A dying man has been banned from keeping his wheelchair in the entrance to the flats where he lives because his landlord said it is a fire risk.

His landlord, who is also confined to a wheelchair, said it could affect his insurance and might affect the safety of his tenants.

Kevin Bridger has terminal stomach cancer and may only have weeks to live.

The disease is in such an advanced stage that Kevin finds it hard to breathe and has difficulty getting around.

Kevin, 42, has two wheelchairs at his second-floor flat in Wilbury Avenue, Hove.

He uses one inside the flat and keeps the other in the downstairs entrance to the building to help him get from the front door to his car.

Landlord Dennis Wagner, who has had both feet amputated, gave him permission to store the chair on top of a cupboard in the hallway.

But Kevin is no longer strong enough to take it apart or to lift it down and put it back up again each time he uses it.

He said: "My specialists at Guy's Hospital in London have told me there is no more treatment they can give me apart from morphine for the pain.

"They have told me to go home and enjoy Christmas because it will be my last.

"At the moment I am deteriorating quickly, but I am determined to hang on until my birthday in February.

"I thought that being in a wheelchair the landlord would be sympathetic to my condition. But he won't listen to me or anyone else. The Macmillan Cancer Care nurses who come in to look after me have spoken to him to try to get him to change his mind and so has my mother."

One resident of the flats, who did not want to be named, said: "There is plenty or room in the hall for Kevin's wheelchair.

"It has not caused anyone a problem and we know it is there so don't agree that it is a fire risk."

Mr Wagner, who owns the semi-detached house and the adjoining house where he lives with his wife in the ground-floor flat, defended the ban saying as landlord he is reposnsible for the tenants' safety.

He said: "I agreed to him keeping the wheelchair on top of the cupboard.

"But for the last few months he has left it fully assembled in the hallway.

"As landlord the bottom line is I cannot allow that because it is a safety risk and affects my insurance.

"There are young children in the other two flats and I have to consider the safety of the other tenants.

"Heaven forbid there was a fire and they were unable to get out because the wheelchair was in the way.

"As landlord, I would be held responsible for any deaths or injuries because I had allowed the chair to stay there."