A family living above the York flat where the body of an elderly man is thought to have lain undiscovered for a month, said they reported a smell to the council three weeks ago.

Michaela Eckhardt, of Helmsley House, The Groves, said she called the estate managers' department at City of York Council about three weeks ago reporting a smell coming from the flat below.

A spokeswoman for the council said the earliest call they have recorded came in on January 15, but Mrs Eckhardt maintains she called before then.

She said: "They said they would sort it out and send somebody to look at the place and see if it was clean, but nobody ever went to look. The smell was coming up through the pipes in the kitchen. We had all our windows open 24 hours a day."

Mrs Eckhardt had never seen the occupant of the flat and her son had banged on the door on a couple of occasions without a response. When she looked through the letter box she smelt the same smell that was coming into her flat.

She said: "Finally, on Sunday night it got so bad my husband and I both had headaches.

"On Monday we called out a plumber and then a carpenter came to box in the pipes, but it still smelt.

"On Wednesday I spoke to someone in the estate manager's department and they said they'd send someone out. It was then that they discovered the body."

Michaela said many of the flats are occupied by elderly people and there are wardens in the building.

She said: "I think somebody should have picked up on it earlier. I do feel sorry for him dying on his own like that, it's just not right."

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said there was a record of a call on January 15 reporting a smell.

She said investigations were first made with the tenant in another flat where problems with smells had been reported before. Plumbers then spent two days investigating the drains and finally the wardens decided to conduct a flat-to-flat search.

She said: "At that point the wardens called in the police and said they were concerned about the man." She said he lived in a council flat which operates under a scheme which allows residents to choose if they want warden assistance.

She said: "I understand this gentleman didn't have and didn't want warden assistance.

"He was a very private person.

"He did sometimes come down and talk to the wardens but he made it clear he didn't want them to come to him."

Updated: 11:10 Monday, January 29, 2001