again," warned Donna.

"I have contacted the council twice and environmental health but no one has done anything about it."

Redbridge councillor Paul Russell is supporting the Millbrook Towers residents.

"Last time the family promised not to do it again and it was left at that," he said. "But if they are doing it again they should be evicted. I believe in having one chance but not two."

A spokesman for Southampton City Council said: "All council tenants have a duty to keep their property in a reasonable state and any complaints that are made to the council regarding those tenants who do not adhere to this rule are investigated."