The Argus delivered some Easter cheer to pensioners trapped in their flats after a lift broke down.

Many of the residents at The Vineries retirement flats in Nizells Avenue, Hove, cannot climb stairs and were stuck in their homes for days after the malfunction.

Although the problem was reported on Tuesday family of the marooned OAPs contacted The Argus, worried that nothing was being done.

But after a call from The Argus, property managers got the problem sorted quickly and the lift was working again yesterday.

We delivered chocolate eggs to those living on the top floor who had been worst affected.

The only lift servicing the block had been out of order since a vital cog broke and needed mending at a factory in London.

Residents were warned it could be the middle of next week before the lift was operating again.

Peverel, the property's managing company, put chairs on each of the landings for people to sit and have a rest.

It offered to arrange shopping for people without relatives or friends living locally.

Winifred Field, 92, lives on the top floor of the three-storey building and had returned home to find the lift broken.

She has difficulty walking up the stairs and said: "We've all been in a bit of a predicament.

"What makes me cross is a couple of months ago the lift got the hump and was out of order for a morning.

"It had been making strange noises and it must have been a bodged job because it was making those same noises again.

"I get my shopping delivered and there's no way they would have been able to carry that up the stairs to me."

Mrs Field said the lifts should be serviced more regularly to stop it happening again.

Sandra Tissot, her daughter, is 68 and said she could not manage the stairs to visit Mrs Field.

Mrs Tissot said: "This has affected everyone on the top floor - my mother, a woman and her husband, and two others - and people on the second floor have had problems too. It's just been awful for them.

"These are elderly people and I think it's very bad they could be waiting up there for a week."

She was concerned what could have happened if there had been an emergency.

Another resident, who did not want to be named, is married to a man left wheelchair-bound after a stroke and would not leave him in the flat alone .

The woman, who will be 72 on Tuesday, said: "The thought of being stuck in here for seven or eight days was dreadful.

"There are people who use zimmer frames and find it very difficult to get about."